The Magellan Expedition

• ·         Ferdinand Magellan

  -          Born in 1480 in Sabrosa, Portugal to Rui de Magalhaes and Alda de Mesquita

  -          Ties to the royal family, allowed him the opportunity to become educated and learn about the various Portuguese exploration expeditions
• ·         Ferdinand Magellan

  -          Proposed to the king of Portugal, King Manuel his plan to travel a westward route to the Moluccas

  -          The king refused and even cancelled his promotion because of charges of financial irregularities while he was in Morocco

  -          Disgusted by the king’s response, he renounced his Portuguese citizenship. He went to Spain in 1517 and offered his services to King Charles I
• ·         Ferdinand Magellan

  -          Encourage by the competition to win against Portugal in obtaining high priced spices. Spain commissioned Magellan to find a route to Moluccas by sailing west

  Such passage would be beneficial to Spain for Portugal controlled the eastward route to the East Indies around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope
• Preparation: The Fleet

  ·         September 20, 1519

  -          A royal commission was sent, allowing Magellan to head the expedition

  ·         The Spanish Armada de Molucca consisted of five ships with 237 men:

  Ø  Santiago – Juan Rodriguez Serrano

  Ø  San Antonio – Juan de Cartagena

  Ø  Conception – Gaspar de Quesada

  Ø  Trinidad (flagship) – Ferdinand Magellan (Captain General)

  Ø  Victoria – Louis de Mendoza
• Preparation: The Fleet

  ·         September 20, 1519

  -          A royal commission was sent, allowing Magellan to head the expedition
• ·         The Spanish Armada de Molucca consisted of five ships with 237 men:

  Ø  Santiago – Juan Rodriguez Serrano

  Ø  San Antonio – Juan de Cartagena

  Ø  Conception – Gaspar de Quesada

  Ø  Trinidad (flagship) – Ferdinand Magellan (Captain General)

  Ø  Victoria – Louis de Mendoza
• The Crew

  -          237 men from several nations: including Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, Germans, Flemish, Greeks, English and French

  -          40 Portuguese, among them Magellan’s brother-in-law Duarte Barbosa, Joao Serrao a relative of Francisco Serrao, Estevao Gomes and also Magellan’s indentured servant Enrique of Malacca
• ·         Juan Sebastian del Cano

  -          A Spanish merchant ship captain settled at Seville

  -          Embarked seeking the king’s pardon for previous misdeeds
• ·         Antonio Pigafetta

  -          A venetian scholar and traveller

  -          Had asked to be on the voyage accepting the tile of “supernumery” and a modest salary

  -          Strict assistant of Magellan and keeping an accurate journal
• ·         Father Pedro de Valderrama – fleet Chaplain
• ·         September 20, 1519

  -          Departure from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain
• ·         March 17, 1521

  -          Magellan and his fleet landed at Homonhom Island
• ·         March 28, 1521

  -          The fleet landed at Limasawa (Island at Southern Leyte). It was ruled by Rajah Kolambu. He was fascinated by the suit of armor of the Spaniards. They could help them win their battles against their enemies
• ·         March 29, 1521

  -          Rajah Kolambu decided to seal their new friendship and performed the “kasi-kasi” or blood compact ceremony with Ferdinand Magellan
• ·         March 31, 1521

  -          The first Catholic Mass was held at Limasawa with Rev. Father Pedro De Valderrama, officiating
• ·         April 7, 1521

  -          Magellan together with Rajah Kolambu, the Spanish and native fleets landed on Sugbu (now Cebu)

  -          Humabon made a blood compact with Magellan after the later had won his trust and friendship
• ·         April 14, 1521

  -          Mass on the shore of Cebu was held with Rajah Humabon and his people attending the ceremony

  -          Magellan planted a huge wooden cross and gave an image of the Child Jesus as a gift to the wife of Rajah Humabon (renamed Queen Juana after baptism taken from the name of the mother of King Charles I of Spain)
• ·         April 14, 1521

  -          About 800 Filipinos participated in the mass and underwent ritual baptism

  -          Humabon (renamed Carlos), Magellan made him the king’s representative in Cebu and promised to unite the local chieftains under his authority. Magellan likewise tried to impose Christianity and Spanish sovereignty on local chieftains

  -          The mass and baptism was officiated by Fr. Pedro de Valderama
• ·         Lapu Lapu

  -          Another chieftain of Mactan

  -          Refused to accept the new political system and pay tribute to the Spaniards

  -          Humabon and Lapu lapu were enemies and he wanted Magellan to kill Lapu-Lapu while Magellan waned to convert Lapu-Lapu to Christianity
• ·         April 27, 1521 – The Battle of Mactan
• ·         May 1, 1521

  -          The natives of Cebu carried the plan to massacre them

  -          While the Europeans were attending a banquet prepared for them by Rajah Humabon, the warriors attacked tehm

  -          Twenty-nine Spaniards were killed

  -          The remaining members of the expedition were forced to flee the islands before the Cebuanos could kill them all

  -          They burned the ship Conception for lack of men to operate the vessel

  -          With two ships left – Trinidad and Victoria they continued their voyage to Moluccas
• ·         November 8, 1521

  -          Landed in Tidore island in Moluccas

  -          Able to secure a rich cargo of spices

  -          Survivors decided that the Trinidad, led by Gomez de Espinosa, would sail back to Spain by crossing the Pacific to Panama, while the Victoria, under Juan Sebastian del Cano’s command would sail via Cape of Good Hope, but on lower latitude to avoid the Portuguese

  -          The Victoria crossed the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope
• ·         September 6, 1522

  -          The Victoria reached Lucar, Spain with only 18 survivors

  -          The voyage around the world lasted 2 years, 11 months and 16 days

  -          The cargo of cloves sold for such a high price that it was more than sufficient to pay for the expenses of Magellan’s expedition
• Significance of the Magellan Expedition

  -          Magellan’s voyage vastly increased the geographical knowledge of mankind and proved once and for all that the earth is round

  -          Showed that it was possible to sail around the world, and left a record of how to do it

  -          Magellan’s voyage can be considered as the greatest single trip ever undertaken

  -          The route he took to reach the Philippines was entirely new, and the Venetian monopoly of the trade route to the east was thus broken
• Significance of the Magellan Expedition

  -          Spain became the supreme power in the building of a colonial empire

  -          His discovery of the Philippines brought the archipelago into the awareness of Europe

  -          The voyage paved the way to Spanish colonization and Christianization of the Philippines. The later voyages of Fernando de Villalobos and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, to a certain extent, owed their success to Magellan’s voyage to the Far East