Around the world in 1,082 days

A Q&A with historian Antonio Feros reflecting on the 500th anniversary of

Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, and how the voyage shaped
both the 16th century and today.

On Sept. 20, 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, with five ships and a
crew of 270 men, set sail from Sanlucar de Barrameda in southern Spain, on what
would become the first circumnavigation of the world. Magellan himself died
during the tumultuous three year voyage, with Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano
completing the journey from the Phillipines back to Spain with a final crew of only
18 men. Despite Magellan’s tragic end, his legacy has become synonymous with
exploration and geography—including the Strait in South America that still bears
his name. 
To reflect on the 500th anniversary of the Magellan-Elcano
circumnavigation, Penn Today sat down with Antonio Feros, who specializes in
the history of early modern Spain. Feros shares his insights on the state of the
world in 1519, the political and economic factors that motivated this challenging
journey, and what Magellan’s legacy looks like today. 

What was Spain, and Europe as a whole, like in the year 1519?
In 1519, Spain was, in many ways, the political superpower in Europe. Its ruling
king, Charles I,  was also the Holy Roman Emperor, under the name of Charles V.
Charles was the head of the pan-European Habsburg dynasty, and by 1519, the
Spanish monarchy under Charles I, was also acquiring and conquering enormous
overseas territories in the Americas. In 1519, Hernán Cortés also initiated his
voyages that will end with the defeat of the Mexica empire in 1521.  
But this was also a period of profound divisions and competitions. By 1519, the
religious split provoked by Martin Luther’s challenges to the Pope’s authority were
already provoking political and religious divisions in every European polity, with
the exception of Portugal and Spain. This was also a time when the powerful
Ottoman empire challenged the European polities, and the Hapsburgs’ attempts to
extend their power and influence to the Mediterranean and Northern Africa.  
Because of profound religious and political crises, almost no European country had
the ability to enter the process of political expansion. Only Spain and Portugal
were involved in a sustained process of overseas expansions, which started already
in the early fifteenth century.  
Magellan was Portuguese, but Spain ended up supporting his circumnavigation.
Why did that happen?
Magellan did a lot of voyages to many of the settlements that the Portuguese were
creating around India. When he came back to Portugal after a grueling few years
sailing and fighting in Asia, he felt that the Portuguese crown did not give the
honors and respect he believed he truly deserved. It was in this context that he
offered his service to the Spanish king, his knowledge of the Asian powers, trading
networks, and maritime routes.  
His action was not something unique in the period. Europe was dominated by
dynasties and monarchies and they attracted the personal loyalty of many
individuals from many regional origins. Maybe to the Portuguese king and part of
the aristocracy Magellan was a traitor, but for the Spaniards he was simply serving
a new king, a new master.
What did Spain hope to gain from Magellan’s voyage?
There was strong competition between Spain and Portugal to dominate different
parts of the world, and Magellan’s voyage has quite a lot to do with this
competition, not so much with scientific or geographic knowledge. 
By the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, and other pacts, Portugal and Spain
agreed on the need to regulate the various spheres of geopolitical influence. Spain
got the monopoly of expeditions and control over all territories they encountered
going west—towards the land we now know as America. Portugal in turn received
a monopoly over trading routes and territories in the south and east. In many ways,
both polities decided to divide the entire world into two areas of influence: one
controlled by the Portuguese, including Africa and Asia; the other controlled by the
Spanish monarchy, encompassing almost the entire American continent, and some
areas in the Pacific and Asia.  
There were, however, some points of contention among both monarchies. One was
Brazil, where Spaniards and Portuguese would disagree for centuries about the
extension of their power. More important were the disagreements on the other side
of the world, in Asia, the rich land of trading. The disagreements resulted from the
inability to clearly delimit the areas of influence assigned by the Treaty of
Tordesillas. The Portuguese believed they had a monopoly over trade and
settlement in all important trading centers, and the Spaniards believed some of
these areas belonged to their king according to the treaty. 
It is in this context that Magellan offered a plan that, respecting the agreement,
would give Spain the right to trade and settlement in areas that, until that moment,
were controlled by the Portuguese. His proposal was simply to cross the Americas
and get to Asia through the back door. The Spanish ruler was evidently happy to
hear this, because it would allow his subjects, merchants, and sailors to become
players in the wealthiest economic center of the world. 
What made this three-year journey particularly challenging?
They already knew that there was a continent between Europe and Asia—the New
World, or how Spaniards liked to call it, the Indies. But they didn’t know exactly
the extension of this continent, in the north or the south, or whether or not there
was a clear passage that would allow sailors to cross to the Pacific. In many senses,
they had no idea where they were going, the distance between America and Asia,
what were the challenges, and the dangers, or how long it would take them.
Compared to the Magellan’s voyage, the Portuguese navigation through the south
and east passage, was relatively simple. It was dangerous, it took a long time and
many lives, but it was relatively known and predictable.  
Magellan’s enterprise was of a different quality—open oceans, difficult passages,
difficult weather, diseases, discontent, and rebellions within his tripulation. At least
one ship and many men were already lost before crossing the passage that lead
them to the Pacific. Once in the Pacific, they encountered new challenges, new
dangers, more diseases, more deaths, and conflicts with local powers. They were
pioneers in traveling regions and areas unknown to Europeans until then, and they
did this with relatively primitive tools.  
How did the completion of the circumnavigation shape the rest of the 16th
century?
Magellan’s voyage definitively demonstrated that the globe was round, and in
reflecting about this voyage, some geographers started to better understand the
globe, the various regions of the world. The ‘Universal Map’ drawn by Diogo
Ribero in 1529 is clear proof of this.  
But these were the unintended consequences of Magellan’s voyage. His was not a
scientific expedition, it was a commercial and political expedition, an intent by the
Spanish monarchy to enter into the wealthy Asian trade, dominated until then by
the Portuguese. Magellan was a sailor, a man serving a king, not a geographer or a
scholar. He wanted to discover a route that gave the Spanish monarchy economic
power and political influence, but he was not interested in the advancement of
geography, or science. He never wrote any treatise about the geography, or the
world—mapmakers did that. He was thinking and acting as a man of state. 
The real consequences of his voyage were economic and commercial: It allowed
the Spanish to establish commercial routes between its colonies in the Americas
and the territories they ended controlling in Asia—like the commercial route
between the Philippines and Acapulco in Mexico, ‘the Manila Galleons,’ which
lasted for more than two centuries. It also accelerated the connections between the
various regions of the world. 
By the mid-1500s, as a consequence of Magellan’s voyage and many others after
him, Europeans became aware that Spanish and Portuguese explorations had
ushered in the first period of globalization in the history of humanity. As the
French writer Louis Le Roy wrote in 1577, thanks to these voyages and
expeditions ‘all humans can now exchange commodities with one another and
provide for each other’s dearth, like residents of one city and one republic of the
world.’
Now, with 500 years to reflect, what does Magellan’s legacy look like today? Do
Spain and Portugal see him differently?
Magellan was, for the Portuguese, unimportant compared to other explorers, but in
Spain Magellan-Elcano’s circumnavigation is celebrated as a moment in discovery
and in the history of Spain and the world. There is no doubt that his experience
allowed people to think about geography, about global trade, and about human
diversity in ways that were impossible before.  
But one has the feeling that the commemorations around Magellan’s voyage go
beyond the celebration of the man and his real accomplishments. What is being
celebrated seem to me is not the man but a country, Spain. Magellan’s voyage did
not have important effects during his time, but for Spain, it seems to represent that
at some point in history the country was the world’s pioneer in scientific and
geographic exploration, and that for long periods of time, they were interested not
only on conquering and economic exploitation, but also in the promotion and
funding of scientific progress.

What was the first trip around the globe?

Magellan-Elcano Expedition
The