In 1480, somewhere in the north of Portugal, Ferdinand Magellan is born.
Around this time, Portugal begins maritime explorations along the African coast in search of new trade routes.
One of the country's dreams is to open a new sea route to the Indies,
from where come spices, which are luxury products in Europe.
Soon, the Spanish monarchies also organize explorations, but towards the West, thus reaching America,
which was heretofore unknown in Europe.
To avoid conflicts over the newly discovered territories, the two powers agree, in 1494,
to divide the world between them.
Spain can claim the new lands located west of the Tordesillas meridian, while Portugal can claim those to the east.
In 1513, in America, the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
is the first European to discover a sea on the other side of the American lands, which he names the South Sea.
Ferdinand Magellan, who had sailed for many years on behalf of Portugal,
notably in the Indian Ocean, hears about this discovery,
and begins to dream of finding a new maritime route to the Spice Islands that will bypass America by heading west.
But the Portuguese king opposes the project, as the Portuguese already control the route to the Indies via Africa.
In 1517 Magellan tries his luck with the young Spanish king Charles V, who is more interested.
Indeed, if Magellan's plan works, it will open a maritime route to the Indies without passing through Portuguese territories,
in accordance with the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Spain could thus import spices directly and compete with Portugal,
which is getting richer very quickly as it controls trade in the Indian Ocean.
The project is therefore accepted.
Learning of this, the Portuguese king, to protect his interests, wants to prevent the expedition at all costs.
On September 20th 1519, Ferdinand Magellan leaves Sanlucar with five ships and 239 men.
After a stopover in Tenerife, the expedition heads for the land of Brazil.
Then, after passing the Rio de la Plata, it ventures into the unknown,
following the coast in search of a passage to the South Sea.
At the end of March, as the climate cools in the southern hemisphere,
the expedition chooses to spend the winter in a place Magellan names Puerto San Julian.
As soon as they settle in, a mutiny is organized against Magellan by the captains of the other ships.
They consider the expedition a failure, with some of them wanting to return to Spain.
Magellan violently takes control, killing and quartering some of the rebels.
At this location, the expedition meets tall locals that they nickname “Patagones”,
which later will give the name Patagonia to the region.
In May, one of the ships is sent to explore to the south, but it sinks.
After 5 months of waiting, with the return of good weather, the four remaining ships set out again.
After resupplying in another bay, they reach, on October 21st, a strait that Magellan names “of All Saints”,
which will carry later his name.
As they enter the strait, the expedition sees many fires lit by natives on the mainland.
Magellan then names the region “Tierra del Fuego”, meaning “land of fire”.
A little further on, the expedition comes upon a bifurcation,
whereupon they separate to explore the two different parts.
After nightfall, Captain Estevao Gomes seizes the opportunity to turn back and return to Spain.
There, he will accuse Magellan of treason.
Gomes will be jailed, and the family of Magellan will be placed under strict surveillance until his return.
On November 28th, 1520, the three remaining ships finally leave the strait and enter a large sea.
They quickly venture deep into it, beginning a long crossing during which water and food run out.
The expedition only comes across two uninhabited and inhospitable islets.
Starving, the crew eat rats, sawdust, and even the ox hides covering the masts.
Further, the lack of fresh food causes a vitamin C deficiency, with the crew suffering from scurvy.
The crossing is made in mild weather, without coming across any storms.
Magellan then names this ocean “Pacific”, meaning “peaceful”.
On March 6th, after 99 days navigating these waters, an island is finally spotted, which they head for.
As the crew is about to trade with the locals, the latter start to steal objects from the Spaniards,
including a small boat.
Magellan is forced to quickly leave the island, which he nicknames the “Island of Thieves”.
The expedition then reaches an archipelago that will later be called the Philippines.
Here, contact with the local population proceeds in a better fashion,
allowing the Spaniards to trade European objects for fresh food.
To impress the locals, Magellan regularly fires cannons.
When he arrives in Cebu, he forms an alliance with the most powerful ruler in the region, the Rajah Humabon.
The local population is converted to Catholicism.
But on the nearby island of Mactan a local chief called Lapu-Lapu refuses to recognize Spanish sovereignty.
Magellan leaves with 60 men to fight him.
But as soon as they disembark, they face about 1500 locals, and Ferdinand Magellan is killed.
A few days later, about twenty Spaniards go to a banquet organized by the Rajah Humabon,
but it is an ambush, and they are massacred.
Only 108 men manage to flee the island.
They separate into two of the remaining three ships, and burn the third.
On November 7th, 1521, the expedition finally reaches the spice islands, which are called the Moluccas.
They fill up their ships with cloves and provisions.
The objective has been reached, but the challenge for the new commander, Juan Sebastian Elcano,
is now to reach Spanish lands without being captured by the Portuguese, who are sailing the seas in search of them.
Another problem, the ship “Trinidad” is taking on water.
Elcano then decides to leave the ship in place for the time it will take to make repairs.
The Trinidad will then head East, with the goal of reaching the Spanish lands in America.
Elcano leaves with the other ship, “Victoria”, heading to the West.
On February 12th, 1522, he enters the Indian Ocean,
which he crosses far to the south to avoid being spotted by the Portuguese.
To the East, after having suffered through storms, “Trinidad” is forced to return to the Moluccas,
where, exhausted, the 17 remaining crew members surrender to a Portuguese ship.
For its part, “Victoria” rounds the Cape of Good Hope far from the coast, then sails back to Europe.
But short of food and drinking water, a large part of the crew is dying of scurvy.
Elcano is forced to stop at the Portuguese islands of Cape Verde.
Knowing that they are wanted, Elcano and the crew hide their identity and pretend to be returning from America.
During a conversation, they discover that it is a Thursday, while the expedition's logbook says that it’s a Wednesday.
Not understanding this discrepancy, they think they have made a mistake.
Thirteen sailors get off the ship and go to buy food.
But they are unmasked, probably because one of them had uses cloves as payment, and cloves only grow in the Moluccas.
The Portuguese, realizing they are dealing with crew members from Magellan's expedition,
immediately arrest the disembarked sailors.
Elcano and the rest of his crew barely manage to flee further west in order to reach the Spanish route back from America.
On September 6th, 1522, after an expedition of almost 3 years,
Elcano arrives in Sanlucar with 17 survivors.
The numerous spices brought back in the holds largely pay back the costs for the expedition.
They are thus the first people to have sailed around the world…
nless, that is, it could possibly be Henrique de Malacca.
Henrique is a slave of uncertain origins, bought 11 years earlier in Malacca by Magellan,
who was then traveling on behalf of Portugal.
Henrique had followed his master to the Iberian Peninsula,
from where he took part in the xpedition to the Spice Islands.
In Cebu, he spoke Malay with the local population.
But after Magellan's death, he wasn’t released, as the captains wanted to keep him on as an interpreter.
He was the lone survivor of the banquet ambush, and was most-likely probably in on it.
It isn’t known what happened to him afterwards,
but if he did manage to return to his native land before Elcano arrived in Spain,
he would be the first man to have circumnavigated the globe,
taking 11 years to do so.