In Seville he married, fathered two children, and organised the expedition. Consequently, many in Portugal considered him a traitor and he never returned. Facing criminal charges, Magellan left Portugal and proposed the same expedition to King Charles I of Spain, who accepted it. King Manuel refused to support Magellan's plan to reach the Maluku Islands (the 'Spice Islands') by sailing westwards around the American continent. īorn on 4 February 1480 into a family of minor Portuguese nobility, Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer in service of the Portuguese Crown in Asia. After Magellan's death, Juan Sebastián Elcano took the lead of the expedition, and with its few other surviving members in one of the two remaining ships, completed the first circumnavigation of Earth when they returned to Spain in 1522.

He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean to open a maritime trade route, during which he discovered the interoceanic passage bearing thereafter his name and achieved the first European navigation from the Atlantic to Asia.ĭuring this voyage, Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan in 1521 in the present-day Philippines, after running into resistance from the indigenous population led by Lapulapu, who consequently became a Philippine national symbol of resistance to colonialism. Ferdinand Magellan ( / m ə ˈ ɡ ɛ l ə n/ mə- GHEL-ən or / m ə ˈ dʒ ɛ l ə n/ mə- JEL-ən Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães, IPA: Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes, IPA: 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer.

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