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Ferdinand Magellan

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Spring 1480 – April 27, 1521) was a Portuguese maritime explorer who, at the service of Spain, led the first successful attempt at world circumnavigation. He did not complete his final, westward voyage, but was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines. Of the 237 crew members who set out with Magellan in August 1519, only 18 managed to return to Spain and thereby complete the circumnavigation in September 1522.^[1].

Magellan was the first to reach Asia by sailing westward from Europe, the objective of the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492, which led to the discovery of the American continents. Magellan was also the first navigator to cross the vast Pacific Ocean, nearly four times the expanse of the Atlantic and first discovered by the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa less than 10 years previously. The voyage of 14,460 leagues (69,800 kilometers or 43,400 miles) provided conclusive evidence of the true circumference of the earth.

Magellan's successful expedition during the Age of Discovery opened up of the whole globe to European exploration and colonization. During the centuries that followed, European colonizers would remold the world, spreading Christianity while often abusing indigenous peoples and exploiting colonial populations. Yet Magellan's discovery helped establish the notion that all the peoples of the earth share one globe and a common humanity.

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