Ferdinand Magellan

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Ferdinand Magellan is my conquistador.

Christopher Columbus can never, dude.

[laughs]

Shout out Ferdinand Magellan, dude.

I had did a history project on him.

He just wanted to find the Fountain of Youth.

Apparently, it's the 500-year anniversary of the first circumnavigation of the world.

Ferdinand Magellan departed from Europe with five ships in the year 1519, with the same destination as Arcaquinaria, the Spice Islands.

Although, long before the existence of the Panama Canal, his ships had to prod the South American coastline, sailing up each major river delta in a dangerous search for a path to the Pacific.

It is geography's greatest irony that one hemisphere of Earth and most of its natural features are named after a trio of men who considered the whole continent an annoying obstacle.

Columbus died a bitter man, refusing to accept his failure to find a western route to the Spice Islands.

The entire continent is named for Amerigo Vespucci, who also spent his life parting the new continent's coastline in a fruitless search for a sea route towards the islands that we now call Indonesia.

And Magellan's biggest namesake is the shortcut he finally found through the bottom of the Americas.

The Portuguese were already going around Africa to reach Asia.

The Voyages of Discovery.

European discovery of the Philippines began with the great voyage of Magellan.

In recounting this discovery of the islands, there is the priceless narrative of one of Magellan's company, Antonio Pigafetta.

His book was written in Italian, but was first published in a French translation.

The original copies made by Pigafetta have disappeared, but in eighteen hundred, a text was discovered in the Ambrosian Library of Milan, Italy, and published.

Translations into English and other languages exist.

It may be found in several collections of voyages, and there is a good Spanish translation edition of recent date.

There are several other accounts of Magellan's voyage, but Pigafetta's was the best one written by an eyewitness, and his descriptions of the Bisaya Islands, Cebu, Borneo, and the Moluccas are wonderfully interesting and accurate.

The Voyages of Discovery.

European discovery of the Philippines began with the great voyage of Magellan, and recounting this discovery of the islands, there is the priceless narrative of one of Magellan's company, Antonio Pigafetta.

His book was written in Italian, but was first published in a French translation.

The original copies made by Pigafetta have disappeared, but in 1800 a text was discovered in the Ambrosian Library of Milan, Italy, and published.

Translations into English and other languages exist.

It may be found in several collections of voyages, and there is a good Spanish translation edition of recent date.

There are several other accounts of Magellan's voyage, but Pigafetta's was the best one written by an eyewitness, and his descriptions of the Bisaya Islands, Cebu, Borneo, and the Moluccas are wonderfully interesting and accurate.

There were several voyages of discovery between Magellan's time, 1521, and the Gospy's time, 1565.

[gentle music] During the Age of Discovery, men set sail from Europe in search of new lands, wealth, and power.

One of these men was the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, who was born in the late fifteenth century.

His travels to South America and the Philippines would go down in history.

This evening, we'll learn all about the Magellan expedition, an epic journey that changed people's understanding of the world.

We'll also look at Magellan himself and explore his complex legacy.

So just relax and let your mind drift as we explore the sleepy history of Ferdinand Magellan.

[fire crackling] Around the year 1480, Ferdinand Magellan was born in northern Portugal.

His family were minor nobility.

The name America was sometimes applied to it, not altogether inappropriately, since it was Amerigo's voyage which definitely settled that really new lands had been discovered by the western route, and when it was further ascertained that this new land was joined not to Asia, but to another continent as large as itself, the two new lands were distinguished as North and South America.

it was at any rate clear from amerigo's discovery that the westward route to the spice islands would have to be through or around this new world discovered by him and a portuguese noble named for now magellans was destined to discover the practicality of this route he had served his native country under almeida and albuquerque in the east indies and was present at the capture of malacca in and from that port was despatched by albuquerque with three ships to visit the far-famed spice islands they visited amboina and banda and learned enough of the abundance and cheapness of the spices of the islands to recognize their importance but under the direction of albuquerque who only sent them out on an exploring expedition they returned to him leaving behind them however one of magellan's greatest friends francisco serrau who settled in ternate and from time to time sent glowing accounts of the moluccas to his friend magellan he in the meantime returned to portugal and was employed on an expedition to morocco he was not however well treated by the portuguese monarch and determined to leave his service for that of charles v though he made it a condition of his entering his service that he should make no discoveries within the boundaries of the king of portugal and do nothing prejudicial to his interests this was in the year fifteen seventeen and two years elapsed before magellan started out on his celebrated voyage he had represented to the emperor that he was convinced that a strait existed which would lead to the indian ocean past the new world of amerigo and that the spice islands were beyond the line of demarcation and within the spanish sphere of influence there is some evidence that spanish merchant vessels trading secretly to obtain brazil wood had already caught sight of the strait afterwards named after magellan's and certainly such a strait is represented on schoner's globes dated fifteen fifteen and fifteen twenty earlier than magellan's discovery the portuguese were fully aware of the dangers threatened to their monopoly of the spice trade which by this time had been firmly established owing to the presence of serrau and ternate and did all in their power to dissuade charles from sending out the threatened expedition pointing out that they would consider it an unfriendly act if such an expedition were permitted to start notwithstanding this the emperor persisted in the project and on tuesday the twentieth of september fifteen nineteen a fleet of five vessels the trinidad st antonio concepcion victoria and st jago manned by a heterogeneous collection of spaniards portuguese bosques genoese sicilians french flummings germans greeks neapolitans corfiotes negroes males and a single englishman Master Andrew of Bristol, started from Seville on perhaps the most important voyage of discovery ever made.

so great was the antipathy between spanish and portuguese that disaffection broke out almost from the start and after the mouth of the la plata had been carefully explored to ascertain whether this was not really the beginning of a passage through the new world a mutiny broke out on the second of april fifteen twenty in port st julian where it had been determined to winter for of course by this time the sailors had become aware that the time of the seasons was reversed in the southern hemisphere magellan showed great firmness and skill in dealing with the mutiny its chief leaders were either executed or marooned and on the eighteenth october he resumed his voyage meanwhile the habits and customs of the natives had been observed their huge height and uncouth foot coverings for which magellans gave them the name patagonians within three days they had arrived at the entrance of the passage which still bears magellan's name by this time one of the ships the st jago had been lost and it was with only four of his vessels the trinidad the victoria the concepcion and the st antonio that magellan's began his passage there are many twists and divisions in the strait and on arriving at one of the partings magellan's despatched the st antonio to explore it while he proceeded with three other ships along the more direct route The pilot of the St. Antonio had been one of the mutineers and persuaded the crew to seize this opportunity to turn back altogether, so that when Magellan's arrived at the appointed place of junction, no news could be ascertained of the missing vessel.

It went straight back to Portugal.

Magellan's determined to continue his search, even, he said, if it came to eating the leather thongs on the sails.

It had taken him thirty-eight days to get through the straits, and for four months afterwards Magellan's continued his course through the ocean, which from its calmness he called the Pacific, taking a north-westerly course, and thus by a curious chance only hitting upon a couple of small uninhabited islands throughout the whole voyage, through a sea which we now know to be dotted by innumerable inhabited islands.

on the sixth of march fifteen twenty they had sighted the ladrones and obtained much-needed provisions scurvy had broken out in its severest form and the only englishmen on the ships died at the ladrones from there they went on to the islands now known as the philippines one of the kings of which greeted them very favorably As a reward, Magellan's undertook one of its local quarrels and fell in an unequal fight at Mactan, 27 April 1521.

Three vessels continued their course for the Moluccas, but the Concepcion proved so unseaworthy that they had to beach and burn her.

But when it comes to the Pacific, that's a much more closely guarded secret.

Thanks to Magellan, who's already circumnavigated the globe, the Spanish have information about the Pacific and they guard it very, very closely.

So they know the coastline of South America very quite well from Chile right up to central Mexico because they are getting their silver and gold from Peru and they're transporting it up to central Mexico.

So they've got that whole coastline up to parts of the California coast quite well mapped.

So Martin Frobisher will try and find that.

So the English are very much behind the Igbo and the Spanish are well, well in advance of them.

So when Magellan's expedition, I mean, Magellan was killed before he completed it.

So when that was completed, though, and that expedition had circumnavigated the world, everyone knew he'd done it, did they? It was just the maps that were kept secret.

So let's start with the earliest account that I've seen.

So in 1520, Ferdinand Magellan's expedition led him to the coast of what we now know as Patagonia.

it's around the southern end of south america and one of the men traveling with um ferdinand was a man named antonio pigafetta now thankfully pigafetta was a journal person he wrote down everything about his voyages this one in particular was very descriptive so he described unusually large humans and when i say unusually large some accounts from different people mind you said that they were so much taller than the average european that a normal a guy's normal height at that time would be around their waist area so we're talking nearly twice the size of a average heighted person let's say five five that's still like a 10 foot person now of course because this always happens right and i feel like that's another reason why the giants hide not because i don't know i don't want people to feel bad for them because i don't think the giants are good honestly but i think they know what humans can do Of course, Pigafetta, McGowan, and the rest of the crew decided that they were going to capture two of these men.

And they literally took them on the ship, trying to get them home to study them or maybe gallivant them around talking about their new discovery.