Reflection Paper

Magellan’s First Circumnavigation of the Earth

The great Era of European exploration began in the late 1400’s. It was started
by the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian sailors traveling to the unknown New
World with dangers and discoveries. Fast east contains different spices. The
value of spices was the same amount of gold and controlling the trade of spices
results into large amount of wealth. Ferdinand Magellan, a 38 years old brilliant
navigator who spent a lot of year sailing the Indian Ocean. Magellan stated that
it is possible to reach the Spice Island by sailing around the New World from
the east. Magellan travels with a crew of 270 people and 5 ships given by King
Charles.

The fleet set sail on September 20, 1519 crossing the Atlantic Ocean and
reaching the Rio de Janeiro. A mutiny started among their crew thinking that the
expedition will lead to their doom. Magellan started to solve this situation by
capturing and executing its ring leader. After this incident, one of the ships was
wrecked, the Santiago. Luckily the crew were saved from the wreckage. One of
the ships, the San Antonio sailed home.

Magellan discovered a straight passage thus naming the Straight of

Magellan and leads to the Pacific Ocean. Traveling across the Pacific, their
supplies ran out, others were forced to eat rat and 19 among the crew died of
starving. After 99 days in Pacific, they spotted the land of Guam but the people
in Guam stole their boat.

After a week, Magellan and his crew became the first Europeans to reach
the Philippines. Magellan sailed through the Philippines to Cebu where they
created an alliance with the local ruler. A local chief from Mactan ask for
Magellan’s help to defeat the other chieftain named Lapu-Lapu. Magellan
agreed and crossed the Mactan with 60 men. Magellan and his men may have
superior armors and weapons, but they were outnumbered forcing them to
retreat. Magellan were cut down while retreating. His crew were ambushed by
their former allies and 30 of his men died in the ambush. The remaining
survivors fled, and they burn the Conception ship.

After 2 years with the help of local guides, they reach their destination,
the Spice or Maluku Islands. They trade everything they had for their ships
could carry. But as they headed for home, the Trinidad had leak for repair
leaving it behind with its crew. After the repair, the Trinidad try to return but
most of the men died and they are forced to return to the Maluku island. The
Victoria sailed west for home captained by Juan Sebastian Elcano. It took 9
weeks before the reach the Cape of Good Hope. 21 men died upon reaching
Cape Verde. The crew reach the Port of Spain of September 8, 1522. 18 men
among the 270 crew only remain and headed home.

Their expedition is astounding and astonishing as Magellan’s crew were

the first to circumnavigate and prove the world is a sphere. It was an amazing
feat that is not repeated in 58 years until the expedition of Francis Drake.