- In 1517, the noble Ferdinand de Magellan left Portugal to become a Spaniard:he brought to the young Charles V a great project, that of making a complete tour of the globe for the first time in order to take its dimensions and establish a safe card.
- We do not yet know the exact size of the Earth, and the crown needs to define the Spanish and Portuguese properties which derive from the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).
- Five boats are chartered for its departure, with 237 crew and two years of food. Magellan and his captains are granted a portion of future earnings for this voyage which will ultimately take a dramatic turn.
August 1519 - September 1522
Characters
Ferdinand of Magellan
Charles V
Henrique of Malacca
Procedure
The fleet left Seville in August 1519 and made a stop in Brazil. There are already dissensions in the crew:not all captains share Magellan's vision. The fleet heads south and in December, and stops in Patagonia. It was there, in March 1520, that a mutiny broke out, which was easily put down. It leads to the abandonment of some captains.
In May, a first ship ran aground. The other four head south in search of a passage around the continent:they soon discover the Strait of Magellan, a dangerous passage that takes them a month to cross. During the crossing, a ship mutinied and returned to Seville. Magellan is thus the first to cross the Pacific Ocean. This crossing lasts six months, in terrible conditions, because the crew, short of water and food, are reduced to eating leather.
In March 1521, the expedition reached the Philippines:Magellan was struck by the beauty of this land. Welcomed by peaceful natives, he finds here the precious spices for which he left.
Navigators manage to Christianize the island of Cebu, but the island of Mactan refuses to submit. Magellan therefore leads a battle there against the natives where he will find death. It's a defeat.
According to Magellan's will, his slave and right-hand man Henrique de Malacca must be freed; after the refusal of the new leader of the expedition to apply the will, Henrique allies himself with the king of Cebu, Humabon, and turns against the crew. Following a bloody ambush, the Spanish survivors fled, burning one of the three remaining boats.
In July, they arrive in Borneo and in November 1521, in the Maluku Islands. After abandoning a damaged ship, the rest of the crew continues on. The Victoria is thus the only ship to pass the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, and to carry out the first circumnavigation . He finally arrived in Spain in September 1522.
Consequences
- This expedition was costly for Spain but enabled it to claim the Philippines in 1565.
- This circumnavigation makes it possible to use the Strait of Magellan (even if we generally prefer to go through Panama) and also to have better measurements of the Earth.
- We can then begin the exploration of the Pacific which is full of riches.