Volta
Exploration20 September 1519 – 6 September 1522

Magellan–Elcano Circumnavigation

Also called: First circumnavigation of the world, Magellan expedition

Sponsored by Spain, Magellan’s fleet crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific westward. Magellan died in the Philippines, but Elcano brought the last ship home, completing the first voyage around the world.

Magellan’s ship Victoria, as drawn on Ortelius’s map of the Pacific (1589)
Magellan’s ship Victoria, as drawn on Ortelius’s map of the Pacific (1589)

Abraham Ortelius · Public domain · Source

Seeking a westward route to the Spice Islands (Moluccas), Magellan sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in September 1519 with five ships and some 270 men. Following the South American coast, he passed through the strait that bears his name in October–November 1520, and crossed a vast ocean amid starvation and scurvy, naming it the Pacific. He reached the Philippines in March 1521 but was killed on Mactan in April. Elcano took the Victoria to the Moluccas, loaded spices and sailed home across the Indian Ocean and round the Cape of Good Hope, arriving with eighteen men on 6 September 1522. The voyage demonstrated that the oceans were connected and first revealed the immense size of the Pacific.

Show on the map

The map in 1519

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States at the time
Spain · sponsor
Places
Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Strait of Magellan, Mactan

People

  • 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

  • Juan Sebastián Elcano1526

    commander · Basque Spanish navigator who brought the Victoria home in 1522 after Magellan’s death, completing the first circumnavigation

  • Charles V1500 – 1558

    monarch · King of Spain (as Charles I) and Holy Roman Emperor, who sponsored Magellan’s voyage and under whom the Aztec and Inca empires were conquered

1 part of this event

  1. 1521Battle of Mactan

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

Before and after

Earlier
1510 Portuguese Capture of Goa and Malacca
Later
1540 Founding of the Society of Jesus

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