by Kevin Guo

Created on: June 05, 2010

Ferdinand Magellan, or Fernao de Magallaes, as was his Portuguese name, was born in Sebrosa, a Northwestern city of Portugal. When he was growing up, Magellan studied math, and other such subjects to help him be an explorer, his lifelong goal. Magellan was one of the explorers, which, like Christopher Columbus, believed the world was round and it was possible to sail west and reach the Spice Islands. Portugal though already controlled the known and shorter, eastward route to the Spice Islands and had no need to reach them sailing west.

But before Magellan actually became an explorer, he was a seafarer in the Portuguese Navy. In 1505, he left for India, where Portugal was fighting a battle for new lands. After the battle in India, Magellan changed from a sailor to a soldier, and went to Morocco to fight the Moors, where he was seriously wounded in his leg and had a limp for the rest of his life. Later, back in Portugal, Magellan asked for permission to get to the Moluccas by sailing west, but he had fell out of favor of the Portuguese king because he had been accused of illegally trading with the Moors. Nevertheless, Magellan continues studying skills that would help him be an explorer.

In 1517, Magellan resigned his Portuguese citizenship in 1517 and went to Spain in search of King Charles the 5th of Spain. Ferdinand asked the Charles the 5th to fund a voyage westward to the Spice Islands, which the king accepts. Then, on September, 20th, 1519, funded by the king of Spain and a rich man, Magellan left the port of Sanlucar Barrameda. They had left with 5 ships; the Trinidad, Victoria, San Antonio, Concepcion, and the Santiago. They had 250 men, mostly Spaniards, and enough provisions to last for several months. Their destination was the Spice Islands and they had brought on a cargo to trade for spices once they got there. After stopping at the Canary Islands for extra provisions, Magellan and his crew were finally out in the open ocean.

About 2 months after that, on November 27th, Magellan and his crew sighted Brazil. Since Brazil was Portuguese territory, Magellan avoided it, and on December 13th of that year, finally anchored near present day Rio de Janeiro. There they finally resupplied the ships, but the bad weather that occurred later prevented them from continuing to search for the strait that would take them to the ocean in which the Spice Islands were situated in. Later, after the storm had subsided, they resumed sailing around the east coast of South

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