Magellan–Elcano expedition completes the first circumnavigation
- Date
- 1519–1522
- Category
- Exploration & colonisation
- Region
- Global (Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans); Spain
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
Between 1519 and 1522 a Spanish expedition achieved the first circumnavigation of the globe. Five ships and about 270 men left Seville on 20 September 1519 under the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, seeking a westward route to the Spice Islands.
The fleet discovered the strait at South America's tip that bears Magellan's name, crossed and named the Pacific Ocean during a gruelling 98-day passage, and reached the Philippines, where Magellan was killed in 1521. Command eventually passed to the Basque navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, who brought the sole surviving ship, Victoria, back to Spain on 6 September 1522 with only eighteen of the original crew. The voyage proved empirically that the Earth could be circled by sea and revealed the true vastness of the Pacific, transforming European understanding of the planet's scale. It also opened a Spanish route to the East and intensified Iberian rivalry over the spice-rich Moluccas.
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Empires active in 1519–1522
- Songhai Empire1464 CE – 1591 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Inca Empire1438 CE – 1533 CE
- Aztec Empire1428 CE – 1521 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
Related exploration & colonisation events
- Afonso de Albuquerque captures Goa and founds the Estado da Índia1510
- Spanish Conquest of the Philippines and Founding of Colonial Manila24 June 1571
- Torres Navigates the Strait Between New Guinea and AustraliaOctober 1606
- Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America14 May 1607
- Champlain founds Quebec and New France3 July 1608
- The Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony and the Mayflower CompactNovember 1620
Further reading
The wider story
The Penguin History of the World
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