Ferdinand Magellan short biography Portuguese and Spanish navigator is presented in this article.
Ferdinand Magellan short biography
Years of life of Ferdinand Magellan: 1480 — 1521
Was born in 1480 probably in the village of Sabrosa, Portugal.
The parents of the future sailor died quite early, leaving the boy in the care of the royal court. This allowed the noble but poor descendant of an ancient noble family to graduate from an elite nautical school for those times on Cape Sagres.
Having received an excellent education, Magellan went to serve in Navy, and in the period from 1505 to 1513 he rose to the rank of captain. Despite his courage, Fernand was transferred to the reserve due to a false denunciation. Unable to withstand the unfair insult, in 1517 he renounced Portuguese citizenship and moved to Spain. Upon arrival, Magellan proposed to the Spanish king Charles I an experiment unusual for that time, which could glorify the Spanish crown. The essence of the proposal was to organize the first circumnavigation of the world.
After this, preparations for the expedition began. It was decided to send a flotilla of five ships: Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, Santiago. September 20, 1519 they set off. The team rounded the eastern shore South America.
In March 1520, some of the sailors expressed a desire to return to Spain, but Magellan overcame the brewing rebellion. In May 1520, the ship Santiago was lost, so the expedition continued with four ships. And in September, Ferdinand Magellan and his flotilla passed through the Strait, later called the Magellan Strait. Immediately after this, the ship San Antonio returned to Spain.
Then the team sailed through the Pacific Ocean for more than three months. During all this time there was not a single storm, which is why Magellan called the ocean Pacific. Arriving in the spring of 1521 at the islands (later called the Philippine Islands), Magellan decided to subjugate the population to the Spanish king.
The expedition anchored off Mactan Island. Here, in a skirmish with local tribes, their leader Lapu-Lapu April 27, 1521 Ferdinand Magellan was killed.
Without him, the remaining ships of the flotilla reached the Moluccas, where they purchased spices. Two ships left the islands - "Trinidad" and "Victoria". The first went east, but was forced to return to the Molucco Islands, where he was captured by the Portuguese on the orders of the king, who called Magellan a deserter. Only the ship "Victoria" returned to its homeland, having circumnavigated Africa.
This is how the first trip around the world was made, as a result of which 4 out of 5 ships did not return, but the path to the Spice Islands was found.
Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480 - 1521) - outstanding Portuguese navigator who made the first trip around the world. He discovered the entire coast of South America south of La Plata, the strait named after him, the Patagonian Cordillera, and was the first to circumnavigate America from the south, crossing the Pacific Ocean, discovering the islands of Guam and Roth. He proved the existence of a single World Ocean and provided practical proof of the sphericity of the Earth. The two galaxies closest to Earth, the Magellanic Clouds, bear his name.
Fernand Magalhães, who became known to the whole world as Ferdinand Magellan, was born around 1480 in the city of Sabros in the Portuguese province of Traz os Leontes in the family of an impoverished knight from the Magalhães clan. In 1490, the father managed to place his son at the court of King Juan II, where he was raised and studied at the expense of the treasury, and two years later he became a page of Queen Leonora.
Later, Fernand was enlisted in the Naval Order and, as a naval officer, went to India as part of the squadron of the Viceroy of India Francisco d'Almeida. Later, the young officer took part in an expedition to the Malacca Peninsula, in a campaign against Morocco, where he was seriously wounded in the leg. Then his service record was enriched by service in Sofal, which by that time had become one of the Portuguese military fortifications on the way from Lisbon to India.In 1509, Magalhães took part in the defeat of the Venetian-Egyptian squadron at Diu, and in 1510 he again received seriously wounded during the storming of Calicut (Kozhikode). He understood his services to the crown and upon returning to Lisbon in 1512 or 1513 he asked the king for a promotion. Having been refused, the offended Magalhães decided to move to Spain, which he did in 1517 .
While still in Portugal, remembering the impressions received in the East Indies, Magellan began studying cosmography and marine sciences, and also wrote the book “Description of the Kingdoms, Coasts, Harbors and Islands of India.” In Spain he met with the Portuguese astronomer Ruy Faleiro. Together they made a plan: sailing west to reach the Moluccas, which at that time were under Portuguese rule and were the main source of spices for Lisbon. Naturally, the Portuguese stood guard over their interests and arrested any foreign ship that appeared in the waters they controlled.
The companions believed that the islands lie in that part of the Earth that, according to the famous papal bull of 1493 Inter cetera, belongs to Spain. In order not to arouse the suspicions of the Portuguese, they should have been reached by the western route, passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through a passage that, as Magellan believed, was located south of Brazil. With this plan, he and Faleiro in March 1518 turned to the Council of the Indies, demanding for themselves, if the enterprise was successful, the same rights and benefits that Columbus had stipulated. After lengthy negotiations, the project was accepted, and Charles I (aka German King Charles V) undertook to equip 5 ships and provide supplies for two years. In the event of the discovery of new lands, companions were given the right to become their rulers. They received 20% of the income. In this case, the rights had to be inherited. But soon Faleiro, citing a bad horoscope, refused to participate in the expedition. Thus, Magellan became its sole leader and organizer.
On September 20, 1519, the ships "Trinidad", "San Antonio", "Concepcion", "Victoria" and "Santiago" left San Lucar at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, having on board 293 crew members and another 26 non-staff members. Among them was Antonio Pigafetta, who became the chronicler of the expedition. The flagship ship was the Trinidad.
Descriptions of swimming exist in many variations. It is widely known about the fires along the shores of the land called Tierra del Fuego (more correctly “Land of Fire” - Tierra del Fuego), why the Pacific Ocean became Pacific, and the Patagonians have a name that means “big-footed”, about the discovery of the Magellanic clouds (expedition made discoveries not only on earth, but also in the sky), etc. In a brief summary, the expedition route is as follows.
On September 26, the flotilla approached the Canary Islands, on November 29 it reached the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, and on January 10, 1520, the mouth of La Plata, the extreme point of the then known coast. From here Magellan sent the Santiago upstream to check if there was a passage to the South Sea. After the return of the ship, the expedition moved south, and the transitions were carried out only as far as possible and as close to land as possible, so as not to miss the strait.
We spent the winter in San Julian Bay off the coast of Patagonia (49° S), which we entered on March 31. Here Magellan experienced a serious test. A riot broke out on three ships. The crews demanded to turn to the Cape of Good Hope and go to the Moluccas the traditional way. The rebellion was suppressed thanks to the determination of the admiral and the devotion of some of his companions. The rebel captains were treated mercilessly: one was executed, the body of another, who died, was quartered, and the third was landed on a deserted shore along with the conspirator-priest. But Magellan did not punish the sailors.
On August 24, wintering ended. The flotilla left San Julian Bay and moved further along the coast, and on October 21, 1520, the sailors saw the long-awaited strait leading to the west. But the admiral still had doubts, fearing that there was another bay in front of him, and sent two ships ahead, which returned three days later with the news “that they had seen the cape and the open sea.” We spent some more time in these waters, exploring the narrow straits, channels and bays, and lost the San Antonio. Magellan never found out that the ship's crew mutinied, the captain was wounded and shackled, and then the ship was turned back to Spain. At home, the new arrivals accused the admiral of treason. Magellan's family was deprived of government benefits. His wife and children soon died in poverty.
The flotilla moved further along the northern shore of the Strait, which Magellan called Patagonian (later on maps it will be designated as Magellan), rounded Cape Froward (53 ° 54 "S) - the southernmost point of the mainland and for another five days walked through the Strait surrounded gloomy high coasts, the southern of which was Tierra del Fuego, and on November 28, 1520, the sailors saw the open ocean.The passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, which Columbus had sought in vain, was finally found.
The three remaining ships of the flotilla (except for the deserted San Antonio, which lost the Santiago, which crashed on the rocks) first went north 100 km from rocky coast, trying to leave the cold waters, in mid-December from the island. Moga (38°30" S) turned to the northwest, and a little later - to the west-northwest. During the journey across the ocean, many islands were discovered, but inaccurate calculations do not allow us to identify them with any specific points on the map. But the discovery in early March of the islands of Guam and Rota, the southernmost of the Mariana group and called “Robbers” by Magellan, can be considered proven. The islanders stole a boat from travelers, and Magellan, landing with a detachment on the shore, burned several huts and boats, and several natives were killed.
From these islands the flotilla moved west and on March 15, 1521 found itself near the island. Samar (Philippines). They anchored off the neighboring island of Siargao, and later moved to the uninhabited Homonkhon. A week later, moving west, we arrived at the island. Limasawa, where Magellan's Malay slave Enrique heard Malay speech. This meant that the travelers were somewhere near the Spice Islands, that is, they had completed their task.
Accompanied by a pilot, the ships moved to the island. Cebu, where a major trading port and the residence of the Rajah were located. Soon both the ruler and members of his family converted to Christianity, and Magellan intervened in the internecine war on the island. Manthan. On the night of April 27, 1521, the admiral, accompanied by a small detachment, landed on the shore, where they were attacked by local residents. Here the great navigator died under the blows of spears and cutlasses, but “... he kept turning back to see if we had all managed to get into the boats.” This small touch, recorded by the devoted Pigafetta, says a lot about the personality of Ferdinand Magellan - not only a talented naval commander, but also a man who possessed rare qualities in those harsh times. Eight more sailors died there along with the head of the expedition.
Magellan's voyage was completed by Sebastian Elcano (del Cano). Under his leadership, two ships sent through North Kalimantan (Borneo) reached the Moluccas and purchased spices there. Only Victoria was able to sail further. On it, carefully avoiding the paths laid by the Portuguese, Elcano crossed the southern part of the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and, through the Cape Verde Islands, on September 7, 1522, arrived at the harbor of San Lucar.
Of the 256 people who left with Magellan, only eighteen came ashore, and all of them were extremely exhausted - according to an eyewitness, “worse than the most starved nag.” They had a hard time here. Instead of honors, the team received public repentance for one lost day (as a result of moving through time zones around the Earth in a westerly direction). From the point of view of the church authorities, this could only happen as a result of a violation of the fasts. Elcano, however, received honors. He received a coat of arms depicting the globe with the inscription “You were the first to circle around me,” and a pension of five hundred ducats. No one remembered Magellan. The true role of this remarkable man in history was appreciated by his descendants, and, unlike Columbus, it was never disputed. On the deserted shore of. Mantan, on the site where Magellan died, a monument was erected in the form of two cubes topped with a ball.
Magellan's voyage revolutionized ideas about the Earth. After this trip, any attempts to deny the sphericity of the Earth completely stopped, it was proven that the World Ocean is one, ideas about the size of the planet were obtained, it was finally established that America is an independent continent, the coast of South America with a length of about 3.5 thousand km was studied, found a strait between two oceans, etc. All this would be more than enough for not one, but a good dozen people. But these discoveries were inspired and made by one person - Ferdinand Magellan, whose deeds are rightly considered a feat accomplished for the benefit of all mankind.
Magellan's journey is described by his companion Antonio Pigafetta in the book "The Travels of Magellan", the manuscript of which he presented to the king. It has been published several times and translated into all major European languages, including Russian. This translation was published in two editions, in 1800 and 1950.
Http://www.seapeace.ru/seafarers/captains/274.html
Name: Ferdinand Magellan
State: Portugal, Spain
Field of activity: Navigator
Greatest Achievement: Made the world's first trip around the world.
Ferdinand Magellan was born in 1480, on February 3, in Portugal. Magellan was an explorer and navigator. He organized the first trip around the world in Europe. Magellan's expedition became the first conclusive evidence that the Earth is round.
early years
Ferdinand Magellan was born in Porto (Portugal) in 1480. His parents belonged to a noble family and young Magellan early age entered the service of the royal family. He was only 12 years old when he became the royal page of Leonora of Aviz. Since childhood, Magellan studied cartography, astronomy and navigation by the stars.
Magellan entered service in the Portuguese navy in 1505. He sailed to East Africa, then participated in the battles of Diu, during which Portugal was victorious and defeated the Egyptian fleet. Fernand traveled to Malacca (Malaysia) twice and took part in the capture of the port by the Portuguese army.
He also took part in an expedition to the Moluccas, which at that time was called the Spice Islands. The spice trade in Europe during Magellan's time was very profitable and gave rise to great competition. The Moluccas became the main source of valuable spices such as cloves and nutmeg.
In 1513, Magellan was wounded in battle in North Africa, but the king took into account all his merits and helped him. In 1517 he went to Seville to enter the Spanish government service.
Research for Spain
Spain and Portugal in Magellan's time were major powers in great competition with each other. Both countries have recently claimed open regions North and South America and the East. In 1494, Portugal and Spain concluded the Treaty of Tordesillas, defining spheres of influence for each power. Portugal could count on all the territories from Brazil to the East Indies, and Spain on the western lands from Brazil to Cape Verde.
In essence, the treaty divided the globe into two halves between the two countries. The Spaniards had not yet explored their half of the Earth, but they assumed that they would be able to discover part of the Spice Islands there. Magellan proposed testing this assumption by sending an expedition to the west.
Other researchers had already paved the way for Magellan's grand expedition. One of them was (1451-1506), who sailed west from the European coast to the Caribbean islands. Columbus misjudged the distance between Europe and the East Indies. He discovered America and the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean. After his voyage, many explorers became obsessed with finding a route through America to the east to give Spain access to the Spice Islands. One of these explorers was Magellan.
Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world
King Charles V of Spain (1500-1558) accepted Magellan's offer and on September 20, 1519, he was assigned to lead a flotilla of five ships. The flotilla was supposed to head to the Atlantic.
His brother-in-law, Duarte Barbosa, also set sail with Magellan. Arriving in Brazil, the flotilla headed along the South American coast to San Julian Bay, in Patagonia.
The explorers stayed there from March to August 1520. During this time, there was an attempt on the ships to raise a mutiny against the captain, who was suppressed. Subsequently, however, the mutinous ship Santiago was completely destroyed, and its crew was taken on board by the remaining ships.
After leaving San Julian, the flotilla headed south. On October 21, 1520, she entered the strait, which now bears the name of Magellan. On November 28, only three ships entered the Pacific Ocean. This was followed by a long voyage north across the Pacific Ocean. On March 6, 1521, the flotilla anchored in Guam.
Magellan headed east to Cebu, Philippines, where he tried to get help from the local government. Involuntarily, he was drawn into hostilities and killed in battle on April 27, 1521. Barbosa was also killed soon after. The remaining crew was forced to destroy the Concepción (ship) and the great voyage around the world was completed. Magellan's ship Victoria was led by former rebel Juan Sebastian del Cano. He crossed the Indian Ocean and finally returned to Seville from the Cape of Good Hope on September 8, 1522. Meanwhile, Trinidad (the ship) attempted to return home via the Pacific Ocean. In the Moluccas, the crew was captured by the Portuguese and sent to prison. Only four of them were later able to return to Spain.
Magellan's Legacy
Economically, Magellan's project was a failure for Spain. As a result of the division of the world, Portugal received a part of the world that was more advantageous in terms of resources. Spain miscalculated and did not gain access to the Moluccas. Magellan lost his flotilla, his people and his own life. Despite this, his voyage became the most important historical event, because this was the first proof that the Earth is a ball. Magellan's voyage is considered one of the most important explorations in human history.
The biography of Ferdinand Magellan begins with the fact that the future navigator was born in 1480, in the Portuguese city of Sabrosa, into a not very noble family.
At the age of twelve, he and his brother Diogo went to Lisbon to serve as pages in the court of Queen Leonora. There he learned of the intense competition that existed between Spain and Portugal to explore new sea routes and dominate the spice trade from the East Indies, particularly the Moluccas (also called the Spice Islands).
It was during these young years that young Fernando developed a passion for maritime affairs. Magellan's first voyage took place in 1505, when he and his brother boarded a ship bound for India. From then on, for seven years he participated in expeditions to India and Africa and was wounded in several battles.
In 1513, King Manuel sent a flotilla of five hundred ships to Morocco to challenge the Moroccan ruler, who refused to pay annual tribute to the Portuguese treasury. Portuguese troops easily broke the enemy's resistance. In one of the battles, Magellan was seriously wounded in the leg and was left lame.
In those days, spices meant as much as oil means today. People were willing to pay huge amounts of money for black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg and garlic, because they helped preserve food in times when there were no refrigerators. In addition, the spices fought off the smell of spoiled meat.
It was impossible to grow them in cold, arid Europe, so it was vital for Europeans to find the shortest route to the Moluccas. The eastern route has long been known. Magellan had to build a sea route from the west.
Magellan, a traveler who by that time had received great experience on numerous campaigns, he decided to turn to King Manuel to gain support for the planned campaign to the Moluccas along a new route. Several times the king rejected his requests. In 1517, a disappointed Magellan renounced his Portuguese citizenship and moved to Spain to try his luck there. This act was already a small feat: Fernando had no connections in the country and practically did not speak Spanish.
There he met his fellow countryman and soon married his daughter. The Barbosa family, which had good connections at court, managed to get him permission to meet with the Spanish monarch. King Charles, only 18 years old at the time, was the great-grandson of the king who financed Columbus's expedition. He did not break tradition, and Magellan's expedition received approval and much-needed funds.
Thus, Magellan's trip around the world set itself the task of circumnavigating the globe from the west. Fernand hoped that perhaps this route would be shorter. On August 10, 1519, five ships left the Spanish port. Magellan was on the Trinidad, followed by the San Antonio, Concepcion, Santiago and Victoria.
In September, the ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean, then known as simply the Ocean, and reached the shores of South America. They moved along the coast in the hope of finding a strait that would allow them to sail further west. One of the discoveries of Ferdinand Magellan after a year of wanderings was the strait, which was later named after him.
Leaving the strait behind, the travelers became the first Europeans to see a new ocean in front of them, which the fearless captain called “Pacifico”, which meant “quiet”. Now Magellan's path lay through completely uncharted waters. Next they were waiting for the Philippines, where he tried to work as a preacher and made friends with the local population. At that moment he was almost at his goal - the Moluccas were very close.
However, he allowed himself to be drawn into a battle between the local population and a tribe from a neighboring island. Believing that European weapons would help achieve an easy victory, great traveler walked ahead of his army... An arrow poisoned with poison put an end to the trip around the world and the biography of Ferdinand Magellan.
He died on April 27, 1521. The two remaining ships reached the Moluccas six months later. As a result, in 1522, only the Victoria arrived in Spain, loaded to the brim with spices, but with only a couple of dozen people on board.
In search of fame and fortune, the daring escapade of the traveler around the world brought more than just spices to the Europeans. Ferdinand Magellan discovered a new ocean, geographical knowledge of that time made a huge leap forward, and it was recognized that the earth was much larger than previously thought. The route taken by Magellan to circumnavigate the world was considered too long and dangerous a route to the Moluccas and was never used for trade again.
Why do they say that Magellan is the first person to circumnavigate the world if he never returned to Spain? He is the first person to visit the Philippines from both sides: first arriving there through the Indian Ocean and subsequently through the Pacific and Atlantic.
The first person to travel around the world “from point A to point A” was his slave Enrique: he was born on one of the islands and was brought by Magellan to Spain, and a few years later he went with him on the famous journey, which eventually led him to home island.
This navigator is known for being the first in the history of mankind to travel around the world, and also became the first European to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
Youth
He was born in the spring of 1480 in Sabrosa (Portugal), into a family of nobles. Very little is known about his family; even his father’s position is not clear. Also, almost nothing is known about his early life - only that he was for some time a page of the then queen.
Mature years
In 1505, the Portuguese king sent another expedition to, in which Magellan also participated. In 1512, he returned to Portugal, however, not receiving an appointment to serve from the king, he went to Spain, where he settled for some time in the city of Seville. There he conceived the idea of a trip around the world, which at first did not find support from the Spanish “Pay of Contracts”, but was later approved.
Trip around the world
In total, there were 5 ships on the expedition, which carried a two-year supply of food. The three ships were commanded by three representatives of the aristocracy of the Spanish court, with whom the Portuguese almost immediately began to have conflicts - primarily because of his origin, and also because he did not initiate them into the sailing route. The ships sailed on September 20, 1519. At the end of November, the expedition reached the Brazilian coast, and at the end of September - La Plata, where they began to look for the strait, which they unsuccessfully tried to find all winter, moving south. In May, one ship specially designed for reconnaissance was lost: it was caught in a storm and crashed, although the sailors were almost unharmed. Only on October 21, 1520, a narrow strait was found that led deep into the mainland. At Dawson Island it was divided into two different channels, and the traveler decided to split the flotilla. After the news that sailors from one of the ships had seen the open sea, on November 28 the ships entered the ocean. In total, it took 38 days to cross the strait. After leaving the strait, the ships moved north and then northwest. Thus, they traveled at least 17,000 kilometers across the Pacific Ocean. They failed to reach the Moluccas Islands, which the expedition initially aimed for, but in January 1521 they saw several uninhabited islands of the Tuamotu archipelago, which they could not land on. Only at the beginning of March the expedition reached the island of Guam, which belonged to the Mariana Islands group. At first, trade began with the population, but then the Europeans noticed that the natives were stealing their supplies and belongings, they landed on the shore and burned the village, took the food and sailed away. A few days later, the ships of the flotilla reached the Philippines (Magellan and his crew became the first Europeans to land on them). In order to go ashore, they chose an uninhabited island. After the team replenished its food supply, the journey among the islands continued. On one of the islands that belonged to Fernando, a slave met people who spoke the same language as him. In April 1521, the Portuguese flotilla approached the island of Cebu, where they tried to collect a fee from them, but the Spaniards refused to pay it. Trade began between locals and Europeans, and then the Rajah of the island, impressed by the weapons of the Spaniards, decided to come under the protection of the King of Spain, and was baptized himself, and also ordered his family, local nobility and ordinary residents to undergo the baptismal rite. Of course, Magellan supported the ruler who took the name Carlos, and tried to help him subjugate as many other minor rulers as possible. One of them fiercely resisted the new order, and Fernando decided to organize a military campaign against him. However, due to poor preparation, the battle was lost, and during it Magellan himself was killed on April 27, 1521.