Biography of Ferdinand Magellan , ferdinand magellan,Ferdinand Magellan: First Around the World (Almost)

                                                           

                         Biography of Ferdinand Magellan 

Ferdinand Magellan was one of the leadingexplorers of the Age of Discovery. Often cited as the first man to circumnavigatethe globe, he fell just short of that milestone, being hacked to death by natives on the MarianasIslands. Yet, his vision and his tenacity, despitetremendous odds, opened up the westward route to Asia and established his legacy as oneof history’s great adventurers.

 we uncover the lifeand tragic death of Ferdinand Magellan. Beginnings Ferdinand Magellan was born around 1480 inthe north of Portugal. His family were part of the Portuguese aristocracy. His father Rui de Magalhaes, was an officialin the city of Aveiro, while the family of his mother, Alda de Mesquita, were well connectedto the Portuguese royal court. Both parents died when Ferdinand was aboutten years of age and he was taken into the royal court as a page boy. Ferdinand was page to Queen Leonor, wife ofKing John II who reigned from 1481-1495. He was then succeeded by his brother, KingManuel I.

 At the beginning of the 16th Century, justas Ferdinand was coming of age, Portugal was the most nautically advanced country in Europe. She had the best built ships and the mostexperienced sailors on the high seas. These advances had allowed the Portugueseto take the lead in exploring the African west coast. However, the Italian states had already establishedland-based trade routes to the East, shutting Portugal out from this lucrative market. Portuguese businessmen and explorers soughtways to develop their own route to the East that would bypass the established land-basedroute. And so, the rush was on to find a seaborneroute to the eastern markets. Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama made a hugebreakthrough when he sailed down the African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope andthen to the southern tip of India. Over the ensuing decade the Portuguese establishedtrade relations with Indian Kingdoms. During Ferdinand’s formative years, explorationand trade opportunities were constant topics of interest among the Portuguese nobility. The Crown was fully invested in this enterpriseand was prepared to finance explorations. Mariner Around 1505, Ferdinand, now in his mid-twenties,enlisted as a member of a twenty-two-ship escort for Francisco de Almeida, the firstviceroy of Portuguese India.

It is probable that he also travelled to suchplaces as Malaysia and the African territory of Mozambique. In the midst of this flourishing inter-culturaltrade, he would have been exposed to a dizzying array of languages, cultures, foods and tradegoods. Magellan remained in the employ of the Portuguesenavy for eight years. He was involved in a number of battles, thefirst being the Battle of Cannanore in 1506. In this encounter the Portuguese fleet ofless than ten ships defeated in excess of more than two hundred much smaller Indianvessels. Magellan was wounded in this encounter. In February, 1509, Magellan participated inthe Battle of Diu against the Ottoman Turks in southwestern India, which was another Portuguesevictory. A year later, he was present when the Indiancity of Goa was overrun. Having negated the Muslim push into Asia,the Portuguese turned their attention to Malaysia and the city of Malacca.

This island city was an international portthat served as a gateway to the lucrative spice markets to the south. The Portuguese wanted control over the cityand sent an invasion force to achieve it in 1511. Magellan was among the invaders, who soonconquered the island. Towards the end of 1511, Magellan was awardedfor his services with an award of riches from an exploratory mission to the Spice Islandsof Indonesia. He was also given a Malay slave, who he namedEnrique. This man was to act as a translator on Magellan’slater voyage to the Indian Ocean. Soldier Magellan returned to Portugal in 1513. He had spent eight years on the seas of theIndies. He returned to a country that was deeply involvedboth militarily and commercially in the African continent. Conflicts were ongoing both with North Africanpirates and the Muslims who inhabited the continent. Shortly after returning to Portugal, Magellanjoined an expedition against a revolt in the Moroccan city of Azamor. Morocco had been a possession of the Portuguesesince 1486. As a result, each of its cities were obligatedto pay an annual tribute. However, in 1513, the ruler of Azamor, a manby the name of Moulay Zamon, refused to pay. He then led a revolt against the Portuguese,with the goal of pushing the invader out of the country.

Back in Spain, the king determined to putdown the rebellion with overwhelming force in order to teach his subjects there a lesson. He sent an army of 15,000 men under the leadershipof the Duke of Braganza. This force soon quashed the uprising. Within a few years, however, the Portuguesefound that the costs involved in keeping order in Azamor were more than the revenue receivedfrom the tribute and the city was abandoned. During the Battle of Azamor, Magellan wasthrown from his horse, receiving a leg wound that would leave him with a limp for the remainderof his life. This was not the only unhappy experience hehad in Morocco. As a prominent member of the victorious army,he was awarded some of the spoils of victory. But, before long, he was accused of carryingon illegal trade with locals by selling some of those spoils back to the Moroccans at aprofit. The accusation was thoroughly investigatedby Magellan’s military superiors and he was found to be not guilty. Still the episode left a stain on his, upuntil then, exemplary record. It seems to have lost him considerable favourwith King Manuel, whose sister he had served as a page boy in his youth. On his return to Lisbon, Magellan requestedan increase in his pension on the strength of his service in Morocco.

This was denied by the king. When he requested permission to accompanyseveral other Portuguese military expeditions, Magellan was again turned down. It was apparent that he had lost the trustof his monarch. Explorer With the king leaving him out in the cold,Magellan now set about formulating plans for his own voyage of exploration. His intention was to find a faster route tothe Spice Islands by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. He was unaware of the size of the PacificOcean or the length of the South American continent, and so imagined that this wouldbe quicker and easier than sailing all the way down to the southern tip of Africa toget to the Indian Ocean. Magellan took his plan to the king, requestingfinancing for the expedition. He used the fact that the Spanish were likelyto reach the Spice Islands before them and claim jurisdiction over its valuable spicetrade. However, King Manuel was not moved and heturned down Magellan’s request, He did, however, give permission to seek funding fromother rulers. Magellan set his sights on the Spanish crownas the backer for his expedition.

 He travelled to Seville where he met up withother Portuguese mariners and navigators. Together they formulated a plan to take tothe Spanish crown. The expedition would be presented as the opportunityto achieve the westward route to the Indies that Columbus had failed to achieve in the1490’s. This new route would also avoid competitionwith the Portuguese who were committed to their well established, but much longer, routethrough the Indian Ocean. As icing on the cake, Magellan contended that,on the basis of cartography calculations, the Spice Islands would be found to lie withinterritory that was the possession of the Spanish under the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. The proposal was attractive to Spanish KingCharles Ist. Magellan and his cartographer, Rui Faleiro,were made joint captains of the expedition. They were also made Knights of the Order ofSantiago and given a ten-year monopoly on all trade in the area through their routealong with 5 percent of all revenues received from the route.

As a bonus, they would each be given governorshipof an island. The Spanish Crown put up the money for thepurchase of ships and crew and supplies. This was a stunning success for Magellan. Yet, despite the financing and prospects conferredby the King, he soon ran into difficulties. Spanish sailors were incensed that two Portuguesemariners had been placed at the head of the expedition. When they heard of all of the lucrative benefitsthat the two would receive, they were angrier still. Members of the Spanish court, unable to stomachthe king’s generosity to these foreigners, attempted to subvert the expedition. The releasing of funds was held up, resultingin a flow on effect that made it virtually impossible for the two captains to make theirpreparations. Meanwhile, King Manuel Ist, back in Portugal,heard about the Spanish financing of the voyage. This apparently caused him to feel regretthat he had turned down the request by Magellan. He set about trying to sabotage the Spanishexpedition, sending an envoy to the Spanish court for that express purpose. Problems developed too, between Magellan andFaleiro.

In fact, the relationship between them becameso strained that Faleiro had his captaincy revoked. He was kicked off the expedition. More personnel problems followed. The Spanish prevented Magellan from bringingPortuguese sailors on board, despite the fact that many of the men that Magellan wantedwere experienced in sailing the parts of the ocean that he was heading to. In the end, the majority of the crew wereSpanish, although there was representation from a number of other lands, including NorthAfrica. Magellan’s slave, Enrique also sailed withhis master. A Fateful Voyage Finally, Magellan had five ships ready tosail. These were the Trinidad, upon which he sailed,the Victoria, the Concepcion, the Santo Antonio and the Santiago. In total, there were 273 men. Everything we know about Magellan’s voyagecomes from a journal that was kept by a crewmember by the name of Antonio Pigafetta.

They sailed out of Seville harbor on St. LawrenceDay, August 10th, 1519. During his time in Seville, Magellan had metand married a teenage girl by the name of Beatriz Barbosa, who was the daughter of aPortuguese friend. Not long thereafter, Beatriz, gave birth totheir first and only child, a son named Rodrigo. On sailing out of Seville, he would neversee them again. The fleet sailed down the Guadalquivir riverand the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda. Finally, on September 20th, they headed outinto the Atlantic Ocean. The first stop was Tenerife in the CanaryIslands. Getting there was plain sailing but, the nextleg of the journey, from Tenerife southwest across the equator was beset by wild storms. The chronicler Pigafetta describes many occasionswhere the men thought they were done for as terrible storm winds battered the ships. He puts their deliverance down to the divineinterference of Saint Anselm, who showed his presence by a light at the tip of the mast. What he was actually seeing was St. Elmo’sFire, an electrical charge that is often seen on the top of masts in thunderstorms. Having navigated the stormy seas, Magellanset a course for Brazil, which was a possession of the Portuguese. But they had not yet established any substantialsettlements there. Magellan’s five ships reached the Braziliancoast in early November and then moved south until they reached the bay of Rio De Janairo.

Having reached South America, Magellan hadto face the reality of the geography that he had only previously guessed at. He had assured the Spanish king that he woulddiscover a strait through this continent that would allow them to pass into the South Seasand then make a direct run to the East Indies. What he found was that the South Americancoast ran for further to the south than he had ever imagined – and there was no promisethat he would find a strait to cut through it. The realization that they might be forcedto add an unknown length of time to their journey by circumnavigating South Americacaused tension among the crew. From Rio De Janairo, the fleet travelled southto the Rio de la Platta estuary.

There they stopped to allow the men to exploreinland. Here they came across a tribe of natives,described by Pigafetta as cannibalistic giants. According to his journal account, the crewmanaged to coax four of the natives aboard one of the ships. While distracting them with trinkets, Pigafettawrites . . . The captain had the fetters put on the feetof both of them. And when they saw the bolt across the fettersbeing struck with a hammer to rivet and prevent them from being opened, these giants wereafraid. But the captain made signs to them that theyshould suspect nothing. Nevertheless, perceiving the trick that hadbeen played on them, they began to blow and foam at the mouth like bulls, loudly callingon Setebos (their devil) to help them. Magellan put the other two in irons but thendecided to release them. The actions of the sailors appear excessivelyaggressive toward the native people of Rio de la Platta.

It quickly devolved into outright combat. Magellan lost his first man when a sailorwas hit in the torso by a poisoned arrow. Magellan made a speedy exit. But, rather than head back out into the openseas, it was decided to head into the river in the belief that it could just be the straitthat would allow them to cut across the continent. It didn’t take them long, however, to realizethat the waters they were travelling were freshwater and so could not have come fromthe ocean on the other side of the continent. When Magellan realized his mistake, he turnedsouth, coming to the port of San Julian in Argentina just prior to Easter, 1520. He decided to lay up there over the winter. The rest would not be without incident. A mutiny was incited by two Spanish captainswho had resented serving under a Portuguese from the start. Magellan had the loyalty of the majority ofthe men and the dissenters were sidelined and dismissed. During the layover, the Santiago headed offon a reconnaissance mission to the south. It became shipwrecked in the Santa Cruz River.

 The ship was lost along with one of the crewmembers. Just before we get continue to Magellans journey,let me take a moment to tell you about Squarespace, who makes these longer videos possible! The Straits of Magellan Magellan was now down to four ships. After picking up the crew from the Santiago,they carried on down the South American coast to Cape Virgenese.There they found a Straitbetween the continental mainland and the island of Tierra del Fuego. It was the strait that they were looking forto take them across to the far ocean and would come to be known as the Straits of Magellan. One ship was sent forth to see whether thesalt water would turn to fresh water as they progressed through the strait. It didn’t and the entire fleet headed inland. Before long they came to a fork in the waters. Magellan sent the Concepcion and the SantoAntonio along the southeast channel while his ship, the Trinidad, and the Victoria,headed south west.

During this exploration, many of the crewof the Santo Antonio mutinied and the ship headed back for Spain. The remaining three ships figured that thewestward channel was the one to follow and so they headed down it on November 30th, 1529. By December 1st they had made it to the SouthSea, which Magellan rechristened the Pacific Ocean. Getting through the Straits was an impressivefeat of maritime skill, withy many treacherous areas to be navigated. While Magellan was ecstatic to have foundthe passage that he’d been seeking, he was also very aware that he was running desperatelylow on supplies. Stopping to forage along the coast was anoption, but this brought with it the risk of further conflict with native peoples. As a result, the decision was made to pushdirectly into the ocean, despite the lack of food. They had no idea what they were in for. It would be another twelve weeks before landwould be sighted.

The food situation soon became desperate withPigafetta recording . . . We only ate old biscuit reduced to powder,and full of grubs, and we drank water that had turned yellow and smelled. When even the biscuits were gone, they caughtand ate rats – and then were reduced to chewing on leather cloth and sawdust. Scurvy became rampant and the death toll beganto mount. Among the first to die were the two giantswho had been captured a few months earlier. At least thirty of the crew followed. Finally, at the end of January 1521, a groupof uninhabited small islands were sighted. Finding no food there, they pushed on untilthey came to the island of Guam at the beginning of March. On this inhabited island they finally foundfood and supplies. From Guam, the fleet headed southwest to theMarianas Islands, which we know as the Philippines. Magellan was keen to establish friendly relationswith the native people there.

Thanks to the aid of his translator, Enrique,he was able to establish diplomatic relations through the giving of gifts, demonstrationsof arms and tours of the ships. Journey’s End The people of Limasawa Island, on which thefleet had landed, encouraged them to move on to what appeared to be the capital islandof Cebu. This they did, but unsure of the receptionthey would receive, Magellan ordered the artillery to be fired as they entered the port. This proved unnecessary as they people werefriendly. Magellan formed the opinion that the chiefof this island, Rajah Humabon was the king of all of the surrounding islands. So, in securing this friendship, he imaginedthat he now had the allegiance of all the islands. In this though, he was mistaken. Each island operated as an independent sovereignty. Still, Magellan headed for the island of Mactan,believing that here too he would get a positive reception. However, the chief of Mactan, Lapu Lapu refusedto submit to the strange foreigners. Magellan was offended and withdrew back toCebu. There he prepared his men to attack the inhabitantsof Lapu Lapu.

Possibly on the intelligence of Rajah Humabon,he was convinced that he would not encounter a large force of resistors. He was wrong. When Magellan and his force of about sixtymen waded ashore on Macatan they were confronted by between 1500-3000 warriors armed with spearsand arrows. The sailors had the benefit of muskets butthese were cumbersome, slow to load and unreliable. Hoping to cause confusion, Magellan sent somemen to burn the huts of the natives. However, they were soon intercepted and killed. Magellan’s attacking forces were unableto gain any ground, being forced to fight from the shore. According to Pigafetta, the natives focusedon their attention on Magellan, the man who was the leader of the invaders.

He described the end of his captain . . .So many of them charged down on us that they shot the captain through the right leg witha poisoned arrow. On that account, he ordered us to retire slowly. But the men took to flight, except six toeight of us who remained with the captain. The natives shot only at our legs, for thelatter were bare; and so many were the spears and stones that they hurled at us, that wecould offer no resistance . . . The natives continued to pursue us, and picking up thesame spear four or six times, hurled it as us again and again. Recognizing the captain, so many turned uponhim that they knocked his helmet off his head twice, but he always stood firmly like a goodknight. An Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain’sface, but the latter immediately killed him with a lance, which he left in the Indian’sbody.

Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he coulddraw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that they all hurledthemselves upon him. One of them wounded him in the left leg witha large cutlass. . .That caused the captain to fall face downward,when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlassesuntil they killed our mirror, our light, our compass and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back manytimes to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded,retreated as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off. The ship made a speedy departure to Cebu,only to find that Rajah Humabon was no longer friendly. He had around thirty of the sailors poisonedduring a feast.

 After that, the surviving men set sail forthe Spice Islands. The goal of reaching those Islands was finallymet, but Magellan had paid the ultimate price in its achievement. More than 90 percent of his men also perishedon that fateful voyage. The captains of the two remaining ships disagreedabout the route home. As a result they parted ways, with the Trinidadsailing back across the Pacific, while the Victoria took the Portuguese route aroundthe Cape of Good Hope. As it turned out, the Trinidad was stoppedby Portuguese officials, with its crew being arrested. The Victoria arrived back in Seville, Spainon September 6, 1522. The ship was laden down with spices but thecrew were near death from starvation and the ship was about to fall apart. Only 18 men were onboard from a total of 237who had set sail from that port three years earlier. But those 18 men had the distinction of beingthe first to circumnavigate the globe