The Magellan-Elcano expedition was the Spanish voyage that made the first circumnavigation of the Earth. It left Seville with five ships under the command of the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of Charles I of Spain, to find a western route to the Spice Islands. The fleet found the strait at the southern tip of South America that now bears Magellan's name, and crossed the Pacific, which took far longer than expected, causing hunger and scurvy. Magellan was killed in a fight in the Philippines at Mactan, and the Basque navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano took command of the one remaining ship, the Victoria. It returned to Spain with just eighteen survivors, bringing a cargo of cloves.
Before and after
- 1519Construction of Château de Chambord
- 1519Birth of Jacopo Tintoretto
- from February 1519 to August 1521Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
- 2 May 1519Death of Leonardo da Vinci
- from 10 August 1519 to 8 September 1522Magellan-Elcano expedition
- from 1520 to 1600Mannerism
- from 1520 to 1648Sultanate of Women
- 1520Stockholm Bloodbath
- 6 April 1520Death of Raphael
More in Exploration & discovery
- 20 May 1506Death of Christopher Columbus
- 1513Balboa sights the Pacific
- 27 April 1521Death of Ferdinand Magellan
- 24 December 1524Death of Vasco da Gama
- 1540Birth of Francis Drake
- 24 September 1557Death of Jacques Cartier
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 16th century.