Volta
Conflict27 April 1521

Battle of Mactan

Lapulapu, chief of Mactan in the Philippines, repelled Magellan, who had come demanding baptism and submission. Magellan was killed in the fight.

Reaching the Philippines in March 1521, Magellan baptised Rajah Humabon of Cebu and resolved to attack neighbouring Mactan, which refused to submit to the Spanish king. On 27 April he landed with about fifty men, but with shallow reefs keeping his ships’ guns out of range he was surrounded by more than a thousand warriors under Lapulapu and killed. The Philippines honours Lapulapu as its first hero against foreign rule.

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States at the time
Spain · defeated
Places
Mactan

People

  • Lapulapu

    commander · Chief of Mactan who defeated Magellan in 1521; honoured in the Philippines as the first hero to resist foreign rule

  • Ferdinand Magellan1480 – 1521

    commander · Portuguese-born navigator who, sponsored by Spain, sailed west for the Spice Islands and was killed on Mactan in the Philippines in 1521

Themes that include this event

  • The Age of Discovery1415 – 1600

    From Ceuta to the Manila galleons — two centuries in which European ships crossed the oceans and bound the world together by sea