Ferdinand Magellan: Biography, Achievements & Lasting Legacy

Granted special powers and privileges by the king, he led the Armada from Sanlúcar de Barrameda southwest across the Atlantic Ocean, to the eastern coast of South America, and south to Patagonia. Despite a series of storms and mutinies, the expedition successfully passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Mar del Sur, which Magellan renamed the Mar Pacifico, or Pacific Ocean. The expedition landed at Guam after an arduous crossing of the Pacific, and then reached the Philippines. There, on 27 April 1521, Magellan died in the Battle of Mactan after being shot in the neck with a poison arrow. Under the command of Captain Juan Sebastián Elcano, the expedition finally reached the Spice Islands. The fleet's two remaining ships then parted ways, one attempting, unsuccessfully, to reach New Spain by sailing east across the Pacific. The other ship, commanded by Elcano, sailed west across the Indian Ocean and north along the Atlantic coast of Africa, finally returning to Spain in September 1522.

While in the Kingdom of Portugal's service, Magellan had already reached the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia on previous voyages traveling east (from 1505 to 1511–1512). By visiting this area again but now traveling west, Magellan achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.