Lesson 3

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. Analyze the content, context, and perspective of the document.
2. Discuss Magellan - Elcano expedition and experience based on the journal.
3. Explain the importance of Pigafetta’s account on the study of Philippine history.

MAGELLAN’S VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD

In search of fame and fortune, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521) set out
from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands.
En route he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first
European to cross the Pacific Ocean. The voyage was long and dangerous, and only one ship
returned home three years later. Although it was laden with valuable spices from the East, only
18 of the fleet’s original crew of 270 returned with the ship. Magellan himself was killed in
battle on the voyage, but his ambitious expedition proved that the globe could be circled by sea
and that the world was much larger than had previously been imagined.

Ferdinand Magellan’s Early Years

Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480–1521) was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, to a family of minor
Portuguese nobility. At age 12 Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães in Portuguese and
Fernando de Magallanes in Spanish) and his brother Diogo traveled to Lisbon to serve as pages
at Queen Leonora’s court. While at the court Magellan was exposed to stories of the great
Portuguese and Spanish rivalry for sea exploration and dominance over the spice trade in the
East Indies, especially the Spice Islands, or Moluccas, in modern Indonesia. Intrigued by the
promise of fame and riches, Magellan developed an interest in maritime discovery in those early
years.

In 1505, Magellan and his brother were assigned to a Portuguese fleet headed for India. Over the
next seven years, Magellan participated in several expeditions in India and Africa and was
wounded in several battles. In 1513 he joined the enormous 500-ship, 15,000-soldier force sent
by King Manuel to Morocco to challenge the Moroccan governor who refused to pay its yearly
tribute to the Portuguese empire. The Portuguese easily overwhelmed the Moroccan forces, and
Magellan stayed on in Morocco. While there he was seriously wounded in a skirmish, which left
him with a limp for the rest of his life.

Magellan: From Portugal to Spain

In the 15th century, spices were at the epicenter of the world economy, much like oil is today.
Highly valued for flavoring and preserving food as well as masking the taste of meat gone bad,
spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and especially black pepper were extremely valuable. Since
spices could not be cultivated in cold and arid Europe, no effort was spared to discover the
quickest sea route to the Spice Islands. Portugal and Spain led the competition for early control
over this critical commodity. Europeans had reached the Spice Islands by sailing east, but none
had yet to sail west from Europe to reach the other side of the globe. Magellan was determined to
be the first to do so.

By now an experienced seaman, Magellan approached King Manuel of Portugal to seek his
support for a westward voyage to the Spice Islands. The king refused his petition repeatedly. In
1517, a frustrated Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and relocated to Spain to seek
royal support for his venture.

When Magellan arrived in Seville in October 1517, he had no connections and spoke little
Spanish. He soon met another transplanted Portuguese named Diogo Barbosa, and within a year
he had married Barbosa’s daughter Beatriz, who gave birth to their son Rodrigo a year later. The
well-connected Barbosa family introduced Magellan to officers responsible for Spain’s maritime
exploration, and soon Magellan secured an appointment to meet the king of Spain.

The grandson of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who had funded Christopher Columbus’s
expedition to the New World in 1492, received Magellan’s petition with the same favor shown
by his grandparents. Just 18 years old at the time, King Charles I granted his support to
Magellan, who in turn promised the young king that his westward sea voyage would bring
immeasurable riches to Spain.

Strait of Magellan
On August 10, 1519 Magellan bade farewell to his wife and young son, neither of whom he
would ever see again, and the Armada De Moluccas set sail. Magellan commanded the lead ship
Trinidad and was accompanied by four other ships: The San Antonio, the Conception, the
Victoria and the Santiago. The expedition would prove long and arduous, and only one ship, the
Victoria, would return home three years later, carrying a mere 18 of the fleet’s original crew of
270.

In September 1519 Magellan’s fleet sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, and crossed the
Atlantic Ocean, which was then known simply as the Ocean Sea. The fleet reached South
America a little more than one month later. There the ships sailed southward, hugging the coast
in search of the fabled strait that would allow passage through South America. The fleet stopped
at Port San Julian where the crew mutinied on Easter Day in 1520. Magellan quickly quelled the
uprising, executing one of the captains and leaving another mutinous captain behind. Meanwhile
Magellan had sent the Santiago to explore the route ahead, where it was shipwrecked during a
terrible storm. The ship’s crew members were rescued and assigned out among the remaining
ships. With those disastrous events behind them, the fleet left Port San Julian five months later
when fierce seasonal storms abated.

On October 21, 1520 Magellan finally entered the strait that he had been seeking and that came
to bear his name. The voyage through the Strait of Magellan was treacherous and cold, and many
sailors continued to mistrust their leader and grumble about the dangers of the journey ahead. In
the early days of the navigation of the strait, the crew of the San Antonio forced its captain to
desert, and the ship turned and fled across the Atlantic Ocean back to Spain. At this point, only
three of the original five ships remained in Magellan’s fleet.
Magellan: Circumnavigating the Globe
After more than a month spent traversing the strait, Magellan’s remaining armada emerged in
November 1520 to behold a vast ocean before them. They were the first known Europeans to see
the great ocean, which Magellan named Mar Pacifico, the Pacific Ocean, for its apparent
peacefulness, a stark contrast to the dangerous waters of the strait from which he had just
emerged. In fact, extremely rough waters are not uncommon in the Pacific Ocean, where
tsunamis, typhoons and hurricanes have done serious damage to the Pacific Islands and Pacific
Rim nations throughout history.

Little was known about the geography beyond South America at that time, and Magellan
optimistically estimated that the trip across the Pacific would be rapid. In fact, it took three
months for the fleet to make its way slowly across the vast Mar Pacifico. The days dragged on as
Magellan’s crew anxiously waited to utter the magic words “Land, ho!” At last, the fleet reached
the Pacific island of Guam in March 1521, where they finally replenished their food stores.

Magellan’s fleet then sailed on to the Philippine archipelago landing on the island of Cebu,
where Magellan befriended the locals and, struck with a sudden religious zeal, sought to convert
them to Christianity. Magellan was now closer than ever to reaching the Spice Islands, but when
the Cebu asked for his help in fighting their neighbors on the island of Mactan, Magellan agreed.
He assumed he would command a swift victory with his superior European weapons, and against
the advice of his men, Magellan himself led the attack. The Mactanese fought fiercely, and
Magellan fell when he was shot with a poison arrow. Ferdinand Magellan died on April 27,
1521.

Magellan would never make it to the Spice Islands, but after the loss of yet another of his fleet’s
vessels, the two remaining ships finally reached the Moluccas on November 5, 1521. In the end,
only the Victoria completed the voyage around the world and arrived back in Seville, Spain, in
September 1522 with a heavy cargo of spices but with only 18 men from the original crew,
including Italian scholar and explorer Antonio Pigafetta. The journal Pigafaetta kept on the
voyage is a key record of what the crew encountered on their journey home.

Impact of Ferdinand Magellan

Seeking riches and personal glory, Magellan’s daring and ambitious voyage around the world
provided the Europeans with far more than just spices. Although the trip westward from Europe
to the east via the Strait of Magellan had been discovered and mapped, the journey was too long
and dangerous to become a practical route to the Spice Islands. Nevertheless, European
geographic knowledge was expanded immeasurably by Magellan’s expedition. He found not
only a massive ocean, hitherto unknown to Europeans, but he also discovered that the earth was
much larger than previously thought. Finally, although it was no longer believed that the earth
was flat at this stage in history, Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe empirically discredited
the medieval theory conclusively.

Though Magellan is often credited with the first circumnavigation on the globe, he did so on a
technicality: He first made a trip from Europe to the Spice Islands, eastward via the Indian
Ocean, and then later made his famous westward voyage that brought him to the Philippines. So
he did cover the entire terrain, but it was not a strict point A to point A, round-the-world trip, and
it was made in two different directions. His slave, Enrique, however, was born in either Cebu or
Mallaca and came to Europe with Magellan by ship. Ten years later, he then returned to both
Cebu (with Magellan) and Mallaca (after Magellan died) by ship on the armada’s westward
route. So Enrique was the first person to circumnavigate the world in one direction, from point A
to point A.

https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/ferdinand-magellan
https://bit.ly/3aB3yTq

Spanish Expeditions to the Philippines

The Magellan Expedition

Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese in the service of the Spanish crown, was looking for a
westward route to the to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. On March 16, 1521, Magellan's
expedition landed on Homonhon island in the Philippines. He was the first European to reach the
islands. Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly with Magellan and embraced Christianity, but
their enemy, Lapu-Lapu was not. Humabon wanted Magellan to kill Lapu-Lapu while Magellan
wanted to convert Lapu-Lapu into Christianity. On April 17, 1521, Magellan sailed to Mactan
and ensuing battle killed Magellan by the natives lead by Lapu-Lapu. Out of the five ships and
more than 300 men who left on the Magellan expedition in 1519, only one ship (the Victoria)
and 18 men returned to Seville, Spain on September 6, 1522. Nevertheless, the said expedition
was considered historic because it marked the first circumnavigation of the globe and proved that
the world was round.

Juan Sebastian de Elcano, the master of ship "Concepcion" took over the command of the
expedition after the death of Magellan and captained the ship "Victoria" back to Spain. He and
his men earned the distinction of being the first to circumnavigate the world in one full journey.
After Magellan's death in Cebu, it took 16 more months for Elcano to return to Spain. The
Magellan expedition started off through the westward route and returning to Spain by going east;
Magellan and Elcano's entire voyage took almost three years to complete.

Spain sends other expedition

After the Spain had celebrated Elcano’s return, King Charles I decided that Spain should conquer
the Philippines. Five subsequent expeditions were then sent to the Islands. These were led by
Garcia Jofre Loaisa (1525), Sebastian Cabot (1526), Alvaro de Saavedra (1527), Rudy Lopez de
Villalobos (1542) and Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (1564). Only the last two actually reached the
Philippines; and only Legazpi succeeded in colonizing the Islands.

The Villalobos Expedition

Ruy Lopez de Villalobos set sail for the Philippines from Navidad, Mexico on November 1,
1542. He followed the route taken by Magellan and reached Mindanao on February 2, 1543. He
established a colony in Sarangani but could not stay long because of insufficient food supply. His
fleet left the island and landed on Tidore in the Moluccas, where they were captured by the
Portuguese.
Villalobos is remembered for naming our country “Islas Filipinas,” in honor of King Charles’
son, Prince Philip, who later became king of Spain.

Manuel Lopez de LegaspiThe Legazpi Expedition

Since none of the expedition after Magellan from Loaisa to Villalobos had succeeded in taking
over the Philippines, King Charles I stopped sending colonizers to the Islands. However, when
Philip II succeeded his father to the throne in 1556, he instructed Luis de Velasco, the viceroy of
Mexico, to prepare a new expedition – to be headed by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, who would be
accompanied by Andres de Urdaneta, a priest who had survived the Loaisa mission.

On February 13, 1565, Legaspi's expedition landed in Cebu island. After a short struggle with
the natives, he proceeded to Leyte, then to Camiguin and to Bohol. There Legaspi made a blood
compact with the chieftain, Datu Sikatuna as a sign of friendship. Legaspi was able to obtain
spices and gold in Bohol due to his friendship with Sikatuna. On April 27, 1565, Legaspi
returned to Cebu; destroyed the town of Raja Tupas and establish a settlement. On orders of the
King Philip II, 2,100 men arrived from Mexico. They built the the port of Fuerza de San Pedro
which became the Spanish trading outpost and stronghold for the region.

Hearing of the riches of Manila, an expedition of 300 men headed by Martin de Goiti left Cebu
for Manila. They found the islands of Panay and Mindoro. Goiti arrived in Manila on May 8,
1570. At first they were welcomed by the natives and formed an alliance with Rajah Suliman,
their Muslim king but as the locals sensed the true objectives of the Spaniards, a battle between
the troops of Suliman and the Spaniards erupted. Because the Spaniards are more heavily armed,
the Spaniards were able to conquer Manila. Soon after Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived to join
Goiti in Manila. Legaspi built alliances and made peace with Rajahs Suliman, Lakandula and
Matanda. In 1571, Legaspi ordered the construction of the walled city of Intramuros and
proclaimed it as the seat of government of the colony and the capital of the islands. In 1572,
Legaspi died and was buried at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros. In 1574, Manila was
bestowed the title "Insigne y Siempre Leal Ciudad de España" (Distinguished and ever loyal city
of Spain) by King Philip II of Spain.

Why the Philippines was easily conquered

Through largely outnumbered, the Spaniards who came to colonize the Philippines easily took
control of our country. How did this happen?

The best possible explanation is that the natives lacked unity and a centralized form of
government. Although the barangays already functioned as units of governance, each one existed
independently of the other, and the powers that each Datu enjoyed were confined only to his own
barangay. No higher institution united the barangays, and the Spaniards took advantage of this
situation. They used the barangays that were friendly to them in order to subdue the barangays
that were not. Continue to Spain as Colonial Masters.

https://www.philippine-history.org/spanish-
expeditions.htm#:~:text=Spanish%20Expedi20thetions%20to%%20Philippines&text=Ferdinand%20Mag
ellan%2C%20a%20Portuguese%20in,European%20to%20reach%20the%20islands.