magellan's voyage around the world reflection paper

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Ferdinand Magellan

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 4, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

In search of fame and fortune, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521) set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. En route he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean. The voyage was long and dangerous, and only one ship returned home three years later. Although it was laden with valuable spices from the East, only 18 of the fleet’s original crew of 270 returned with the ship. Magellan himself was killed in battle on the voyage, but his ambitious expedition proved that the globe could be circled by sea and that the world was much larger than had previously been imagined.

Ferdinand Magellan’s Early Years

Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480–1521) was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, to a family of minor Portuguese nobility. At age 12 Ferdinand Magellan ( Fernão de Magalhães in Portuguese and Fernando de Magallanes in Spanish) and his brother Diogo traveled to Lisbon to serve as pages at Queen Leonora’s court. While at the court Magellan was exposed to stories of the great Portuguese and Spanish rivalry for sea exploration and dominance over the spice trade in the East Indies, especially the Spice Islands, or Moluccas, in modern Indonesia. Intrigued by the promise of fame and riches, Magellan developed an interest in maritime discovery in those early years.

Did you know? Clove was the most valuable spice in Europe during Magellan's day. It was used to flavor food, but Europeans also believed that its essence could improve vision, its powder could relieve fevers and that it could enhance intercourse when mixed with milk.

In 1505, Magellan and his brother were assigned to a Portuguese fleet headed for India. Over the next seven years, Magellan participated in several expeditions in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa and was wounded in several battles. In 1513 he joined the enormous 500-ship, 15,000-soldier force sent by King Manuel to Morocco to challenge the Moroccan governor who refused to pay its yearly tribute to the Portuguese empire. The Portuguese easily overwhelmed the Moroccan forces, and Magellan stayed on in Morocco. While there he was seriously wounded in a skirmish, which left him with a limp for the rest of his life.

Magellan: From Portugal to Spain

In the 15th century, spices were at the epicenter of the world economy, much like oil is today. Highly valued for flavoring and preserving food as well as masking the taste of meat gone bad, spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and especially black pepper were extremely valuable. Since spices could not be cultivated in cold and arid Europe, no effort was spared to discover the quickest sea route to the Spice Islands. Portugal and Spain led the competition for early control over this critical commodity. Europeans had reached the Spice Islands by sailing east, but none had yet to sail west from Europe to reach the other side of the globe. Magellan was determined to be the first to do so.

By now an experienced seaman, Magellan approached King Manuel of Portugal to seek his support for a westward voyage to the Spice Islands. The king refused his petition repeatedly. In 1517, a frustrated Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and relocated to Spain to seek royal support for his venture.

When Magellan arrived in Seville in October 1517, he had no connections and spoke little Spanish. He soon met another transplanted Portuguese named Diogo Barbosa, and within a year he had married Barbosa’s daughter Beatriz, who gave birth to their son Rodrigo a year later. The well-connected Barbosa family introduced Magellan to officers responsible for Spain’s maritime exploration, and soon Magellan secured an appointment to meet the king of Spain.

The grandson of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who had funded Christopher Columbus ’s expedition to the New World in 1492, received Magellan’s petition with the same favor shown by his grandparents. Just 18 years old at the time, King Charles I granted his support to Magellan, who in turn promised the young king that his westward sea voyage would bring immeasurable riches to Spain.

Strait of Magellan

On August 10, 1519 Magellan bade farewell to his wife and young son, neither of whom he would ever see again, and the Armada De Moluccas set sail. Magellan commanded the lead ship Trinidad and was accompanied by four other ships: the San Antonio , the Conception , the Victoria and the Santiago . The expedition would prove long and arduous, and only one ship, the Victoria , would return three years later across the Pacific, carrying a mere 18 of the fleet’s original crew of 270.

In September 1519 Magellan’s fleet sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, which was then known simply as the Ocean Sea. The fleet reached South America a little more than one month later. There the ships sailed southward, hugging the coast in search of the fabled strait that would allow passage through South America. The fleet stopped at Port San Julian where the crew mutinied on Easter Day in 1520. Magellan quickly quelled the uprising, executing one of the captains and leaving another mutinous captain behind. Meanwhile Magellan had sent the Santiago to explore the route ahead, where it was shipwrecked during a terrible storm. The ship’s crew members were rescued and assigned out among the remaining ships. With those disastrous events behind them, the fleet left Port San Julian five months later when fierce seasonal storms abated.

On October 21, 1520 Magellan finally entered the strait that he had been seeking and that came to bear his name. The voyage through the Strait of Magellan was treacherous and cold, and many sailors continued to mistrust their leader and grumble about the dangers of the journey ahead. In the early days of the navigation of the strait, the crew of the San Antonio forced its captain to desert, and the ship turned and fled across the Atlantic Ocean back to Spain. At this point, only three of the original five ships remained in Magellan’s fleet.

The Magellan Expedition: Circumnavigation the Glob e

After more than a month spent traversing the strait, Magellan’s remaining armada emerged in November 1520 to behold a vast ocean before them. They were the first known Europeans to see the great ocean, which Magellan named Mar Pacifico, the Pacific Ocean, for its apparent peacefulness, a stark contrast to the dangerous waters of the strait from which he had just emerged. In fact, extremely rough waters are not uncommon in the Pacific Ocean, where tsunamis, typhoons and hurricanes have done serious damage to the Pacific Islands and Pacific Rim nations throughout history.

Little was known about the geography beyond South America at that time, and Magellan optimistically estimated that the trip across the Pacific would be rapid. In fact, it took three months for the fleet to make its way slowly across the vast Mar Pacifico. The days dragged on as Magellan’s crew anxiously waited to utter the magic words “Land, ho!” At last, the fleet reached the Pacific island of Guam in March 1521, where they finally replenished their food stores.

Magellan’s fleet then sailed on to the Philippine archipelago landing on the island of Cebu, where Magellan befriended the locals and, struck with a sudden religious zeal, sought to convert them to Christianity . Magellan was now closer than ever to reaching the Spice Islands, but when the Cebu asked for his help in fighting their neighbors on the island of Mactan, Magellan agreed. He assumed he would command a swift victory with his superior European weapons, and against the advice of his men, Magellan himself led the attack. The Mactanese fought fiercely, and Magellan fell when he was shot with a poison arrow. Ferdinand Magellan died on April 27, 1521.

Magellan would never make it to the Spice Islands, but after the loss of yet another of his fleet’s vessels, the two remaining ships finally reached the Moluccas on November 5, 1521. In the end, only the Victoria completed the voyage around the world and arrived back in Seville, Spain, in September 1522 with a heavy cargo of spices but with only 18 men from the original crew, including Italian scholar and explorer Antonio Pigafetta. The journal Pigafaetta kept on the voyage is a key record of what the crew encountered on their journey home.

Impact of Ferdinand Magellan

Seeking riches and personal glory, Magellan’s daring and ambitious voyage around the world provided the Europeans with far more than just spices. Although the trip westward from Europe to the east via the Strait of Magellan had been discovered and mapped, the journey was too long and dangerous to become a practical route to the Spice Islands. Nevertheless, European geographic knowledge was expanded immeasurably by Magellan’s expedition. He found not only a massive ocean, hitherto unknown to Europeans, but he also discovered that the earth was much larger than previously thought. Finally, although it was no longer believed that the earth was flat at this stage in history, Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe empirically discredited the medieval theory conclusively.

Though Magellan is often credited with the first circumnavigation of the globe, he did so on a technicality: He first made a trip from Europe to present-day Malaysia, eastward via the Indian Ocean, and may have continued further east to the Spice Islands. He then later made his famous westward voyage that brought him to the Philippines. So he did cover the entire terrain, but it was not a strict point A to point A, round-the-world trip, and it was made in two different directions. His enslaved servant Enrique was born in the region, possibly near Malacca or Cebu, and had come to Europe with Magellan by ship. Enrique reached Cebu (and possibly Mallaca) on the expedition’s westward voyage, meaning he may have been the first person to circumnavigate the world in one direction to return to the same starting point.

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Magellan was first to sail around the world, right? Think again.

Five hundred years on, the explorer’s legacy is complicated—and contested.

In September 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain with five ships. Three years later only one ship, the Victoria (depicted on a 1590 map), made it back to Spain after circumnavigating the world.

Five hundred years ago, Ferdinand Magellan began a historic journey to circumnavigate the globe. Simple, right? Not really— the explorer and his voyage are a study in contradiction. Magellan was Portuguese, but sailed on behalf of Spain. He was a formidable captain, but his crew hated him. His expedition was the first to sail around the world, but he didn’t end up circling the globe himself. His name wasn’t even Magellan.

Like Columbus before him, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan proposed reaching Asia and the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, by sailing west from Europe.

Nonetheless, it’s clear that Ferdinand Magellan’s 1519 expedition changed the world forever. His journey was “the greatest sea voyage ever undertaken, and the most significant,” says historian Laurence Bergreen , author of Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe . “That’s not hyperbole.”

Brutal, bellicose, and brave, Magellan turned a commercial voyage into a hair-raising showdown with a wide world few Europeans could imagine. At the beginning of his journey, his contemporaries suspected it was impossible to sail around the entire globe—and feared that everything from sea monsters to killer fogs awaited anyone foolhardy enough to try. “It sounded suicidal to do this,” says Bergreen.

The Portuguese nobleman was born Fernão de Magalhães around 1480. As a page to queen consort Eleanor and Manuel I, he experienced court life in Lisbon. But the young man had a sense of adventure, and took part in a string of Portuguese voyages designed to discover and seize lucrative spice routes in Africa and India.

At the time, Portugal and Spain were involved in an intense rivalry to see who could find and claim new territory where they could source the spices coveted by European aristocrats. In 1505, Magellan joined the fight, traveling to India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. But his days in service to Portugal were numbered: He was accused of illegal trading and fell out with Manuel I, who turned down his proposal to locate a new spice route.

Magellan was convinced that by sailing west instead of east and going through a rumored strait through South America, he could map a new route to Indonesia and India. So he abandoned his Portuguese loyalty and headed to Spain, where he gained both citizenship and Charles V’s blessing for a five-ship journey westward.

The captain stood to gain great wealth and status from the trip: Charles gave him a decade-long monopoly on any route he might discover, a cut of the profits, and a noble title to boot. But he was in an awkward position when it came to his majority-Spanish crew and his royal mission. “The Castilians resented sailing under a Portuguese commander and the Portuguese considered him a traitor,” writes historian Lincoln Paine.

A 16 th -century engraving depicts Magellan surrounded by mythological characters and fantastic animals and represents European views of the still-mysterious Americas.

After winter weather forced his ships to wait for months in what is now Argentina, Magellan’s crew mutinied. One ship wrecked; another ditched the expedition altogether and headed back to Spain. The captain struggled to regain control of his men, but once he did, the repercussions were swift and harsh. He ordered some of the mutineers beheaded and quartered; others were marooned or forced into hard labor.

The voyage got back on track and Magellan managed to navigate a treacherous passage that’s now named in his honor—the Strait of Magellan. But his troubles weren’t over. As the crew forged across the Pacific Ocean, food spoiled and scurvy and starvation struck . Magellan and his men briefly made landfall in what was likely Guam , where they killed indigenous people and burned their homes in response to the theft of a small boat.

A month later, the expedition reached the Philippines. To the crew’s surprise, Enrique, an enslaved man Magellan had purchased before the journey, could understand and speak the indigenous people’s language. It turned out he was likely raised there before his enslavement—making him, not Magellan, the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

Magellan swiftly claimed the Philippines on Spain’s behalf, but his involvement in what Bergreen calls an “unnecessary war” was his undoing. “He wasn’t defeated by natural forces,” says Bergreen.

In March 1521 the expedition reached the Philippines, where relations with the indigenous people (as depicted in this engraving) went from peacefully trading fruit to engaging in pitched battle. Magellan was killed on Mactan Island on April 27.

Instead, he demanded that local Mactan people convert to Christianity and became embroiled in a rivalry between Humabon and Lapu-Lapu, two local chieftains. On April 27, 1521, Magellan was killed by a poison arrow while attacking Lapu-Lapu’s people.

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They “all at once rushed upon him with lances of iron and of bamboo,” wrote Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian scholar who accompanied the journey, “so that they slew our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide.” The crew left his body behind—an indication, perhaps, of how they truly felt about their relentless leader.

After Magellan’s death, his crew continued in the single ship that remained, captained by Juan Sebastian Elcano, a Basque. They returned to Spain in September 1522. Along the way, they had encountered a new ocean, mapped new routes for European trade, and set the stage for modern globalism. Sixty thousand miles later, and after the death of 80 percent of those involved, the expedition had proven that the globe could be circumnavigated and opened the door to European colonization of the New World in the name of commerce.

A legend was born—and in 1989, one of Magellan’s namesakes even traveled to Venus. During a five-year-long journey, NASA’s Magellan spacecraft made images of the planet before burning up in its atmosphere.

But though Magellan’s name is associated with discovery by some, others shy away from that word. “When I write my textbook I will state that Magellan arrived in the Philippines in 1521,” says historian Ambeth Ocampo , former chairman of the Republic of the Philippines’ national historical commission. “Magellan should not be seen as the beginning of Philippine history but one event [in] a history that still has to be written and rewritten for a new generation.”

A 1545 map traces the route of Magellan's world voyage—a milestone in the centuries-long process of globalization.

For the indigenous people encountered by Magellan and his crew, the explorer’s arrival heralded a new age of conquest, Christianization, and colonization. Lapu-Lapu, the Mactan ruler whose forces killed Magellan, is often credited with slaying the explorer. As a result, notes Ocampo, he has become a national hero in the Philippines.

Though Lapu-Lapu likely did not do the deed, he is widely commemorated as a symbol of Filipino resistance and pride. Now, historians are working toward a more accurate portrayal ahead of the 500th anniversary of Magellan’s arrival in the Philippines. The government’s quincentennial celebrations in 2021 will include replacing a 10-foot statue of Lapu-Lapu in the city that bears his name. A monument that shows the battle itself—and the group effort that brought down an epic explorer—will take its place.

Should Magellan be considered a hero, or what Ocampo calls the Philippines’ “first tourist”? As Guam , the Philippines , Spain and even Portugal celebrate and question the quincentennial, the explorer’s legacy remains as complicated as ever.

Related Topics

• CIRCUMNAVIGATION
• AGE OF DISCOVERY
• INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
• CHRISTIANITY

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Magellan's Voyage and the Perspective of "Otherness"

Explore other cultural realities through the diary of antonio pigafetta, journalist of this first voyage around the world..

By Museo de América

Museo de América

View of the port of Seville (ca. 1600) Museo de América

The first expedition to voyage around the world, captained by Ferdinand Magellan, set sail on August 20, 1519 from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz, Spain). The larger ships could not sail the river Guadalquivir up to the city of Seville due to the sandbanks formed around its mouth.

The nationalities of the expedition's crew, which included the Italian Pigafetta, were extremely diverse. But it was only made up of men, as women were prohibited from joining the crew in order to prevent potential riots.

Cinnamon tree (1789/1794) by José Guio Museo de América

…to seek out and discover spices in the Maluku Islands. The aim of the journey was to reach the Spice Islands, today known as the Maluku Islands. Spices were used to season meat and fish, enhancing flavors or camouflaging those brought about by the conditions of storage. The search for spices continued into subsequent centuries. This image shows a drawing of the Ishpingo or cinnamon tree. This example is an Amazonian variety of cinnamon, of which the flowers—shown here—are used, unlike the Asian variety, of which the bark is used.

Pepper shaker (1600/1622) by MR Museo de América

Some of the most sought after condiments were clove, pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon, which were used to flavor delicious food and drinks. This silver spice rack was found in the Nuestra Señora de Atocha shipwreck, which sunk off the coast of Florida in 1622. This type of rack is called a turret. It is made up of different elements stacked on top of each other, with this dome-shaped pepper pot placed at the very top of the set.

Scarlet macaw (ca. 1942) Museo de América

Exotic Nature

Knowledge of the natural world and the use of its resources are themes that run throughout the diary of Pigafetta, as the purpose of his voyage was to locate valuable natural produce (spices) for selling.

Tridacna gigas shell Museo de América

The flesh of these two mollusks, respectively, weighed 26 and 44 pounds [more than 11.7 and almost 20 kilos]. Some previously unknown species caused surprise due to their giant size, such as these Pacific shells, which were first used in Spain as basins for holy water at the entrance to churches.

The expeditionaries exchanged various objects for food, live animals, and other products. In Brazil, they were interested in large macaws ( Ara sp.) and a species of golden lion tamarin monkey ( Leontopithecus rosalia ). These kinds of exotic animals became prized pets in Europe, reflecting the status of their owners. There are numerous portraits, particularly of women and children, with these animals, such as Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia and Magdalena Ruiz, by Alonso Sánchez Coello, in the Prado Museum (Museo Nacional del Prado).

Basket (20th Century) by Kayapó Museo de América

Visions of the Indigenous World

The meeting of societies that had had no previous contact had an enormous impact on the expeditionaries as well as the other cultures.

Population of the Napo River shore (1789/1794) Museo de América

Visions of the Indigenous World in America ...These people paint their entire body and face beautifully with fire and in other ways... The corporal appearance of the Amazonian communities was admired by the Europeans. These societies totally or partially covered their bodies with paint. The designs were not intended to look pretty, but rather were an expression of belonging to a specific group, or a protection against spiritual influences.

Canoe (1862/1865) Museo de América

They have boats carved out of a single piece of wood with stone tools, known as canoes. The tribes that live along the banks of the Amazon basin maintain a close relationship with the river. It is the main route for communication, a fundamental part of their beliefs, and an essential source of economic resources. The most efficient way to move along the river is via canoe. Traditionally, a tree trunk would be hollowed out using fire or hot stones, and the lack of metal meant that stone tools had to be used to carve out the inside.

The women work and carry all the food in wicker backpacks, or in baskets placed upon or tied to their heads. The expeditionaries saw how the Amazonian tribes organized a division of work based on gender and age. Women invested a large part of their day on gathering duties. In order to leave their hands free, they put the food they gathered in vegetable fiber baskets that they could carry on their backs, but tied with a belt around their front.

Bow (1867) by Ona (selk´nam) Museo de América

Within the division of labor by gender, the men of the groups that lived in the region of Patagonia were mainly dedicated to hunting guanaco ( Lama guanicoe ). Apart from the meat, they also used their skin and tendons for tools and clothing. The guanaco was a species previously unknown in Europe, which is why Pigafetta uses comparisons with other animals to describe it: the body and long neck of a camel, the hooves of a deer, and the tail of a horse. According to the author, it also imitates a horse's neigh.

Man from the Guam island (1789/1794) by Juan Ravenet Museo de América

Visions of the Pacific Indigenous Community After 100 days of traveling across the Pacific, and with an urgent need for food, they had a brief encounter with the inhabitants of the island of Guam. They named it the Island of Thieves due to the theft of a skiff from one of their boats. The absence of the concept of private property in these indigenous communities led to an unexpected clash of mindset. The behavior of these skilled navigators was not understood by the expeditionaries, and was met with violence until they were able to recover the valuable part of their vessel.

Peineta (Helu) (1775/1880) by Tonga Museo de América

These combs are one of the few elements of personal adornment that women would wear on their heads in some Polynesian societies such as Tonga. They are delicate pieces made from very thin rods obtained from the central spines of the coconut palm leaf, joined together with braided vegetable fibers, forming geometric designs. Following contact with western societies, some elements of the material culture changed in meaning, going from common use to being considered a symbol of higher social status.

Woman of the aeta group or "negritos" from the Manila mountains (19th Century) by Juan Ravenet Museo de América

Visions of the Asian Indigenous Community Journeying around the myriad islands allowed the expeditionaries to learn about the enormous ethnic diversity of the Philippine archipelago, which was populated by cultural groups with a wide variety of languages, customs, and physical appearances. Some societies, such as the Aeta people, have dark skin and were therefore known as blacks. This female portrait is a delicate study of the particular characteristics of the population of the mountainous region of Manila.

Bracelet (19th Century) by Kalinga Museo de América

In many societies of Oceania and Indonesia, pigs were one of the most prized animals, used as an element of prestige in exchanges. The teeth of the wild boar were especially valued by the men, who would use them to make bracelets, as in this case, but also pendants or even a nose adornment. Among the tribes in the north of the island of Luzon, defending these animals was considered a symbol of affluence and power.

Swords (Kalasag) (19th Century) by Bagobo Museo de América

Different Types of Relationships

Although the preferred relationship was one of commercial exchange, contacts with other populations sometimes led to tension, conflict, and confrontation.

Mirror (18th Century) Museo de América

Commercial Relationships All of our mirrors had broken and the few good ones were wanted by the King [King of Tidore, of the Maluku Islands]. The economic system was based on trade. The expeditionaries offered iron objects, knives, scissors, cloth, combs, bells, glass, and particularly mirrors, which were all considered curios. Obviously exchanges were established based on precisely the difference in the valuation criteria of the items, so that each party thought they were getting a good deal.

Carrier of Manila (1789/1794) by Juan Ravenet Museo de América

Following the arrival of the Spanish, the port of Manila became one of the most important centers of commercial activity in the world. Silver from American mines was exchanged for sought-after Asian products, which would end up in the houses of noblemen and the bourgeoisie across America and Europe. The presence in Manila of numerous Chinese traders, or Sangleys (those that came to trade) was essential to boost economic development and facilitate the necessary flow of merchandise with the Asian powerhouse.

Headdress (Aheto) (ca. 1993) by Karajá Museo de América

The Process of "Othering" They wrap themselves in clothing made from macaw feathers, with large rolls on their backside made with the longest feathers; they look ridiculous. The Amazonian cultures used feathers from various birds to make headdresses, bracelets, and skirts. These elements were used in special ceremonies, though not always understood or valued by western cultures. The feather objects were not held in high regard by the expeditionaries. Societies were categorized based on the complexity of their material culture, which marked the relationship established with them, and was used as a criterion to legitimize their domination.

Sword (19th Century) by Moros de Mindanao Museo de América

Throughout this voyage around the world, the expeditionaries made contact with different populations, and each required different types of relationships and exchange of different goods. In the text, distancing is justified with regard to these groups, marking them as "other" based on their religion (moors, pagans, and gentiles), their clothing, their economy, their way of life, and even their size (giant Patagonians). This sword, made by the moors of the Southern Philippines, and called kalis tulid, is an emblem of power and prestige for the chief, used both in battle and on parades.

Figure (Bulul) (19th Century) by Ifugao Museo de América

The expeditionaries observed the beliefs of the cultures that they came across along their voyage, but most were dismissed as idolism, and their representations burned. These types of anthropomorphic sculptures by the Ifugao culture, made from wood, represent the ancestral spirits, guardians of the granaries and houses, and invoke the protection of harvests, health, and prosperity.

Conflicts and Confrontations Weapons were highly valued objects by the western expeditionaries when they made contact with other cultures. They were used to profile a scale of value between societies, and to estimate the potential relationships that were possible between the parties. Wooden swords similar to these ( kalasag ) could have been used by the indigenous people who clashed with Magellan on the island of Mactán, which ended with the death of the captain. They stuffed hair from their defeated enemies around the edge of the ancient kalasag in order to appropriate their power and courage.

Spear (19th Century) by Malayo-filipino Museo de América

Bows and arrows with poisoned tips were common weapons among the Filipino indigenous communities. It was precisely one of these that caused the death of Ferdinand Magellan. In the Muslim communities of the Southern Philippines, known as moors, lances as well as swords were essential elements for face-to-face confrontations. They would use lances made from a metal sheet shaped into a lance, that could be finished with extended blades, and a handle made from a thick piece of bamboo or wood.

Morion (helmet) (19th Century) by Moros de Mindanao Museo de América

Filipinos had their own collections of arms, but they also started adapting new weapons following the European influx. For example, this bronze helmet is similar to the Hispanic morion, a military helmet typical of the second half of the 16th century. It may be an imitation, but is a version made by the moors of the Philippines. The differences that the expeditionaries found between other populations were an excuse for the violent interaction which took place: attacks, battles, and even kidnapping men and women considered different and "other."

Hammock (1862/1865) Museo de América

Cultural Influences

Contact with different groups led to the adoption, on both sides, of new customs, and the use of previously unknown objects.

Some Amazonian communities with a nomadic or semi-nomadic way of life required light tools that could be easily transported. A hammock is a lightweight netting made from vegetable fiber. It is hung at each end from two strong posts, to allow a person to rest while preventing contact with the floor. The position of the body in the hammock avoids any pressure points, and aids venous return. The relaxation of the soft swinging, and the sensation of weightlessness, led to these items being distributed to other cultures in warm environments, or regions of high humidity.

Cockfight (1789/1794) by Tomás de Suría Museo de América

They have large, domestic roosters, but they do not eat them; rather they worship them, although they also make them fight… Hens are not native to America, and so it is surprising that these domestic birds have been described there from very early dates. The breeding of European chickens spread from the Antilles to many indigenous groups in Brazil. However, another route that these birds took to America was via the Pacific, from Asia and Polynesia, where white-feathered hens were bred for rituals, and in some cases for cock fights; a tradition that made its way to Mexico.

Curation and texts: Beatriz Robledo Sanz, Andrés Gutiérrez Usillos Coordination: Susana Alcalde Amieva Photographs: Joaquin Otero, Gonzalo Cases Museo de América This exhibition is part of the First Voyage Around the World project.

The Asian Influence on American Arts

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Journal of Magellan's Voyage

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library > Journal of Magellan's Voyage

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Manuscript on parchment (fine) of A journal of Ferdinand Magellan's voyage around the world in 1522, written by Antonio Pigafetta (ca. 1480/91 - ca. 1534), an Italian gentleman from Vincenza who survived the trip. Beinecke MS 351, the text of which is divided into 57 numbered chapters, is the most complete and most handsomely produced manuscript of the four surviving witnesses to the text; the original, probably in Italian, is now lost

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First Around the World. A Journal of Magellan’s Voyage

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William F. E. Morley; First Around the World. A Journal of Magellan’s Voyage. Hispanic American Historical Review 1 August 1967; 47 (3): 456–457. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-47.3.456b

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For every volume published on Magellan in English since the World War, five have appeared on Columbus; yet Magellan’s voyage stands as the greatest feat of navigation in history. Sanderlin’s new book is thus a welcome addition to the small shelf of “Mageliana.” Though written for the young student, the work will have a far wider interest, for the author makes history not only absorbing but downright exciting.

A twenty-six-page introduction in easy conversational style places Magellan’s life in the context of sixteenth-century navigational and geographical knowledge, rivalries, restlessness, and avarice. The “journal” which follows is pieced together from various sources, largely, of course, the account of Antonio Pigafetta, but beginning with the letter of Maximilian Transylvanus (which precedes Pigafetta in Ramusio) and a passage from Las Casas. Next are several contemporary documents, including part of Magellan’s second will, and there are excerpts from Gaspar Corrêa’s Lendas da India , from the account of an unknown Genoese pilot with Magellan’s fleet, and from the Deroteiro of another pilot, probably Francisco Albo. Though the captaingeneral did not survive to tell his own tale, there is fortunately no dearth of contemporary accounts. Drawing from these, Sanderlin begins with Magellan’s voyage as an idea, carries the reader briefly through the anxious years of planning to the voyage itself, and to the eventual return of a single vessel to Seville, completing the circumnavigation.

Achieving a smooth and continuous narrative from the mixed and often inconsistent sources has required a large measure of creative skill. The device used is a series of connecting explanatory notes and commentaries, set off in smaller type. The sources are carefully identified in the commentaries, but some of them might have been more closely related to the appended bibliography and their present location indicated. Unlike the rest of the book, the bibliography will be of value only to the student. Since bibliographies of Magellan are few, a fuller one than this would have been useful.

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Magellan's Voyage around the World . By Antonio Pigafetta . Original text, with translation, notes and bibliography by James Alexander Robertson. (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company. 1906. Two volumes, and index-volume. Pp. 273; 313; 88)

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James A. Leroy, Magellan's Voyage around the World . By Antonio Pigafetta . Original text, with translation, notes and bibliography by James Alexander Robertson. (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company. 1906. Two volumes, and index-volume. Pp. 273; 313; 88), The American Historical Review , Volume 12, Issue 1, October 1906, Pages 125–126, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/12.1.125

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Magellan's Voyage Around the World

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