Magellan expedition

The Magellan expedition, also called Magellan–Elcano expedition, was the first voyage around the world. It was a 16th-century Spanish expedition planned and led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan to the Moluccas, which departed from Spain in 1519, and completed in 1522 by Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano after Magellan's death, crossing the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, culminating in the first circumnavigation of the world. The expedition accomplished its primary goal - to find a western route to the Moluccas (Spice Islands). The fleet left Spain on 20 September 1519, sailed across the Atlantic ocean and down the eastern coast of South America, eventually discovering the Strait of Magellan, allowing them to pass through to the Pacific Ocean (which Magellan named). The fleet completed the first Pacific crossing, stopping in the Philippines, and eventually reached the Moluccas after two years. A much-depleted crew led by Elcano finally returned to Spain on 6 September 1522, having sailed west across the great Indian Ocean, then around the Cape of Good Hope through waters controlled by the Portuguese and north along the West African coast to eventually arrive in Spain. The fleet initially consisted of five ships and about 270 men. The expedition faced numerous hardships including sabotage and mutinies by the mostly-Spanish crew (and Elcano himself), starvation, scurvy, storms, and hostile encounters with indigenous people. Only 18 men and one ship (the Victoria) completed the return trip to Spain. Magellan himself died in battle in the Philippines, and was succeeded as captain-general by a series of officers, with Elcano eventually leading the Victorias return trip. The expedition was funded mostly by King Charles I of Spain, with the hope that it would discover a profitable western route to the Moluccas, as the eastern route was controlled by Portugal under the Treaty of Tordesillas. Though the expedition did find a route, it was much longer and more arduous than expected, and was therefore not commercially useful.

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Magellan expedition

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan (məˈgɛlən or məˈdʒɛlən ; Fernão de Magalhães, fɨɾˈnɐ̃w dɨ mɐɣɐˈʎɐ̃jʃ; Fernando de Magallanes, feɾˈnando ðe maɣaˈjanes; 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean to open a maritime trade route, during which he discovered the interoceanic passage thereafter bearing his name and achieved the first European navigation to Asia via the Pacific.

Victoria (ship)

Victoria or Nao Victoria (Spanish for "Victory") was a carrack famed as the first ship to successfully circumnavigate the world. Victoria was part of the Spanish expedition to the Moluccas (now Indonesia's Maluku Islands) commanded by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The carrack (nao) was built at a Basque shipyard in Ondarroa. Along with the four other ships, she was given to Magellan by King Charles I of Spain (later Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire). Victoria was an 85-tonel ship with an initial crew of about 42.