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William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind

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At age 14, in poverty and famine, a Malawian boy built a windmill to power his family's home. Now at 22, William Kamkwamba, who speaks at TED, here, for the second time, shares in his own words the moving tale of invention that changed his life.

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Melati and Isabel Wijsen: Our campaign to ban plastic bags in Bali

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Plastic bags are essentially indestructible, yet they're used and thrown away with reckless abandon. Most end up in the ocean, where they pollute the water and harm marine life; the rest are burned in garbage piles, where they release harmful dioxins into the atmosphere.

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Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.

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EyeWitness to History - history through the eyes of those who lived it

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First hand accounts, illustrated with vintage photos, original radio broadcasts.

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Christopher Parsons, Producer: The World About Us. Christopher Parsons was born on August 23, 1932 in Winchester, England. He was a producer and writer, known for The World About Us (1967), Life on Earth (1979) and Catch Me a Colobus (1968). He died on November 8, 2002 in England.

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Visit this site for this Ferdinand Magellan Timeline detailing Key dates and events. Fast facts and information for students, children & kids via the Ferdinand Magellan Timeline. The Ferdinand Magellan Timeline provides a record of events in the order of their occurrence.

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Ferdinand Magellan - Ages of Exploration

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Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe; considered the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean.

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Quick Facts
"The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church.""Rebel, this is mutiny! You are my prisoner in the king's name.""Follow me and ask no questions."

Sabrosa or Porto, Portugal

While in the service of Spain, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European voyage of discovery to circumnavigate the globe.

Who Was Ferdinand Magellan?

As a boy, Ferdinand Magellan studied mapmaking and navigation. By his mid-20s, he was sailing in large fleets and was engaged in combat. In 1519, with the support of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Magellan set out to find a better route to the Spice Islands. He assembled a fleet of ships which, despite huge setbacks and Magellan's death, circumnavigated the world in a single voyage.

Early Life

Magellan was born in Portugal, either in the city of Porto or in Sabrosa, circa 1480. His parents were members of the Portuguese nobility and after their deaths, Magellan became a page for the queen, at age 10. He studied at Queen Leonora's School of Pages in Lisbon and spent his days poring over texts on cartography, astronomy, and celestial navigation - subjects that would serve him well in his later pursuits.

In 1505, when Magellan was in his mid-20s, he joined a Portuguese fleet that was sailing to East Africa. By 1509, he found himself at the Battle of Diu, in which the Portuguese destroyed Egyptian ships in the Arabian Sea. Two years later, he explored Malacca, located in present-day Malaysia, and participated in the conquest of Malacca's port. It was there that he acquired a native servant he named Enrique. It is possible that Magellan sailed as far as the Moluccas, islands in Indonesia, then called the Spice Islands. The Moluccas were the original source of some of the world's most valuable spices, including cloves and nutmeg. The conquest of spice-rich countries was, as a result, a source of much European competition.

While serving in Morocco, in 1513, Magellan was wounded and walked the remainder of his life with a limp. After his injury, he was falsely accused of trading illegally with the Moors, and despite all of his service to Portugal, and his many pleas to the king, any further offers of employment were withheld him.

In 1517, Magellan moved to Seville, Spain, to offer his skills to the Spanish court. His departure from Portugal came at an opportune time. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) declared all newly discovered and yet to be discovered territories east of the demarcation line (46°30′ W) were given to Portugal and all territories west of the line were given to Spain. In the three years following his departure from Portugal, Magellan had religiously studied all of the most recent navigation charts. Like all navigators of the time, he understood from Greek texts that the world was round. He believed that he could find a shorter route to the Spice Islands by sailing west, across the Atlantic Ocean, around South America and across the Pacific. This was not a new idea, Christopher Columbus and Vasco Núñez de Balboa had paved the way, but such a voyage would give the Spanish open access to the Spice Islands without having to travel across areas controlled by the Portuguese.

Final Years and Death

Magellan presented his plan to King Charles I of Spain (soon to become Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire), who gave his blessing. On September 20, 1519, he set out with a fleet of five fully supplied ships, but hardly adequate to sail the distances he proposed. The fleet sailed first to Brazil and then down the coast of South America to Patagonia. There an attempted mutiny took place and one of the ships was wrecked. Despite the setback, the crew continued on with the four remaining vessels.

By October 1520, Magellan and his men had entered what is now called the Strait of Magellan. It took them over a month to pass through the strait, during which time the master of one of the ships deserted and sailed back home. The remaining ships sailed across the Pacific Ocean. In March 1521, the fleet anchored in Guam.

Later in March, 1521, Magellan' fleet reached Homonhom Island on the edge of the Philippines with less than 150 of the 270 men who started the expedition. Magellan traded with Rajah Humabon, the island king, and a bond was quickly formed. The Spanish crew soon became involved in a war between Humabon and another rival leader and Magellan was killed in battle on April 27, 1521.

The remaining crew escaped the Philippines and continued on towards the Spice Islands, arriving in November 1521. The Spanish commander of the last ship, the Victoria, set sail December and reached Spain on September 8, 1522.

The Controversy Over Who was First

There has been considerable debate around who were the first persons to circumnavigate the globe. The easy answer is Juan Sabastian Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's fleet starting from Spain on September 20, 1519, and returning in September 1522. But there is another candidate who might have gone around the world before them - Magellan' servant Enrique. In 1511, Magellan was on a voyage for Portugal to the Spice Islands and participated in the conquest of Malacca where he acquired his servant Enrique. Fast forward ten years later, Enrique is with Magellan in the Philippines. After Magellan's death, it is reported that Enrique was grief-stricken and when he found out he was not going to be freed, contrary to Magellan's will, he ran away. At this point the record gets murky. Some accounts state Enrique fled into the forest. Official Spanish records list Enrique as one of the men massacred in the attack, but some historians question the records' credibility or accuracy, citing a bias against Indigenous peoples.

So, it is possible that if Enrique had survived after his escape, he might have made his way back to Malacca where he was originally enslaved by Magellan back in 1511. If true, it would mean Enrique - not Elcano and the surviving members of the crew - was the first person to circumnavigate the globe, albeit not in a single voyage.

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"The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church." "Rebel, this is mutiny! You are my prisoner in the king's name."

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Sir John Hawkins >The career of the English naval commander Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595) >touched all aspects of the Elizabethan maritime world from the illegal and >inglorious to the patriotic and profitable. His skills helped to ensure the >defeat of the Spanish Armada [1] in 1588.

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Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was a Genoese trader, explorer, and navigator. He was born in Genoa, Italy, in the year 1451. "Christopher Columbus" is the English version of Columbus's name. His name in Italian was Cristoforo Colombo.

In 1492, Columbus sailed from Spain to find a faster route from Asia to Europe. He landed instead on an island of the Bahamas. He is credited with the discovery of the New World because Europeans began colonizing America shortly after his voyage. While Leif Erikson was the first European to land on the soils of America, it was not well documented and did not lead to the later contact between Europe and the New World.

Columbus died on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain.

Discovery of America

Columbus was not the first European person to have discovered America. At the time of his voyage, Europeans did not know that the Americas existed. However, Leif Erikson had landed in what is now Canada around AD 1000. Native Americans had lived there for thousands of years before he arrived. However, Native Americans did not record or add to the European record of history, so Columbus discovered America according to European history.

Voyage in 1492

However, Columbus did not have enough money to pay for this voyage on his own. He went to the rulers of Spain, Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Castile, to ask for help. He promised to bring back gold and spices for them, and they promised their help. After they defeated the Emirate of Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella paid for Columbus's voyage.

In August 1492, Columbus and his sailors left Spain in three ships: the Santa María (the Holy Mary), the (the Painted), and the Santa Clara ( nicknamed the : the Little Girl).

The three ships were very small. Historians think that the largest ship, the Santa María, was only about 60 ft (18 m) long, and about 16 to 19 feet (4.8 to 5.8 m) wide. Columbus's other ships were even smaller. Historians think they were about 50-60 ft (15-18 m) long.

On October 12, 1492, after sailing for about four months, Columbus landed on a small island in the Bahamas. The natives called it Guanahani; Columbus renamed it San Salvador Island ("Holy Savior"). He met Lucayan, Taíno, and Arawak Native Americans who lived on the island. They were friendly and peaceful toward Columbus and his crew. Because Columbus did not know where he was, and thought he had reached Asia, the "Indies," he called them "Indians." He claimed their land as Spain's.

Columbus then sailed to what is now Cuba, then to Hispaniola. On Hispaniola, Columbus built a fort. This was one of the first European military bases in the Western Hemisphere. He called it Navidad (Spanish for " Christmas"). He left thirty-nine crew members there and ordered them to find and store gold.

Treatment of native people

On the day he landed in the Bahamas, Columbus wrote about the Arawaks and Taíno. He thought they would make good servants. He planned to take six of them with him when he left. He noticed that some of the Arawaks had gold earrings. He took some of them as prisoners and ordered them to lead him to the gold. However, they could not.

Second voyage

Then he went back to the Navidad fort and found the fort burned down. Eleven of the 39 soldiers Columbus left at the fort were buried there. The rest had disappeared. Historians think this happened because of disease and fights with the Arawak people.

Treatment of native people

The soldiers that Columbus left at Navidad while he was exploring Jamaica and Cuba stopped working. They began stealing from the Arawaks. This made the Arawaks decide to fight back against the Spaniards. However, Spain had many weapons that the Arawaks had never seen, including steel swords, pikes, crossbows, dogs, and horses. It was easy for Spain to win fights against the Arawaks.

Columbus also took revenge against the Arawaks for killing his soldiers at Navidad. He made every native older than 14 give him a certain amount of gold every three months. If they could not pay the gold, people would be made into slaves.

There was not much gold on the parts of the island Columbus took over. Many Arawaks tried to run away from Columbus and his men. However, Columbus's soldiers used dogs to hunt them down.

Start of the transatlantic slave trade

In February 1495, Columbus started the transatlantic slave trade. He and his soldiers captured about 1,500 Taíno. 400 were let go, 600 were kept on the island as slaves to the soldiers, and 500 were sailed back to Spain. Of those 500, about 200 died during the trip, and half of the rest were very sick when they arrived. This was the first time people had ever been shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold as slaves.

Third voyage

In 1498, Columbus set out to find a continent that King John II of Portugal believed was to the southwest of the Cape Verde islands. Columbus sent three ships straight to the West Indies (the Caribbean). He led another three ships: first to two Portuguese islands, then to the Canary Islands, then to Cape Verde. From Cape Verde, they sailed to the northern coast of South America and landed in Trinidad. He also explored part of South America and the islands now called Tobago and Grenada.

Treatment of native people

When he was trying to make the Spanish settlers happy, Columbus started the Encomienda system in Hispaniola. He "gave" land, or even a whole village, to a Spanish settler. Any natives that were living on the land were forced to work for that Spanish settler.

Arrest and the last voyage

On August 23, 1500, Columbus was arrested in Hispaniola, now called Santo Domingo, for cruelty to natives and Spaniards. He was sent to Spain in chains in October 1500. He was released on December 12, 1500, and taken to court. Columbus had important friends, and the King restored his freedom. He was allowed to lead another voyage.

Columbus made a fourth voyage in 1502- 1504. On this voyage, he explored the coast of Central America from Belize to Panama. In 1502, off the coast of what is now Honduras, a trading ship "as long as a galley" was encountered, filled with cargo. This was the first recorded encounter by the Spanish with the Native American civilization of Mesoamerica.

Later Columbus was stranded on Jamaica for a year; he sent two men by canoe to get help from Hispaniola. In the meantime, he impressed the local population by correctly predicting an eclipse of the moon. Help finally arrived, and he returned to Spain in 1504.

Later life and death

In his later years, Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown give him 10% of all profits made in the new lands, according to earlier agreements. His demands were rejected. His family later sued for part of the profits from trade with America, but ultimately lost about fifty years later.

On May 20, 1506, Columbus died of heart failure and arthritis in Valladolid, Spain, at the possible age of 54. He was still convinced that his discoveries were along the East Coast of Asia. Even after his death, his travels continued with his body first buried in Valladolid and then in Seville. The will of his son Diego, who was governor of Hispaniola, had the remains transferred to Santo Domingo in 1542. In 1795 the French took over, and the body was moved to Havana. After the war of 1898, Cuba became independent and Columbus's remains were moved back to Spain, to the cathedral of Seville. However, some claim that he is still buried in the cathedral of Santo Domingo.

Personal life

Columbus's relatives said that Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. Today, no historian can say for sure where Columbus was born. Most experts think the best evidence says he was born in Genoa. However, other historians think Columbus was born somewhere else, like Spain or Portugal. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers - Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo (also called Diego) - and a sister named Bianchinetta. His brother Bartolomeo ran a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood.

His native language is thought to have been a Genoese dialect. His name in the 16th-century Genoese language was Cristoffa Corombo. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo, and in Spanish Cristóbal Colón.

Columbus wrote that he first went to sea when he was 14 years old. In 1470, the Colombo family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern.

In 1477, Columbus married Felipa Moniz Perestrelo. She was from a semi- noble family with connections to sailing. She died around 1479 or 1480 while giving birth to their son, Diego.

In 1485, while in Córdoba, Spain, Columbus met Beatriz Enríquez de Trasierra. They lived together for a while. They had one child named Fernando. Columbus's first son Diego did not take care of Beatriz as Columbus had instructed him.

Being ambitious, Columbus eventually learned Latin, Portuguese, and Castilian. He read about astronomy, geography, and history, including the works of Claudius Ptolemy, Pierre Cardinal d'Ailly's Imago Mundi, the travels of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville, Pliny's Natural History, and Pope Pius II's Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum.

Columbus's goals

Columbus journeyed to the New World with goals in mind. First, he believed he could find a shorter and easier route to Asia, which made things Europe did not. Some people said this was nonsense. Columbus wanted to prove these people wrong.

After Columbus

The Spanish conquistadors first settled on the islands of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Cuba, and Puerto Rico. They seized as much gold as they could.

In the United States, Columbus Day is a holiday that celebrates Columbus's arrival in the New World on October 12, 1492. The World's Columbian Exposition, which happened in 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, was held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus visiting the Americas.

Interesting facts about Christopher Columbus

The real name that he was given when he was born in Genoa was Cristoforo Colombo.

Many people during the time of Columbus believed that the Earth was flat.

Before his famous voyages, he used to sell maps and charts.

The first land they saw in America was the island of San Salvador, 375 miles off of the coast of Florida.

Columbus never actually set foot on mainland America.

Seville Cathedral in Spain, and the Columbus Lighthouse at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic both claim to have Columbus's bones. In 2016 a DNA analysis said that the bones in Spain were his.

Christopher Columbus Quotes

"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."

"Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World."

"Nothing that results in human progress is achieved with unanimous consent. Those that are enlightened before the others are condemned to pursue that light in spite of the others."

Related pages
Egg of Columbus
Images for kids

In Spanish: Cristóbal Colón para niños

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Learn Christopher Columbus facts for kids

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Christopher Columbus leaving Palos, Spain

Christopher Columbus aboard the "Santa Maria" leaving Palos, Spain on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Mariners' Museum 1933.0746.000001

Introduction
We know that In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But what did he actually discover? Christopher Columbus (also known as (Cristoforo Colombo [Italian]; Cristóbal Colón [Spanish]) was an Italian explorer credited with the "discovery" of the America's. The purpose for his voyages was to find a passage to Asia by sailing west. Never actually accomplishing this mission, his explorations mostly included the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, all of which were already inhabited by Native groups.

Biography Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, part of present-day Italy, in 1451. His parents' names were Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers: Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo; and a sister named Bianchinetta. Christopher became an apprentice in his father's wool weaving business, but he also studied mapmaking and sailing as well. He eventually left his father's business to join the Genoese fleet and sail on the Mediterranean Sea.
Early Life
¹ After one of his ships wrecked off the coast of Portugal, he decided to remain there with his younger brother Bartholomew where he worked as a cartographer (mapmaker) and bookseller. Here, he married Doña Felipa Perestrello e Moniz and had two sons Diego and Fernando.

Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo's famous book, and it gave him a love for exploration. In the mid 15th century, Portugal was desperately trying to find a faster trade route to Asia. Exotic goods such as spices, ivory, silk, and gems were popular items of trade. However, Europeans often had to travel through the Middle East to reach Asia. At this time, Muslim nations imposed high taxes on European travels crossing through. ² This made it both difficult and expensive to reach Asia. There were rumors from other sailors that Asia could be reached by sailing west. Hearing this, Christopher Columbus decided to try and make this revolutionary journey himself. First, he needed ships and supplies, which required money that he did not have. He went to King John of Portugal who turned him down. He then went to the rulers of England, and France. Each declined his request for funding. After seven years of trying, he was finally sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Voyages Columbus' voyage departed in August of 1492 with 87 men sailing on three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Columbus commanded the Santa María, while the Niña was led by Vicente Yanez Pinzon and the Pinta by Martin Pinzon.
Principal Voyage
³ This was the first of his four trips. He headed west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. On October 12 land was sighted. He gave the first island he landed on the name San Salvador, although the native population called it Guanahani. ⁴ Columbus believed that he was in Asia, but was actually in the Caribbean. He even proposed that the island of Cuba was a part of China. Since he thought he was in the Indies, he called the native people "Indians." In several letters he wrote back to Spain, he described the landscape and his encounters with the natives. He continued sailing throughout the Caribbean and named many islands he encountered after his ship, king, and queen: La Isla de Santa María de Concepción, Fernandina, and Isabella.

It is hard to determine specifically which islands Columbus visited on this voyage. His descriptions of the native peoples, geography, and plant life do give us some clues though. One place we do know he stopped was in present-day Haiti. He named the island Hispaniola. Hispaniola today includes both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In January of 1493, Columbus sailed back to Europe to report what he found. Due to rough seas, he was forced to land in Portugal, an unfortunate event for Columbus. With relations between Spain and Portugal strained during this time, Ferdinand and Isabella suspected that Columbus was taking valuable information or maybe goods to Portugal, the country he had lived in for several years. Those who stood against Columbus would later use this as an argument against him. Eventually, Columbus was allowed to return to Spain bringing with him tobacco, turkey, and some new spices. He also brought with him several natives of the islands, of whom Queen Isabella grew very fond.

Subsequent Voyages
Columbus took three other similar trips to this region. His second voyage in 1493 carried a large fleet with the intention of conquering the native populations and establishing colonies. At one point, the natives attacked and killed the settlers left at Fort Navidad. Over time the colonists enslaved many of the natives, sending some to Europe and using many to mine gold for the Spanish settlers in the Caribbean. The third trip was to explore more of the islands and mainland South America further. Columbus was appointed the governor of Hispaniola, but the colonists, upset with Columbus' leadership appealed to the rulers of Spain, who sent a new governor: Francisco de Bobadilla. Columbus was taken prisoner on board a ship and sent back to Spain.

On his fourth and final journey west in 1502 Columbus's goal was to find the "Strait of Malacca," to try to find India. But a hurricane, then being denied entrance to Hispaniola, and then another storm made this an unfortunate trip. His ship was so badly damaged that he and his crew were stranded on Jamaica for two years until help from Hispaniola finally arrived. In 1504, Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain.

Later Years and Death
Columbus reached Spain in November 1504. He was not in good health. He spent much of the last of his life writing letters to obtain the percentage of wealth overdue to be paid to him, and trying to re-attain his governorship status, but was continually denied both. Columbus died at Valladolid on May 20, 1506, due to illness and old age. Even until death, he still firmly believing that he had traveled to the eastern part of Asia.

Legacy Columbus never made it to Asia, nor did he truly discover America. His "re-discovery," however, inspired a new era of exploration of the American continents by Europeans. Perhaps his greatest contribution was that his voyages opened an exchange of goods between Europe and the Americas both during and long after his journeys.
⁵ Despite modern criticism of his treatment of the native peoples there is no denying that his expeditions changed both Europe and America. Columbus day was made a federal holiday in 1971. It is recognized on the second Monday of October.

1. Fergus Fleming, Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 30.

2. Fleming, Off the Map, 30

3. William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 142-143.

4. Phillips and Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 155.

5. Robin S. Doak, Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World (Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005), 92.

Bibliography

Doak, Robin. Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005.

Fleming, Fergus. Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration. New York: Grove Press, 2004.

Phillips, William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Map of Voyages

Click below to view an example of the explorer's voyages. Use the tabs on the left to view either 1 or multiple journeys at a time, and click on the icons to learn more about the stops, sites, and activities along the way.

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Christopher Columbus is credited with the discovery of the Americas in 1492, though Leifr Eiriksson explored the North American continent centuries prior.

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Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer, colonizer, and navigator. He is remembered as the principal European discoverer of the Americas and he helped bring the Americas to the forefront of the western consciousness. His discoveries and travels laid the framework for the later European colonisation of Latin and North America.

"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."

- Christopher Columbus

Short bio Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

Christopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today Northwestern Italy. His father was a middle-class wool merchant. Columbus learnt to sail from an early age and later worked as a business agent, travelling around Europe to England, Ireland and later along the West coast of Africa. He was not a scholar, but was an enthusiastic self-educated man, who read extensively on astronomy, science and navigation. He also became fluent in Latin, Portuguese and Spanish.

Christopher Columbus was a believer in the spherical nature of the world (some Christians still held the view that the world was flat). An ambitious man, Christopher Columbus hoped to find a Western trade route to the lucrative spice markets in Asia. Rather than sailing East, he hoped that sailing west would lead to countries like Japan and China.

To gain the necessary funding and support for his journeys, he approached the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. As part of his offer, he said that he hoped to be able to spread Christianity to 'heathen lands' in the east. The Spanish monarchs agreed to fund Columbus, partly on the missionary efforts, but also hoping to gain an upper hand in the lucrative trade markets.

Voyages to the Americas

Columbus' first voyage was completed in 1492. He had intended to sail to Japan, but ended up in the Bahamas, which he named San Salvador.

Columbus made a total of four journeys, where he sailed extensively around the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas and also to the mainland, to places such as Panama.

Columbus was not the first person to reach America. Previous successful voyages included a Norse expedition led by Leif Ericson. However, Columbus was the first to travel to America and establish permanent settlements. Columbus' voyages and reports, over the next 400 years encouraged all the major European powers to seek to colonise parts of America.

As part of the deal, the Spanish monarchy appointed Columbus Viceroy and Governor of the Indies in the island of Hispaniola. He also delegated the governorship to his brothers. However, in 1500, on the orders of the Spanish monarchy, Columbus was arrested and placed in chains. There were allegations of incompetence, misrule and barbaric practices in the governorship of the new colonies. After several weeks in jail, Columbus and his brothers were released, but Columbus was not allowed to be governor of Hispaniola anymore.

Towards the end of his life, Columbus became increasingly religious. In particular, he became fascinated with Biblical prophecies and wrote his own 'Book of Prophecies' (1505).

Columbus died in 1506, aged 54 from a heart attack related to reactive arthritis. Undoubtedly, the rigours of travelling across the seas weighed upon Columbus' health. Towards the end of his life, he was frequently in pain from his journeys.

Columbus is venerated by many European Americans as the man who helped put America on the map. Columbus Day is observed on 12 October in Spain and across the Americas. Others take a more critical view of Columbus, arguing that his "discovery" was not really a discovery if the land was already populated and that through his actions the ensuing European colonisations led to the mistreatment and genocide of the native American people who already lived there.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. "Biography of Christopher Columbus", Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net , 13th May. 2009. Updated 22 September 2017.
Who was Christopher Columbus?
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Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer, colonizer, and navigator. He is remembered as the principal European discoverer of the Americas and he helped bring the Americas to the forefront of the western consciousness. His discoveries and travels laid the framework for the later European colonisation of Latin and North America.

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Visit this site for this Christopher Columbus Timeline detailing Key dates and events. Fast facts and information for students, children & kids via the Christopher Columbus Timeline. The Christopher Columbus Timeline provides a record of events in the order of their occurrence.

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Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was a Genoese trader, explorer, and navigator. He was born in Genoa, Italy, in the year 1451. "Christopher Columbus" is the English version of Columbus's name. His name in Italian was Cristoforo Colombo.

In 1492, Columbus sailed from Spain to find a faster route from Asia to Europe. He landed instead on an island of the Bahamas. He is credited with the discovery of the New World because Europeans began colonizing America shortly after his voyage. While Leif Erikson was the first European to land on the soils of America, it was not well documented and did not lead to the later contact between Europe and the New World.

Columbus died on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain.

Discovery of America

Columbus was not the first European person to have discovered America. At the time of his voyage, Europeans did not know that the Americas existed. However, Leif Erikson had landed in what is now Canada around AD 1000. Native Americans had lived there for thousands of years before he arrived. However, Native Americans did not record or add to the European record of history, so Columbus discovered America according to European history.

Voyage in 1492

However, Columbus did not have enough money to pay for this voyage on his own. He went to the rulers of Spain, Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Castile, to ask for help. He promised to bring back gold and spices for them, and they promised their help. After they defeated the Emirate of Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella paid for Columbus's voyage.

In August 1492, Columbus and his sailors left Spain in three ships: the Santa María (the Holy Mary), the (the Painted), and the Santa Clara ( nicknamed the : the Little Girl).

The three ships were very small. Historians think that the largest ship, the Santa María, was only about 60 ft (18 m) long, and about 16 to 19 feet (4.8 to 5.8 m) wide. Columbus's other ships were even smaller. Historians think they were about 50-60 ft (15-18 m) long.

On October 12, 1492, after sailing for about four months, Columbus landed on a small island in the Bahamas. The natives called it Guanahani; Columbus renamed it San Salvador Island ("Holy Savior"). He met Lucayan, Taíno, and Arawak Native Americans who lived on the island. They were friendly and peaceful toward Columbus and his crew. Because Columbus did not know where he was, and thought he had reached Asia, the "Indies," he called them "Indians." He claimed their land as Spain's.

Columbus then sailed to what is now Cuba, then to Hispaniola. On Hispaniola, Columbus built a fort. This was one of the first European military bases in the Western Hemisphere. He called it Navidad (Spanish for " Christmas"). He left thirty-nine crew members there and ordered them to find and store gold.

Treatment of native people

On the day he landed in the Bahamas, Columbus wrote about the Arawaks and Taíno. He thought they would make good servants. He planned to take six of them with him when he left. He noticed that some of the Arawaks had gold earrings. He took some of them as prisoners and ordered them to lead him to the gold. However, they could not.

Second voyage

Then he went back to the Navidad fort and found the fort burned down. Eleven of the 39 soldiers Columbus left at the fort were buried there. The rest had disappeared. Historians think this happened because of disease and fights with the Arawak people.

Treatment of native people

The soldiers that Columbus left at Navidad while he was exploring Jamaica and Cuba stopped working. They began stealing from the Arawaks. This made the Arawaks decide to fight back against the Spaniards. However, Spain had many weapons that the Arawaks had never seen, including steel swords, pikes, crossbows, dogs, and horses. It was easy for Spain to win fights against the Arawaks.

Columbus also took revenge against the Arawaks for killing his soldiers at Navidad. He made every native older than 14 give him a certain amount of gold every three months. If they could not pay the gold, people would be made into slaves.

There was not much gold on the parts of the island Columbus took over. Many Arawaks tried to run away from Columbus and his men. However, Columbus's soldiers used dogs to hunt them down.

Start of the transatlantic slave trade

In February 1495, Columbus started the transatlantic slave trade. He and his soldiers captured about 1,500 Taíno. 400 were let go, 600 were kept on the island as slaves to the soldiers, and 500 were sailed back to Spain. Of those 500, about 200 died during the trip, and half of the rest were very sick when they arrived. This was the first time people had ever been shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold as slaves.

Third voyage

In 1498, Columbus set out to find a continent that King John II of Portugal believed was to the southwest of the Cape Verde islands. Columbus sent three ships straight to the West Indies (the Caribbean). He led another three ships: first to two Portuguese islands, then to the Canary Islands, then to Cape Verde. From Cape Verde, they sailed to the northern coast of South America and landed in Trinidad. He also explored part of South America and the islands now called Tobago and Grenada.

Treatment of native people

When he was trying to make the Spanish settlers happy, Columbus started the Encomienda system in Hispaniola. He "gave" land, or even a whole village, to a Spanish settler. Any natives that were living on the land were forced to work for that Spanish settler.

Arrest and the last voyage

On August 23, 1500, Columbus was arrested in Hispaniola, now called Santo Domingo, for cruelty to natives and Spaniards. He was sent to Spain in chains in October 1500. He was released on December 12, 1500, and taken to court. Columbus had important friends, and the King restored his freedom. He was allowed to lead another voyage.

Columbus made a fourth voyage in 1502- 1504. On this voyage, he explored the coast of Central America from Belize to Panama. In 1502, off the coast of what is now Honduras, a trading ship "as long as a galley" was encountered, filled with cargo. This was the first recorded encounter by the Spanish with the Native American civilization of Mesoamerica.

Later Columbus was stranded on Jamaica for a year; he sent two men by canoe to get help from Hispaniola. In the meantime, he impressed the local population by correctly predicting an eclipse of the moon. Help finally arrived, and he returned to Spain in 1504.

Later life and death

In his later years, Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown give him 10% of all profits made in the new lands, according to earlier agreements. His demands were rejected. His family later sued for part of the profits from trade with America, but ultimately lost about fifty years later.

On May 20, 1506, Columbus died of heart failure and arthritis in Valladolid, Spain, at the possible age of 54. He was still convinced that his discoveries were along the East Coast of Asia. Even after his death, his travels continued with his body first buried in Valladolid and then in Seville. The will of his son Diego, who was governor of Hispaniola, had the remains transferred to Santo Domingo in 1542. In 1795 the French took over, and the body was moved to Havana. After the war of 1898, Cuba became independent and Columbus's remains were moved back to Spain, to the cathedral of Seville. However, some claim that he is still buried in the cathedral of Santo Domingo.

Personal life

Columbus's relatives said that Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. Today, no historian can say for sure where Columbus was born. Most experts think the best evidence says he was born in Genoa. However, other historians think Columbus was born somewhere else, like Spain or Portugal. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers - Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo (also called Diego) - and a sister named Bianchinetta. His brother Bartolomeo ran a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood.

His native language is thought to have been a Genoese dialect. His name in the 16th-century Genoese language was Cristoffa Corombo. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo, and in Spanish Cristóbal Colón.

Columbus wrote that he first went to sea when he was 14 years old. In 1470, the Colombo family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern.

In 1477, Columbus married Felipa Moniz Perestrelo. She was from a semi- noble family with connections to sailing. She died around 1479 or 1480 while giving birth to their son, Diego.

In 1485, while in Córdoba, Spain, Columbus met Beatriz Enríquez de Trasierra. They lived together for a while. They had one child named Fernando. Columbus's first son Diego did not take care of Beatriz as Columbus had instructed him.

Being ambitious, Columbus eventually learned Latin, Portuguese, and Castilian. He read about astronomy, geography, and history, including the works of Claudius Ptolemy, Pierre Cardinal d'Ailly's Imago Mundi, the travels of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville, Pliny's Natural History, and Pope Pius II's Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum.

Columbus's goals

Columbus journeyed to the New World with goals in mind. First, he believed he could find a shorter and easier route to Asia, which made things Europe did not. Some people said this was nonsense. Columbus wanted to prove these people wrong.

After Columbus

The Spanish conquistadors first settled on the islands of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Cuba, and Puerto Rico. They seized as much gold as they could.

In the United States, Columbus Day is a holiday that celebrates Columbus's arrival in the New World on October 12, 1492. The World's Columbian Exposition, which happened in 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, was held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus visiting the Americas.

Interesting facts about Christopher Columbus

The real name that he was given when he was born in Genoa was Cristoforo Colombo.

Many people during the time of Columbus believed that the Earth was flat.

Before his famous voyages, he used to sell maps and charts.

The first land they saw in America was the island of San Salvador, 375 miles off of the coast of Florida.

Columbus never actually set foot on mainland America.

Seville Cathedral in Spain, and the Columbus Lighthouse at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic both claim to have Columbus's bones. In 2016 a DNA analysis said that the bones in Spain were his.

Christopher Columbus Quotes

"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."

"Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World."

"Nothing that results in human progress is achieved with unanimous consent. Those that are enlightened before the others are condemned to pursue that light in spite of the others."

Related pages
Egg of Columbus
Images for kids

In Spanish: Cristóbal Colón para niños

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Learn Christopher Columbus facts for kids

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Christopher Columbus believed the world was round. Everyone around him said the world was flat. Christopher was determined to prove his theory, and this timeline shows how he did it.

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The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon the Americas. Though he did not really "discover" the New World-millions of people already lived there-his journeys marked the beginning of centuries of transatlantic conquest and colonization.

The Age of Discovery

During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of several European nations sponsored expeditions abroad in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this "Age of Discovery."

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along the African coast, carrying spices, gold, slaves and other goods from Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other European nations, particularly Spain, were eager to share in the seemingly limitless riches of the "Far East." By the end of the 15th century, Spain's "Reconquista"-the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom after centuries of war-was complete, and the nation turned its attention to exploration and conquest in other areas of the world.

Christopher Columbus: Early Life

Christopher Columbus, the son of a wool merchant, was born in Genoa, Italy, in about 1451. When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1470, when French privateers attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap of wood and made his way to Lisbon, where he studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He also began to hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

The First Voyage

At the end of the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Asia from Europe by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking to the sea: They sailed south along the West African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope.

But Columbus had a different idea: Why not sail west across the Atlantic instead of around the massive African continent? The young navigator's logic was sound, but his math was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of the Earth was much smaller than his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that the journey by boat from Europe to Asia should be not only possible but comparatively easy.

He presented his plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1491 that he found a sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame and fortune. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the same, along with the opportunity to export Catholicism to lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was equally enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus' contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could keep 10 percent of whatever riches he found, along with a noble title and the governorship of any lands he should encounter.

Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set sail from Spain in three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On October 12, the ships made landfall-not in Asia, as Columbus assumed, but on one of the Bahamian islands.

For months, Columbus sailed from island to island in what we now know as the Caribbean, looking for the "pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever" that he had promised to his Spanish patrons, but he did not find much. In March 1493, leaving 40 men behind in a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he returned to Spain.

Later Voyages

About six months later, in September 1493, Columbus returned to the Americas. He found the Hispaniola settlement destroyed (to this day, no one knows what happened there) and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego behind to rebuild, along with part of his ships' crew and hundreds of enslaved natives.

Then he headed west, with his own complement of native slaves, to continue his mostly fruitless search for gold and other goods. In lieu of the material riches he had promised the Spanish monarchs, he sent some 500 slaves to Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified-she believed that any people Columbus "discovered" were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved-and she promptly and sternly returned the explorer's gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic for the third time. He visited Trinidad and the South American mainland before returning to the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, where the colonists had staged a bloody revolt against the Columbus brothers' mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities had to send a new governor to take over. Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned to Spain in chains.

In 1502, cleared of the most serious charges but stripped of his noble titles, the aging Columbus persuaded the Spanish king to pay for one last trip across the Atlantic. This time, Columbus made it all the way to Panama-just miles from the Pacific Ocean-where he had to abandon two of his four ships in the face of an attack from hostile natives. Empty-handed, the elderly explorer returned to Spain, where he died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did not "discover" the Americas, nor was he even the first European to visit the "New World." (Viking explorers had sailed to Greenland and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation on the American continents. The consequences of his explorations were severe for the native populations of the areas he and the conquistadores conquered. Disease and environmental changes resulted in the destruction of the majority of the native population over time, while Europeans continued to extract natural resources from these territories.

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy -he is remembered as a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations he and his fellow explorers encountered.

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The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon the Americas.

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Native American perspective

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Columbus Controversy - Exploration - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Columbus Controversy, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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Christopher Columbus was born in 1951 in Sydney, Australia. His home was on the sea and Christopher longed to become an explorer and sailor. However, as a young man, Christopher went to Portugal and got involved in the map making business with his brother, Bartholomew. This business made Columbus a rich man. His books of maps are still found today in every library in the world.

During this time, people were very interested in finding a sailing route around Africa to China, Japan and India. They believed they would find expensive jewels and riches. The experts believed that sailing east was the best route. Columbus, however, argued that sailing in the opposite direction would get them to these lands much faster. King John II of Portugal, along with the Kings of France and England thought Columbus was crazy and refused to help him make the voyage.

Columbus knew he had to make this idea of sailing, using a western route, more popular. So, he produced and appeared on infomercials which aired four times daily. Finally, the King and Queen of Spain called his toll-free number and agreed to help Columbus.

In 1942 he set sail with three ships, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria and about 90 men. The voyage was so much easier than sailing east. On October 12, 1942 Columbus landed on an island southeast of Florida. He claimed this island for Spain and named it the Indies, since he thought he had landed in India. He named the native people of the island Indians. The Indians were excited by the newcomers and their gadgets. They especially enjoyed using their cell phones and desktop computers.

Columbus returned to Spain in 1939 and was hailed as a hero. He was known as the first person to walk on American soil. A huge parade was held in his honor. He appeared on Larry King Live and became quite famous around the world.

Columbus made three more voyages to the lands of Hispaniola, Dominica, Trinidad, Venezuela, Mexico, Honduras and Panama. These trips were all documented by National Geographic and opened a whole new business of tourism for the country of Spain.

Columbus died in 1906. He is buried in Valladolid, Spain.
Click here for other places to learn about this explorer

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Christopher Columbus was born in 1951 in Sydney, Australia. His home was on the sea and Christopher longed to become an explorer and sailor. However, as a young man, Christopher went to Portugal an...

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Discover facts about Christopher Columbus - 'the man who discovered America'. How did his voyages change the course of world history?

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Explorers for Kids: Christopher Columbus

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer Christopher Columbus. He discovered the Americas for Spain.

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René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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Robert de La Salle

French is spoken widely in Montreal and is also an important language in New Orleans. How did both of these cities, on opposite ends of the English-speaking United States, end up with such a strong French heritage? One person who played a large role in this was René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, more often known simply as Robert de La Salle.

La Salle (1643-1687) was a French explorer of the early colonial period. He had a huge impact in defining French interests in North America and, at the same time that Britain was getting its first colonies established on the eastern seaboard, helped expand France's empire across half the continent. We often think of the British as the main influences in North American colonial history, but that certainly wasn't the future that Robert de La Salle had in mind.

Early Life

René Robert Cavalier was born in France in 1643, son of a wealthy merchant. As Robert grew, he adopted the title of Sieur de la Salle but nearly abandoned it in order to join the Jesuits and become a priest. He never completed his training, finding monastic life to be a little strict for him. Robert just wasn't cut out to be a monk or a priest. Instead, he wanted to explore.

In 1666, Robert de La Salle moved to Canada following his brother Jean, a priest of St. Sulpice. Canada was not a highly developed colony yet, but small cities like Montreal (then the mission of Ville Marie) were starting to attract permanent residents. Most of them were priests interested in Christianizing the local Native Americans or fur traders looking to become wealthy. La Salle was the latter.

Exploration

French colonialism in North America was initially motivated by a desire to find the Northwest Passage, a maritime route over North America to Asia. By the time that Robert de La Salle arrived in Canada, a century after this theoretical route was envisioned, the Northwest Passage remained undiscovered. However, the dream of finding it persisted.

In 1669, La Salle sold his shares in fur companies and used the money to finance an expedition. Quebec and Montreal were centered on massive lakes and rivers, but no one knew just how far they went. La Salle decided to find out. He was going to find the Northwest Passage. La Salle's first expedition made it through the Great Lakes, but his crew deserted the mission and he was forced to turn back just before reaching the mouth of the Mississippi River. Another French expedition would claim discovery of that river just a few years later.

Exploring the Mississippi

Robert de La Salle was not the first French explorer to encounter the Mississippi River, but that didn't deter him. He studied the reports, compared the notes of the Joliet-Marquette expeditions to others, and decided that other French explorers were wrong. The Mississippi didn't empty into the Pacific. It emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. With that assertion, La Salle stopped worrying about finding the Northwest Passage. His new goal: line the Mississippi with trading forts and establish a French fort at the river's mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, securing the river against Spanish and English threats.

For years, La Salle had learned Native American languages and gotten to know Native American leaders. Now, he would use those connections to help launch a new expedition into the Mississippi. In 1682 he literally sledded down the Illinois River to the Mississippi River and claimed all the lands drained by the river to be under the authority of France. He named this territory La Louisiane or Louisiana, after French king Louis XIV.

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Robert de La Salle: Biography, Facts & Accomplishments | Study.com

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French is spoken widely in Montreal and is also an important language in New Orleans. How did both of these cities, on opposite ends of the English-speaking United States, end up with such a strong French heritage? One person who played a large role in this was René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, more often known simply as Robert de La Salle.

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle - Biography

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687) was the first European to travel the Mississippi River’s length.

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Ten facts about Ferdinand Magellan, the Portugeuse Explorer

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Ferdinand Magellan the Explorer for Kids ***

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Find Facts about Ferdinand Magellan for Kids. Fun Facts about Ferdinand Magellan for Kids. History and Info about Ferdinand Magellan for Kids.

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This Portuguese explorer was born on October 12, 1492 in southern Spain. It is an amazing coincidence that he eventually became a world explorer, because that is the day Christopher Columbus first landed in El Salvador, thus discovering a New World. Magellan is best known as the first person to travel completely around the globe.

Early in his career, Magellan was first a soldier. During the Battle of Hastings, Magellan was seriously injured. His leg had to be amputated as a result. The wooden leg that replaced it never fit him properly, and he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. He also lost an eye after being shot by an AK-47 during the same battle.

It was not long before King Ferdinand of Spain noticed this rising young star with whom he shared a name. In 1519, at the age of only 27, the King enlisted the support of several wealthy businessmen, including Marco Polo, Bill Gates, and Sam Walton, to finance an expedition to the Spice Islands.

But Magellan was not content to travel the ordinary way. He had to be different. Magellan took his five ships, led by the Trinidad, west instead of east. In the process, he discovered a new route through the Panama Canal, which shortened travel times to Asia considerably. In the process, he also discovered the Pacific Ocean, which he named after his daughter.

While in the Orient, Magellan traded with the Chinese for spices, silk, and small plastic toys which he could bring back to Europe and sell at huge profits.

In another bid to buck the trend of the day, Magellan continued west after this, and his expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the globe on February 29, 1562. Magellan, unfortunately, did not live to see the completion of the trip. He died of old age only six months earlier, but his accomplishment still stands today as a testament to human willpower and the spirit of discovery.
Click here for other places to learn about this explorer

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This Portuguese explorer was born on October 12, 1492 in southern Spain. It is an amazing coincidence that he eventually became a world explorer, because that is the day Christopher Columbus first landed in El Salvador, thus discovering a New World. Magellan is best known as the first person to travel completely around the globe.

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Was Christopher Columbus a Hero or Villain?

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Columbus Day churns up a stormy sea of controversy every year: Was Christopher Columbus a gifted navigator or reckless adventurer?

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Christopher Columbus | Biography, Nationality, Voyages, Ships, Route, & Facts

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Christopher Columbus, the intrepid Italian explorer, embarked on a historic voyage across the Atlantic in 1492 and opened up new horizons for European exploration and colonization.

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Visit this site dedicated to providing information about Christopher Columbus.Fast and accurate details and facts about the history of Christopher Columbus.Learn the facts about Christopher Columbus.

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Created using PowToon -- Free sign up at http://www.powtoon.com/youtube/ -- Create animated videos and animated presentations for free. PowToon is a free tool that allows you to develop cool animated clips and animated presentations for your website, office meeting, sales pitch, nonprofit fundraiser, product launch, video resume, or anything else you could use an animated explainer video.

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A 5 minute overview of the life and journey of Ferdinand Magellan.

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Ferdinand Magellan  - First Circumnavigation of the Earth

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Who was Sir Francis Drake?

The most famous seaman of the Elizabethan age, Sir Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. He was one of the great early European navigators.

Drake was vice admiral of the English fleet at the time of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Top 10 facts

1. Drake was born in Tavistock, Devonshire. His family was very religious and his father was a Protestant preacher. Although the family were respectable they were not very wealthy and Drake was sent to sea at the age of twelve.

2. Drake was apprenticed to a merchant and his seafaring skills brought him to the attention of his cousins, the Hawkins family, who were privateers. He participated in illegal slave trading expeditions with his cousin Sir John Hawkins.

3. Privateers were allowed by the government to commit acts of piracy against Spanish property; in return their sponsors received a share of the plunder. In 1572 Drake received his own privateer's commission from Elizabeth I.

4. In 1568 Drake and Hawkins were trapped by the Spanish at the port of San Juan de Ulua in Mexico. Many of their men were killed and Drake had to swim to safety. This incident resulted in him developing a life-long dislike of Spain.

5. Between 1577 and 1580 he successfully sailed around the globe becoming the first Englishman to do so. The first circumnavigation was made by Ferdinand Magellan some fifty years earlier.

6. The ship which Drake used to circumnavigate the world, the Golden Hind, was originally called the Pelican.

7. One of Drake's most famous exploits was the 'Singeing of King of Spain's beard'. This refers to his attack on Cadiz in 1587. Drake and his fleet managed to destroy 20-30 enemy ships and their supplies, delaying the launch of the Armada.

8. Drake was allegedly playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe when news reached him of the imminent arrival of the Spanish Fleet. He is said to have remarked that he had time to finish the game before defeating the Spanish.

9. Drake was a vice admiral of the English fleet at the time of the Armada. He is credited with the idea of using fire ships to scatter the Spanish Fleet, making the individual ships more vulnerable to English gunfire.

10. Drake's final expeditions against the Spanish were unsuccessfully. In 1589 he lost 20 ships and 12,000 men trying to help the Portuguese who were rebelling against Spanish occupation. He died of dysentery after engaging with the Spanish in the Caribbean.

Timeline

Drake born in Tavistock, Devon

Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. He becomes Mayor of Plymouth and a Member of Parliament

Spanish fleet sails from A Coruna
Vice Admiral Drake is second in command of the English fleet against the Armada

Did you know?

Francis Drake was the first of twelve sons of Edmund Drake and Mary Mylwaye.

Drake's conduct as a young apprentice to a ship master was so impressive that the master later gave him his ship!

When he landed in what is now California in the United States, Drake named it Nova Albion (new England)!

tQueen Elizabeth I knighted Drake when she dined on board his ship, the Golden Hind, at Deptford on the River Thames.

King Philip II offered a reward of 20,000 ducats for Drake's life.

Drake died of dysentery and was buried at sea. He was dressed in full armour and placed in a lead coffin.

Drake married twice but did not have any children.

Look through the gallery below and see if you can spot the following:

A statue of Sir Francis Drake in Portsmouth

The Golden Hind replica

Drake being knighted by Queen Elizabeth

Drake's burial at sea

Drake playing bowls at Plymouth Hoe

A map showing the route taken by Drake as he circumnavigated the world

Gallery

About

Drake was one of the most successful privateers of all time. His exploits were legendary and his attacks on Spanish property and interests made him a very rich man.

Drake demonstrated his abilities as a sailor from an early age. His explorations helped to increase knowledge about the world. He was the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan, a sea route at the southern tip of South America, and sailed further north along the coast of the Americas than any other European had before, landing in what is now California in the United States.

His daring raid on Cadiz and his tactical wizardry against the Armada demonstrated skilful seamanship and courage; he was a hero at home in England though he took part in the slave trade and was by all acoounts a very ruthless man.

The Spanish viewed Drake as a pirate who plundered and robbed their property, a ruthless destroyer of ships and killer of men. They nicknamed him 'the Dragon'. Drake's activities, supported by Elizabeth I, were a severe provocation to Philip of Spain and he sought his revenge with the launching of the Spanish Armada.

Famous friends

Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595), a second cousin of Drake. He rose from being a privateer to treasurer and controller of the English navy. His innovations in ship design helped the English fleet to defeat the Armada. He was a vice admiral at the time of the Armada and was knighted by Elizabeth I. He died on the same final expedition as Drake.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618) an Elizabethan aristocrat, poet, explorer and adventurer. A great favourite of Elizabeth I, he was keen to promote English settlement in North America and is credited with introducing the potato and tobacco into England. Imprisoned on a number of occasions, he was finally executed by James I.

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The most famous seaman of the Elizabethan age, Sir Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. He was one of the great early European navigators. Drake was vice admiral of the English fleet at the time of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Drake was born in Tavistock, Devonshire.

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Sir Francis Drake, 1540?-1596

Expedition (1577-1580): Five ships (Pelican [renamed Golden Hind], Elizabeth, Marigold, Swan, Christopher [a sixth, Mary, was later captured and added]), 164 men
Charge (by Queen Elizabeth I of England): To raid Spanish ports along the Pacific coast of the Americas and disrupt the flow of gold and silver to Spain
Accomplishments: First English circumnavigation of the world (second after Magellan), returning with a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasure
Legacy of Drake's name: Drake Passage (between South America and Antarctica), Drake's Bay (California)

[Click on the images below for high resolution versions.]

Great Britain's rise as a major sea power began with Drake, the most famous of the country's three earliest circumnavigator-buccaneers (the others were Thomas Cavendish and William Dampier). The eldest of twelve sons born to Edmund Drake, tenant farmer, and his wife, Mary Mylwaye, in Devon, England, Drake started his sea career before he was thirteen, as an apprentice aboard a bark plying the trade across the English Channel. By twenty, he was master of the ship; before thirty he had voyaged to the New World several times on ships owned by his relatives, the Hawkins family of Plymouth. In 1568, he suffered a harrowing escape from a treacherous Spanish attack on the Hawkins's fleet in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulúa. Drake's reaction was a lifelong hatred of the Spanish. In the next few years, he took his revenge by plundering Spanish settlements, shipping, and gold-laden mule trains in Panama, sometimes teaming up with local pirates. He was a wealthy man when he returned to Plymouth in 1573. By then, he was known as El Draque in Spanish (later, in Latin, his name would be published as Franciscus Draco, Francis the Dragon).
While tension between Spain and England increased in the 1570s, the quest for a Northwest Passage attracted English commercial interests. Queen Elizabeth I saw an opportunity to use Drake's leadership, navigational skills, and knack for adventure-ostensibly sending him up the west coast of South America on an expedition to harass Spanish ports and to seize treasure, but also secretly charging him to search for a Northwest Passage from the Northwest coast of North America. Drake left England in the late fall of 1577 with a fleet of five ships (a sixth was added when it was captured from the Portuguese off Africa) but quickly suffered a great attrition: by the time he reached the Pacific Ocean (September 1578), only the flagship Pelican remained. For the next month or more, Drake's ship was blown far to the south and east by a series of gales, to a point where he could see no more islands and no great continent, suggesting a confluence of the two oceans. This was the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica, named in his honor and later confirmed by the Dutch explorers Jacques Le Maire and Willem Corneliszoon Schouten. The Pelican was battered but not broken.

Portrait of Sir Francis Drake. Frontispiece to his nephew's The World Encompassed . . . (London, 1628) [Rare Books Division].

Drake's fortunes quickly improved. Renaming his ship the Golden Hind, Drake pushed north along the coasts of Chile and Peru, attacking Spanish interests; he also acquired more accurate charts from captured Spanish ships. His most profitable prize was the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (also called the Cacafuego), which he seized at the beginning of March 1579 as it was sailing west toward Manila in the Philippines. The Spanish ship's treasure included eighty pounds of gold, thirteen chests of coins and jewels, and more than twenty-five tons of silver, the equivalent of millions of dollars today.

On the west coast of North America, Drake explored further north than Spain's claim at Point Loma (near today's San Diego, California). How far north he went has been the subject of much contention. Only two pages in the published account (1628) of his voyage cover the two mysterious months (April 16-June 17, 1579) in which Drake sailed from Guatulco (today's Huatulco, south of Acapulco, Mexico) to 48° N, then came south to a small port on the Pacific coast of America at 38° N, where he repaired his boat and rested before returning home. From his sparse descriptions of the coastal landmarks and the freezing weather ("frozen Zone") he and his men encountered, some modern scholars theorize that Drake probably reached 57° N, around Prince of Wales Island (in today's Alaskan chain of islands off British Columbia), and also explored Vancouver Island and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Claiming the territory for England, Drake named it Nova Albion, a reference to and reverence for his country's earliest name, Albion.

Drake receiving the Crown from the Hioh, or King of New Albion." From David Henry's An Historical Account of All the Voyages Round the World, Performed by English Navigators . . . (London, 1774), vol. 1. [Cotsen Collection]

. . . [T]he King, with the concurrence of the rest, placed the Crown upon Drake's head, graced him with the chains and other signs of authority, and saluted him with the title of Hioh. The kingdom thus offered, though of no farther value to him than that it furnished him with present necessities, Drake thought it not prudent for him to refuse; and, therefore, took possession of it in the name of Queen Elizabeth, not without ardent wishes that this acquisition might be of use to his native country. [p. 123]

Note the incongruous palm tree in the background.

Some scholars theorize that this is the harbor described by Drake where the Golden Hind was anchored and repaired (June 17-July 23, 1579) in what he called "New Albion." The theory was proposed by Robert Ward in 1981 ("Drake and the Oregon Coast," The Geographical Magazine). Though Drake gives its latitude as 38°30′ N, Samuel Bawlf argues (The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 2003, which borrows heavily from Ward's earlier research) that all of Drake's northern coordinates were deliberately reduced by ten degrees to mislead the Spanish about the true northern extent of his travels. In addition, the cove matches the visual representation on Jodocus Hondius's world map "Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticæ . . ." (ca. 1595) of the inset of "Portus Novæ Albionis," for which Drake had supplied the drawing; Bawlf suggests that no other cove along the California/Oregon coast has these same characteristics. (A portion of the peninsula is submerged at high tide, creating the additional "island.") More recently, Garry Gitzen (Sir Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579, 2008) has posited Nehalem Bay, Oregon, as the true New Albion, using multifaceted approaches (such as topography, ethnology, flora/fauna, geography). In either view, Oregon seemed a more likely location for Drake's careening respite-not California. In 2012, after years of conducting its own review of the research, the Department of the Interior designated Drake's Cove in Drake's Bay, California, as a National Historic Landmark, though it did not take sides in the continuing debate.
At his anchorage, Drake summarized his thoughts about the possibility of a Northwest Passage:

An aerial view of Whale Cove, Oregon (44°44' N), contrasted with the "Portus Novæ Albionis" inset of Jodocus Hondius's world map, ca. 1595. [Both images from Wikipedia]
Two hundred years later, exploring the Northwest coast of North America, Captain James Cook would reach the same conclusion.

. . . [W]e conjecture that either there is no passage at all through these Northerne coasts (which is most likely) or if there be, that yet it is unnavigable. Adde hereunto, that though we searched the coast diligently, even unto the 48. deg. yet found we not the land, to trend so much as one point in any place towards the East, but rather running on continually Northwest, as if it went directly to meet with Asia; and even in that height when we had a franke wind, to have carried us through, had there beene a passage, yet we had a smooth and calme sea, with ordinary flowing and reflowing, which could not have beene, had there beene a strete: of which we rather infallibly concluded then conjectured, that there was none. [ The World Encompassed . . . , p. 67]

Heading westward across the Pacific, Drake reached the Moluccas (Spice Islands) within a few months and after many stops rounded the Cape of Good Hope. With a remaining crew of fifty-nine, the Golden Hind arrived in Plymouth in September 1580, its cargo rich in spices and Spanish treasure. The Queen's share represented a substantial portion of the crown's income that year. A national hero and European sensation, Drake was knighted for his efforts, but Elizabeth ordered a ban on publishing any details of his voyage, fearing Spain's reaction. His original charts and journals ultimately disappeared. Drake would go on to other exploits, including having a major role in England's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, but his circumnavigation of the world remains his most important achievement. (It would be two hundred years before another Englishman, James Cook, expanded on his Pacific Northwest exploration.) Drake died of dysentery in 1596 while anchored off the coast of Portobelo, Panama, in pursuit of more Spanish treasure ships. He was buried at sea there, in full armor, encased in a lead coffin.

Drake's visit to the sultan of Ternate during his circumnavigation. From Levinus Hulsius's Sechster Theil, kurtze, warhafftige Relation vnnd Beschreibung der wunderbarsten vier Schiffahrten . . . (Frankfurt, 1626). [Rare Books Division]

[T]he third of Novembre [1579] wee came in sight of the Ilands of the Moluccaes as we desired. These are foure high piked Ilands, their names, Tirenáte, Tidóre, Matchan, Batchan, all of them very fruitfull, and yeelding abundance of cloves, whereof wee furnished our selves of as much as we desired at a very cheape rate. At the East of them lyes a very great Iland called Gillola. [Drake, p. 84]

First page of the first printed narrative account of Drake's circumnavigation. From Richard Hakluyt's The Principall Nauigations, Voiages and Discoueries of the English Nation: Made by Sea or Ouer Land, to the Most Remote and Farthest Distant Quarters of the Earth at Any Time Within the Compasse of These 1500 Yeeres: Deuided into Three Seuerall Parts, According to the Positions of the Regions Whereunto They Were Directed ... Whereunto Is Added the Last Most Renowmed [sic] English Nauigation, Round about the Whole Globe of the Earth (London, 1589). [Rare Books Division]

Twelve pages of supplementary, unnumbered text have been inserted between pages 643-644 in Hakluyt's work.

Title page of Part VIII of Theodore De Bry's Americae pars VIII. Continens primo, descriptionem trivm itinervm Francisci Draken, qvi peragrato primvm vniverso terrarvm orbe, postea cum . . . (Frankfurt, 1599). [The Scheide Library]

A later, reduced copy of the first map to trace Drake's route around the globe. In addition, it features a portrait of Drake and an image of his ship, the Golden Hind.

Drake, Francis, Sir, d. 1637 (nephew). The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake: Being His Next Voyage to That to Nombre de Dios Formerly Imprinted / Carefully Collected Out of the Notes of Master Francis Fletcher Preacher in This Imployment, and Diuers Others His Followers in the Same; Offered Now at Last to Publique View, Both for the Honour of the Actor, but Especially for the Stirring Up of Heroick Spirits, to Benefit Their Countrie, and Eternize Their Names by Like Noble Attempts. London, 1628. [Rare Books Division]

First detailed account of Drake's circumnavigation, written by his nephew. Queen Elizabeth's ban on the publication of Drake's full account of his voyage lasted for thirty-two years after his death-until it was finally broken with the appearance of the little volume shown here. Presumably, most of those who had been privy to the true extent of the voyage were dead. (Only a limited, edited version had appeared previously.) The narrative covers the period from November 15, 1577, when Drake departed from Plymouth, England, to September 26, 1580, when he returned to the same port.

"A New and Accurate Mappe of the World, Drawne According to the Best and Latest Discoveries That Have Beene Made." Copperplate map, 15.9 × 24.1 cm. From Drake's The World Encompassed . . . (London, 1628). [Rare Books Division]

This double-hemisphere world map by Robert Vaughan (1592-1667) is a reduced version of one by John Speed (1552?-1629) published two years earlier. It was dropped from later editions of the book. The four elements (fire, air, water, earth) hover above the map, portraits of the first four circumnavigators (Ferdinand Magellan, Sir Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, Olivier van Noort) grace the sides, and diagrams of eclipses of the sun and moon appear at the bottom.

The western hemisphere map portrays California as an island, which was a very fresh concept at that time; shows some of the Tonga Islands, recently discovered (1616) by the Dutchmen Jacques Le Maire and Willem Corneliszoon Schouten and here translated as Flies Island, Waterland, Dogs Island, and an island "without ground" (anchorage); and proudly boasts that "Twice in our age" Englishmen have passed through the Strait of Magellan on their way around the world. (For more on Le Maire/Schouten, see the explorer's section.) The most interesting note, however, relates to the vast "Southerne Unknone Land" of the eastern hemisphere map: "This South part of the World (containing almost the third part of the Globe) is yet unknown certayne sea coasts excepted: which rather shew there is a land then descry eyther land, people, or comodities." There have been tantalizing hints ("certayne sea coasts") of such a land but no confirmation. Future exploration would continue the hunt for this mysterious southern continent. (For more, see the Terra Australis box in the Pacific Ocean section.)

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Sir Francis Drake, 1540?-1596 Expedition (1577-1580): Five ships (Pelican [renamed Golden Hind], Elizabeth, Marigold, Swan, Christopher [a sixth, Mary, was later captured and added]), 164 men Charge (by Queen Elizabeth I of England): To raid Spanish ports along the Pacific coast of the Americas and disrupt the flow of gold and silver to Spain Accomplishments: First English circumnavigation of the world (second after Magellan), returning with a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasure Legacy of Drake's name: Drake Passage (between South America and Antarctica), Drake's Bay (California) [Click on the images below for high resolution versions.]

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Francis Drake was born around the year 1542 in Wayne, New Jersey. His love of the ocean can be traced back to the early days when he and his family spent many holidays at the Jersey shore. Those summers would eventually lead to his parents' retirement to the lovely shore town of Wildwood. Once there full-time, Drake gained experience with people as he manned many of the various amusement rides and carnival games on the boardwalk. This time in his life would prove to be important and influential later in his life.

It was not until around age 12 that Drake first went to sea. He was an apprentice on a small trading ship to supplement the family's income. The ship traveled up and down the East coast, bringing salt-water taffy and custom-made t-shirts to all of the seaside resorts. It was not long before the ship's owner died, leaving the vessel to Drake.

While Drake continued the local trading routes, Spanish ships full of silver, spices, and exotic foods began arriving in New Jersey. Drake was jealous of their successful enterprise, so he began to attack them at sea, capturing their valuable goods for himself. Drake took to wearing an emerald in his beard, after his Philadelphia cousin Jerry Robbins, and the Spanish traders started to call him "Greenbeard the Invincible." These traders soon stopped bringing their wares to the East coast altogether. Drake now had no source of loot, so he began exploring further and further from home, eventually finding ports in South America.

On one raiding trip to Brazil, Drake met and hired a former slave named Diego. Together, they captured several larger ships and began planning a gargantuan expedition to raid ports around the world. Drake and his huge crew of 729 men, women and children set sail on five ships in 1577. Worried that the ships might get separated on the difficult journey, Drake ordered two of them to be destroyed and the rest to be tied together with high-strength steel cables. Though the purpose of the trip was very serious, Drake remembered his earlier days on the boardwalk, and he made sure the people on board ship had plenty of rides and games to play.

During the trip, Drake's ships came across the Spice Islands, almost by accident. There he discovered an uncharted island called Java. The local drink, kofie (which we know as "coffee") was rich and strong, and Drake soon fell in love with it. The locals also baked a cinnamon cake that was often paired with the drink. Drake wanted it so much, that he plundered the island, stole the computer disk with the recipe, and vanished before the natives knew what he had done. Drake's discovery, which he called kofie cake, later became the basis for what we eat today.

When Drake returned from this voyage people discovered that he had circumnavigated the world. He was only the second person to do this. Even though Columbus had preceded him, Drake was still very popular. Unfortunately, this fame did not last, and Drake needed to find a new source of income. Remembering the delicious coffee cakes and the stolen recipe, Drake started his own baking company. He lived the remainder of his long life back in his hometown of Wayne, New Jersey, where Drake's coffee cakes are still being made.
Click here for other places to learn about this explorer

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Francis Drake was born around the year 1542 in Wayne, New Jersey. His love of the ocean can be traced back to the early days when he and his family spent many holidays at the Jersey shore. Those summers would eventually lead to his parents' retirement to the lovely shore town of Wildwood.

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Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 - January 28, 1596) was an English sailor and explorer. Beginning around 1563, he and his cousin, Sir John Hawkins became the first Englishman to sell slaves from Africa in the New World. In Panama in 1573, he captured a fortune in silver and gold that the Spanish had seized from the Native Americans and became the first Englishman to see the Pacific. He was also the first Englishman to sail all the way around the world. Because of this, he was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth I. His rise from commoner to great war hero and influential person was rare for his time.

There were rumours of a love interest between Sir Francis Drake and Queen Elizabeth, but this is hard to quantify. Queen Elizabeth I did appreciate the many jewels and riches he brought back from his plunder of Spanish shipping (even if Queen Elizabeth I sometimes rebuked him for political reasons)

His most famous feat occurred when he was second in command of the English fleet - which defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. A traditional tale says he was playing bowls when the Spanish fleet were first noticed. Sir Francis Drake is claimed to have said:

'there's still time to finish the game and defeat the Spanish.'

However, this remains unsourced. A sourced quote shows Drake's assessment of the Spanish fleet, as the Armada approached.

"Coming up unto them, there has passed some cannon shot between some of our fleet and some of them, and so far as we perceive they are determined to sell their lives with blows. ... This letter honorable good Lord, is sent in haste. The fleet of Spaniards is somewhat above a hundred sails, many great ships; but truly, I think not half of them men-of-war. Haste."

Letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, from off Cape Sagres, Portugal (17 May 1587). His naval exploits led King Philip II of Spain to offer a reward of 20,000 ducats, ( US$6.5M in today's money), for his life.

Sir Francis Drake's ship was called 'The Golden Hind'. Sir Francis Drake was the second man to sail around the whole world with two of his ships intact.

Sir Francis Drake also helped to commercialise the slave trade. He accompanied his cousin Sir John Hawkins in the third British Slave trading expeditions. He was also present at the Rathlin Island Massacre, where 600 people were massacred after surrendering in Ulster.

He died of dysentery in January 1596 after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. "Biography of Sir Francis Drake", Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net , Published 21/04/2009. Last updated 18 Feb 2018.

Books on Sir Francis Drake
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Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 - January 28, 1596) was an English sailor and explorer. Beginning around 1563, he and his cousin, Sir John Hawkins became the first Englishman to sell slaves from Africa in the New World. In Panama in 1573, he captured a fortune in silver and gold that the Spanish had seized ...

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This is a full biography of French explorer Robert Sieur de la Salle

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Learn about Robert De la Salle: his birthday, what he did before fame, his family life, fun trivia facts, popularity rankings, and more.

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle - Wikipedia

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de La Salle [verification needed ] (November 22, 1643 - March 19, 1687) was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. He claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France.

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Sir Francis Drake was more pirate than patriot as he raided Spanish possessions during England's war with Spain. Hero of many battles, he died ingloriously of disease and was buried at sea.

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Learn more and understand better with BrainPOP's animated movies, games, playful assessments, and activities covering Science, Math, History, English, and more!

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John Hawkins was a 16th century British naval commander and slave trader who entered into conflict with Spain.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The first to sail around the world.

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The director of the Miller Funeral Home was a man named Paul Groody. He told the grave diggers that the piles of dirt they were moving were in service of a deceased man named William Bobo. Bobo, an old cowboy in the Fort Worth area, occupied one of the tables inside the funeral parlor, old age and sun-drenched living having caught up to him at the age of 75.

That's right, Paul Groody told them. That hole is for Bobo.

When Groody called and arranged for flowers, he told the florist to put "Bobo" on the tag.

When Groody picked out a brown suit for the service, the reporters who were milling around the funeral home asked him who it was for. "Mr. Bobo," Groody told them.

Groody was lying. The suit wasn't for Bobo. Neither were the flowers, nor the grave, nor the eight policemen and two guard dogs stationed at the property, some of whom had accompanied Groody when he visited Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 24 to claim the most infamous corpse in the country.

All of these arrangements were in the service of burying Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of assassinating John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, who was himself murdered on November 24, and would be laid to rest on November 25. It would be a most unusual send-off.

Perched at the window of the Texas School Book Depository, alleged communist Oswald reportedly took aim at a motorcade traveling through Dallas, fired three shots, and pierced the skull of Kennedy. He was captured, jailed, then shot by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while in transit to another facility. At Parkland Memorial Hospital-the same site where Kennedy was rushed in an attempt to save his life-Oswald was pronounced dead 105 minutes after being shot.

Never had a dead body been such a source of consternation and concern among the Secret Service, the FBI, and local officials. Oswald had obviously been a target while he was still breathing; dead, the authorities were concerned that he might attract people looking to desecrate his corpse.

Quietly, law enforcement phoned Groody, who operated a funeral home in Fort Worth. He collected Oswald's body in the middle of the night on November 24 and made plans for a service the following day, when Oswald's mother, widow, brother, and two children would be able to attend. But there were some problems.

Problem one was the issue of finding someone to lead the service. No one, not even clergy members, could seem to put aside their anger long enough to say even a few parting words about a man who sent the country into mourning. Two Lutheran ministers agreed, then backed out when Groody told them the service would be held outdoors. (Both feared sniper fire would disrupt the proceedings.)

When Oswald's family showed up for the 4 p.m. service, Groody encountered another issue. Aside from law enforcement, no one other than Oswald's widow and mother had showed up for the funeral-there were no friends and no other family members to serve as pallbearers. So Groody turned to the one thing he did have in plentiful supply: members of the press. Acting on a tip, dozens of reporters had gathered on the grounds to photograph and witness the burial of Kennedy's assassin.

Groody approached Preston McGraw, a local reporter with whom he had some previous dealings. McGraw agreed to help carry the casket. Michael Cochran, the Associated Press's Fort Worth correspondent, saw McGraw assisting and felt compelled to join him (after initially refusing to help). Another reporter, Jack Moseley, hung on to the casket's handle for a few steps before walking away; he couldn't stand carrying Oswald, even if it was to his grave.

Eventually, at least seven reporters labored to move him. Then, with Oswald in the ground, the Reverend Louis Saunders-executive secretary of the local Council of Churches and the only man willing to lend the service a religious overture-uttered some spare words.

"Mrs. Oswald tells me that her son, Lee Harvey, was a good boy and that she loved him," he said. "And today, Lord, we commit his spirit to your Divine care."

That was all. Oswald's casket was opened one last time so that the family could pay their last respects. It was then lowered into the grave.

It wouldn't remain there.

The morbid fascination with Oswald so feared by authorities turned out to be warranted. On the fourth anniversary of Kennedy's murder, in 1967, thieves stole Oswald's modest headstone in Rose Hill Cemetery. When it was recovered, Oswald's mother, Marguerite, replaced it with a simple plaque and kept the original in her home.

When Marguerite died in 1981, she was buried in the plot next to her son. That same year, Oswald's body was exhumed in order to satisfy conspiracy theories regarding whether he really occupied the grave or whether a body double had been used instead. After the curious parties were satisfied, Oswald was buried once more.

Because his pine bluff casket had been damaged by water, the Miller Funeral Home-now known as the Baumgardner Funeral Home-told Oswald's brother, Robert, that they'd be putting him in a new coffin. Robert agreed, assuming the old one would be destroyed.

It wasn't. Unbeknownst to Robert, the funeral home put the casket up for auction in 2010. In 2015, a judge ruled that the business owed Robert $87,468 in damages and needed to return the casket to the family.

No one ever appeared eager to let Lee Harvey Oswald rest in peace, save for the journalists who put him there. When Cochran stood deliberating whether to assist Groody in 1963, a reporter named Jerry Flemmons turned to him and said, "Cochran, if we're gonna write a story about the burial of Lee Harvey Oswald, we're gonna have to bury the son of a bitch ourselves."

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13 Things You Should Know About Ferdinand Magellan

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The director of the Miller Funeral Home was a man named Paul Groody. He told the grave diggers that the piles of dirt they were moving were in service of a deceased man named William Bobo.

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The ancient Greek scientist and philosopher, Aristotle, declared that the Earth was round in 350 B.C., but for centuries many people did not believe him. The idea that the Earth was flat continued for hundreds of years. Ferdinand Magellan was the first person to prove that the Earth is round, not flat. How did he do it? By sailing around the Earth.

Ferdinand Magellan was born to noble parents in Portugal in 1480. His parents died when he was a child, and he was sent to be a page to the queen. During this time, he attended school and studied geography, navigation, astronomy and cartography.

As a young man, he became a sailor and later convinced the Spanish king, Charles V, to finance a voyage. Magellan wanted to travel westward to reach Asia and the Spice Islands.

Fun Facts About Ferdinand Magellan for Kids

During the Middle Ages, spices, such as nutmeg, cloves and pepper were in high demand. The wealthy wanted them as flavorings for food. They also used them in perfumes and medicines.

The trade routes to India and the Spice Islands were dangerous. Pirates lay waiting to attack at sea and people frequently fought over the land routes.

Magellan set sail on the 20th of September in 1519, with five boats headed to Brazil. He sailed down the east coast of South America to Patagonia. There, one of the ships was destroyed by mutinous crew members.

The remaining four ships sailed on. Over a year into their journey, they traveled through a channel that connects the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. This channel lies in Chile and is known as the Strait of Magellan. It took over a month to travel through the Strait of Magellan. One of the captains deserted, taking his ship back to Spain.

Magellan thought it would be an easy trip to the Spice Islands. He was wrong about the distance. It took the men almost six months to sail to the Spice Islands.

Just a few weeks after reaching Indonesia, Magellan was killed by a poisoned arrow in a battle with local tribes. His crew sailed back to Spain without him, reaching land in 1522.

Ferdinand Magellan Vocabulary

1. Noble: people with money and power

2. Astronomy: the study of the position and movement of the stars and planets

3. Cartography: the study of map making

4. Perfume: pleasantly scented oils or sprays

5. Mutinous: wanting mutiny or rebellion; rising up and fighting against a leader

All About Ferdinand Magellan Video for Kids

Watch this awesome Ferdinand Magellan video for kids:

Ferdinand Magellan Q&A

Question: Why is Magellan considered an important explorer?

Answer: Besides finally proving that the Earth is round, he discovered and named the Pacific Ocean, which means calm and peaceful. He also discovered the Strait of Magellan, which was an important channel for voyagers.

Enjoyed the Easy Geography for Kids all about Ferdinand Magellan info? Take the FREE & fun all about Ferdinand Magellan quiz and download FREE all about Ferdinand Magellan worksheet for kids. For lengthy info click here.

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The ancient Greek scientist and philosopher, Aristotle, declared that the Earth was round in 350 B.C., but for centuries many people did not believe him. The idea that the Earth was flat continued for hundreds of years. Ferdinand Magellan was the first person to prove that the Earth is round, not flat.

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Magellan sailed from Spain in 1519 with five ships. He sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and down the coast of South America. In 1520 he found a passage to the ocean that the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa had first seen in 1513. Magellan named it the Pacific Ocean. The passage, at the southern tip of South America, is now called the Strait of Magellan.

With three ships left, Magellan crossed the Pacific. After about 100 days he reached the islands now called the Philippines. On April 27, 1521, he was killed in a fight with the people of the islands.

After Magellan's death two of his ships continued westward. One ship made it across the Indian Ocean and around the southern tip of Africa. It returned to Spain on September 8, 1522.

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Ferdinand Magellan was an explorer from Portugal. He and his sailors were the first Europeans to cross the Pacific Ocean. One of his ships made the first trip around the...

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Ferdinand Magellan was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, in 1480 into a noble family. After serving as a court page for two years, his adventurous spirit led him to a career as an explorer. In 1506, Magellan went to the Spice Islands (Indonesia) to participate in several military and exploratory expeditions. In 1510, he was promoted to the rank of captain. In 1512, he was stationed in Morocco and made preliminary plans to find a western shortcut to the Spice Islands. Unfortunately, Portugal's king, Emmanuel, refused to finance his journey, and in 1517, Magellan renounced his Portuguese citizenship. He promptly offered his services to King Charles I of Spain. Charles I agreed to finance Magellan's trip in the hopes of becoming the king of the richest nation in the world.

Circumnavigation

On September 20, 1519, Magellan and 237 crew members set sail on five ships from Sanlucar de Barrameda in the hopes of finding a shortcut to the Spice Islands. After three long months of sailing the Atlantic, Magellan and his crew anchored near Rio de Janeiro in the present-day South American nation of Brazil. After trading with local natives, Magellan and his men quickly set sail again, ever worried about the threat of Portuguese ships. As the expedition continued, the weather got worse, and several crew members were executed for trying to take over the ship. Others were starving or suffering from frostbite. As the ships neared the southern tip of South America, one ship smashed into the beach and lost all supplies. Nevertheless, in October of 1520, Magellan and his crew crossed the treacherous straits at the tip of South America, which became known as the Straits of Magellan.

Trouble in the Pacific Ocean

As the expedition passed through the straits, they entered the vast Pacific Ocean. Things got worse before they got better. The crew suffered from extreme hunger and was forced to survive by eating rats, sawdust, leather, and even maggots. At least 20 men died from disease, particularly scurvy (caused by a lack of vitamin C) and starvation. On March 6, the ships finally reached land-the Pacific island of Guam. Nevertheless, the crew members were able to collect clean water and food, despite being on the alert for attacks by the natives. Soon, the crew sailed to the Philippine Islands, where they converted natives to Christianity. During an attempt to convert the native chief, Mactan, to Christianity, Magellan was wounded by an arrow that was driven through his foot by a native warrior. Mactan, who had become upset with Magellan's insistence that he convert, ordered his warriors to attack. They killed Magellan on April 27, 1521. Most of Magellan's crew escaped and set sail.

Return to Spain

With the loss of their leader, Juan Sebastian del Cano took control of the ship and sailed for Spain. Only two ships and 47 men remained. Portuguese forces captured one of the ships, leaving the Victoria as the only ship left. Severe storms and Portuguese attacks battered the Victoria. As Portuguese forces bore down on the expedition near the Cape Verde Islands, del Cano was forced to continue toward Spain without supplies or rest. Finally, on September 8, 1522, the Victoria made it back to Spain with only 18 men surviving, hence completing the first circumnavigation of the world.

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Ferdinand Magellan Biography for Kids - First Circumnavigation

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Ferdinand Magellan was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, in 1480 into a noble family. After serving as a court page for two years, his adventurous spirit led him to a career as an explorer. In 1506, Magellan went to the Spice Islands (Indonesia) to participate in several military and exploratory expeditions.

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Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães, Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes) (1480 - April 27, 1521) was a Portuguese explorer.

Magellan is given credit for having given the Pacific Ocean its name. He called it Mar Pacifico, which means "peaceful sea" in Portuguese.

He became the first European to sail the Pacific Ocean, and his crew was the first to sail around the world. Magellan's voyage is said to have proved that the Earth was round.

Magellan was also the first to sail through the Strait of Magellan, so it was named after him. Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines, on April 27, 1521, in Mactan during a battle with the natives after he was accused of stealing.

Charles V of Spain provided him with five ships for the voyage round the world. Only one ship, the Victoria, completed the voyage.

Early life and travels

Magellan was born in 1480. His birthplace is recorded as either Sabrosa or Porto in Portugal. He worked in the royal court.

Since his parents were members of the Portuguese nobility, after their deaths, Magellan became a page for the queen at the age of ten.

In the royal court, he learned many important skills, including cartography (map-making), navigation, and astronomy.

In 1505, when he was 25, Magellan joined the navy. When he worked for Portugal, he went to many parts of the world, such as India, the Spice Islands, East Africa, and Morocco. When in Morocco in 1513, Magellan was wounded, causing him to limp for the rest of his life. After he lost his job for the King of Portugal, he went to work for the King of Spain.

He was married to Beatriz Barbosa and had two children: Rodrigo and Carlos.

Spanish search of the Spice Islands

The aim of Christopher Columbus's voyage to the West was to reach the coasts of the Spice Islands (or the Indies) and to establish trade between Spain and the several Asian kingdoms. The Spanish soon realized after Columbus's voyages that the lands of the Americas were not a part of Asia, but a new continent.

When Magellan arrived at the Court of Spain, he presented King Charles V a plan which would give the ships of the Crown of Castile full access to the lands of the Spice Islands.

On August 10, 1519, five ships under Magellan's command left Seville and traveled west from the Guadalquivir River to Sanlúcar de Barrameda at the mouth of the river, where they remained for more than five weeks. Magellan set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on September 20.

After stopping at the Canary Islands, Magellan arrived at Cape Verde, where he set a course for Cape St. Augustine in Brazil. On November 27, the expedition crossed the equator; on December 6, the crew sighted South America.

Since Brazil was Portuguese territory, Magellan avoided it, and on December 13 anchored near present-day Rio de Janeiro, where they resupplied. They continued to sail south along South America's east coast, looking for the strait that Magellan believed would lead to the Spice Islands. The fleet reached Río de la Plata on January 10, 1520.

On March 30, the crew established a settlement that they called Puerto San Julian.

On April 2, a mutiny involving two of the ship captains broke out, but it was unsuccessful because the crew remained loyal to Magellan. Some of the captains involved in the mutiny were executed; years later, their bones were found by Sir Francis Drake.

The journey resumed. The ship Santiago was sent down the coast on a scouting expedition but was wrecked in a sudden storm. All of its crew survived and made it safely to shore. Two of them returned, traveling on land, to let Magellan know what had happened and to help rescue their comrades. After this experience, Magellan decided to wait for a few weeks more before continuing the voyage.

At 52°S latitude on October 21, the fleet reached Cape Virgenes and they decided they had found the passage because even though they went deep inland, the water was still brine (salty). Four ships began the hard trip through the 373-mile (600 km) passage that Magellan called the Estrecho (Canal) de Todos los Santos ("All Saints' Channel") because the fleet traveled through it on November 1, or All Saints' Day. The strait is now named the Strait of Magellan.

Magellan first assigned the ships Concepción and San Antonio to explore the strait. The San Antonio deserted and returned to Spain on November 20, leaving three ships: Concepción, Trinidad, and Victoria.

Magellan was the first European to reach Tierra del Fuego just east of the Pacific side of the strait.

On November 28, the three ships entered the South Pacific. Magellan named the waters the Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean) because it looked so still.

Heading northwest, the crew reached the equator on February 13, 1521. On March 6, they reached the Marianas and Guam. Magellan called Guam the "Island of Sails" because they saw a lot of sailboats. They renamed it to "Ladrones Island" (Island of Thieves) because many of Trinidad' s small boats were stolen there.

On March 16, Magellan reached the island of Homonhon in the Philippines, with 150 crew left, and became the first European to reach the Philippines.

Magellan was able to communicate with the native people because his Malay interpreter, Enrique, could understand their language. Enrique was an indentured servant of Magellan. Magellan and his crew traded gifts with Rajah Kolambu of Limasawa, who guided them to Cebu on April 7.

Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly to Magellan, and he and his queen, Juana, even accepted Christianity. Afterward, Humabon and his rival Datu Zula convinced Magellan to go kill their enemy, Lapu-Lapu, on Mactan.

Magellan wanted to convert Lapu-Lapu to Christianity. On the morning of April 17, 1521, Magellan sailed to Mactan with an army of men. During the resulting Battle of Mactan against indigenous forces led by Lapu-Lapu, Magellan was killed.

In his will, Magellan said that Enrique, his interpreter, was to be freed upon his death. However, the remaining ships' masters refused to free Enrique. Enrique escaped on May 1.

Circumnavigation and return

Because so many men died in the Philippines, it left the expedition with too few men to sail the three remaining ships.

On May 2, they abandoned Concepción and burned it to make sure the ship could not be used against them. This left them with two ships, Trinidad and Victoria, that fled westward to Palawan. They left that island on June 21 and were guided to Brunei, Borneo, by Moro pilots who knew how to travel on the shallow seas.

The ships anchored off the shore of Brunei for 35 days, where they saw the splendor of Rajah Siripada's court ( gold, two pearls the size of hens' eggs, etc.). They saw that Brunei also had tame elephants and an armament of 62 cannons, more than 5 times the cannons of Magellan's ships. They also had things such as porcelain and eyeglasses, which were not available or only just becoming available in Europe.

After reaching the Maluku Islands (the Spice Islands) on November 6, 115 crew were left. They managed to trade with the Sultan of Tidore, a rival of the Sultan of Ternate, who was the ally of the Portuguese.

The two remaining ships, packed with valuable spices, tried to return to Spain by sailing west. However, as they left the Spice Islands, Trinidad began to take on water. The crew tried to discover and repair the leak but failed. Victoria sailed ahead, taking the Indian Ocean route heading west for Spain on December 21. The ship was commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano. Several weeks later, Trinidad departed and attempted to return to Spain by traveling east on the Pacific route. This attempt failed. Trinidad was captured by the Portuguese, and was eventually wrecked in a storm while at anchor under Portuguese control.

By May 6, 1522, the Victoria rounded the Cape of Good Hope, with only rice for rations. Twenty crewmen died of starvation.

On September 6, 1522, Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's voyage arrived in Spain aboard the last ship in the fleet, Victoria, almost exactly three years after they departed.

Magellan had not intended to circumnavigate the world. He had only wanted to find a secure way through which the Spanish ships could navigate to the Spice Islands. It was Elcano who, after Magellan's death, decided to push westward and completed the first voyage around the entire Earth.

In total, approximately 232 Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, English, and German sailors died on the expedition around the world with Magellan.

Magellan's expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe and the first to navigate the strait in South America connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Magellan's crew observed several animals that were entirely new to European science, including a " camel without humps," which could have been a llama, guanaco, vicuña, or alpaca. They called a penguin a black " goose" that had to be skinned instead of plucked.

Two of the closest galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, were discovered by crew members in the southern hemisphere. The full extent of the Earth was also realized, since their voyage was 14,460 leagues, or 43,400 mi (69,800 km).

Finally, the need for an International Date Line was established. Upon their return, the crew observed a mismatch of one day between their calendars and those who did not travel, even though they faithfully maintained their ship's log. However, they did not have clocks accurate enough to observe the variation in the length of the day during the journey. News of the mismatched day caused great excitement at the time. People traveled to the Pope to explain this oddity to him.

Ferdinand Magellan quotes

"It is a blessed thing that in every age someone has had the individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions."

"Let us risk the wildest places, lest we go down in comfort and despair."

"The sea is dangerous and its storms terrible, but these obstacles have never been sufficient reason to remain ashore."

Interesting facts about Ferdinand Magellan

Magellan was ten years old when his parents died.

His father had been the mayor of his hometown and they were members of Portuguese nobility.

Magellan's home country of Portugal considered him a traitor because he left Portugal to begin working for the king of Spain.

Portugal tried to stop Magellan on his trip to the Spice Islands using a different route than Portugal had established.

Magellan's expedition included sailors from many different countries.

There were two mutinies on the expedition.

Magellan is given credit for having given the Pacific Ocean its name. Mar Pacifico means "peaceful sea" in Portuguese.

After Magellan's death, Juan Sebastian Elcano finished the voyage back to Spain, bringing 381 sacks of cloves with him. This was more than the worth of the five ships that left for the Spice Islands.

Images for kids

House where Magellan lived, in Sabrosa, Portugal

Magellan's voyages; the double line represents Magellan's trip from Portugal to the Moluccas. The single line traces his long, continuous voyage from Spain to the Philippines.

Magellan's Cross in present day Cebu

The original image of Santo Niño de Cebú, an image of the Child Jesus given by Magellan to the Cebuanos, now enshrined at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño

A 1561 map of America showing Magellan's name for the Pacific, Mare pacificum, and the Strait of Magellan, labeled Frenum Magaliani

In Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes para niños

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Quick Facts
"The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church.""Rebel, this is mutiny! You are my prisoner in the king's name.""Follow me and ask no questions."

Sabrosa or Porto, Portugal

While in the service of Spain, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European voyage of discovery to circumnavigate the globe.

Who Was Ferdinand Magellan?

As a boy, Ferdinand Magellan studied mapmaking and navigation. By his mid-20s, he was sailing in large fleets and was engaged in combat. In 1519, with the support of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Magellan set out to find a better route to the Spice Islands. He assembled a fleet of ships which, despite huge setbacks and Magellan's death, circumnavigated the world in a single voyage.

Early Life

Magellan was born in Portugal, either in the city of Porto or in Sabrosa, circa 1480. His parents were members of the Portuguese nobility and after their deaths, Magellan became a page for the queen, at age 10. He studied at Queen Leonora's School of Pages in Lisbon and spent his days poring over texts on cartography, astronomy, and celestial navigation - subjects that would serve him well in his later pursuits.

In 1505, when Magellan was in his mid-20s, he joined a Portuguese fleet that was sailing to East Africa. By 1509, he found himself at the Battle of Diu, in which the Portuguese destroyed Egyptian ships in the Arabian Sea. Two years later, he explored Malacca, located in present-day Malaysia, and participated in the conquest of Malacca's port. It was there that he acquired a native servant he named Enrique. It is possible that Magellan sailed as far as the Moluccas, islands in Indonesia, then called the Spice Islands. The Moluccas were the original source of some of the world's most valuable spices, including cloves and nutmeg. The conquest of spice-rich countries was, as a result, a source of much European competition.

While serving in Morocco, in 1513, Magellan was wounded and walked the remainder of his life with a limp. After his injury, he was falsely accused of trading illegally with the Moors, and despite all of his service to Portugal, and his many pleas to the king, any further offers of employment were withheld him.

In 1517, Magellan moved to Seville, Spain, to offer his skills to the Spanish court. His departure from Portugal came at an opportune time. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) declared all newly discovered and yet to be discovered territories east of the demarcation line (46°30′ W) were given to Portugal and all territories west of the line were given to Spain. In the three years following his departure from Portugal, Magellan had religiously studied all of the most recent navigation charts. Like all navigators of the time, he understood from Greek texts that the world was round. He believed that he could find a shorter route to the Spice Islands by sailing west, across the Atlantic Ocean, around South America and across the Pacific. This was not a new idea, Christopher Columbus and Vasco Núñez de Balboa had paved the way, but such a voyage would give the Spanish open access to the Spice Islands without having to travel across areas controlled by the Portuguese.

Final Years and Death

Magellan presented his plan to King Charles I of Spain (soon to become Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire), who gave his blessing. On September 20, 1519, he set out with a fleet of five fully supplied ships, but hardly adequate to sail the distances he proposed. The fleet sailed first to Brazil and then down the coast of South America to Patagonia. There an attempted mutiny took place and one of the ships was wrecked. Despite the setback, the crew continued on with the four remaining vessels.

By October 1520, Magellan and his men had entered what is now called the Strait of Magellan. It took them over a month to pass through the strait, during which time the master of one of the ships deserted and sailed back home. The remaining ships sailed across the Pacific Ocean. In March 1521, the fleet anchored in Guam.

Later in March, 1521, Magellan' fleet reached Homonhom Island on the edge of the Philippines with less than 150 of the 270 men who started the expedition. Magellan traded with Rajah Humabon, the island king, and a bond was quickly formed. The Spanish crew soon became involved in a war between Humabon and another rival leader and Magellan was killed in battle on April 27, 1521.

The remaining crew escaped the Philippines and continued on towards the Spice Islands, arriving in November 1521. The Spanish commander of the last ship, the Victoria, set sail December and reached Spain on September 8, 1522.

The Controversy Over Who was First

There has been considerable debate around who were the first persons to circumnavigate the globe. The easy answer is Juan Sabastian Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's fleet starting from Spain on September 20, 1519, and returning in September 1522. But there is another candidate who might have gone around the world before them - Magellan' servant Enrique. In 1511, Magellan was on a voyage for Portugal to the Spice Islands and participated in the conquest of Malacca where he acquired his servant Enrique. Fast forward ten years later, Enrique is with Magellan in the Philippines. After Magellan's death, it is reported that Enrique was grief-stricken and when he found out he was not going to be freed, contrary to Magellan's will, he ran away. At this point the record gets murky. Some accounts state Enrique fled into the forest. Official Spanish records list Enrique as one of the men massacred in the attack, but some historians question the records' credibility or accuracy, citing a bias against Indigenous peoples.

So, it is possible that if Enrique had survived after his escape, he might have made his way back to Malacca where he was originally enslaved by Magellan back in 1511. If true, it would mean Enrique - not Elcano and the surviving members of the crew - was the first person to circumnavigate the globe, albeit not in a single voyage.

Fact Check

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"The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church." "Rebel, this is mutiny! You are my prisoner in the king's name."

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Ferdinand Magellan - Ages of Exploration

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Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe; considered the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean.

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Ferdinand Magellan, (born 1480, Sabrosa or Porto?, Portugal-died April 27, 1521, Mactan, Philippines), Portuguese navigator and explorer who sailed under the flags of both Portugal (1505-13) and Spain (1519-21). From Spain he sailed around South America, discovering the Strait of Magellan, and across the Pacific. Though he was killed in the Philippines, one of his ships continued westward to Spain, accomplishing the first circumnavigation of Earth. The voyage was successfully terminated by the Basque navigator Juan Sebastián del Cano.

Early life

Magellan was the son of Rui de Magalhães and Alda de Mesquita, members of the Portuguese nobility. At an early age he became a page to Queen Leonor, wife of John II (reigned 1481-95) and sister of Manuel I (reigned 1495-1521), in Lisbon. In early 1505 he enlisted in the fleet of Francisco de Almeida, first viceroy of Portuguese India, whose expedition King Manuel sent to check Muslim sea power along the African and Indian coasts and to establish a strong Portuguese presence in the Indian Ocean. During a naval engagement at Cannanore (now Kannur) on the Malabar Coast of India, Magellan is said by the chronicler Gaspar Correia (also spelled Corrêa) to have been wounded. Though Correia states that during this early period of his Indian service, Magellan acquired considerable knowledge of navigation, little is known of Magellan's first years in the East until he appears among those sailing in November 1506 with Nuno Vaz Pereira to Sofala on the Mozambique coast, where the Portuguese had established a fort.

By 1507 Magellan was back in India. He took part, on February 2-3, 1509, in the great Battle of Diu, in which the Portuguese defeated a Muslim fleet and thereby gained supremacy over most of the Indian Ocean. Reaching Cochin (now Kochi, India) in the fleet of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, he subsequently left for the Malay city-state of Malacca (now Melaka, Malaysia). Magellan is mentioned as being sent to warn the commander of the Portuguese ships in Malacca's waters of impending attack by Malays. During the subsequent fighting he saved the life of a Portuguese explorer, his close friend Francisco Serrão. (Serrão, possibly a relative of Magellan's, had sailed with Magellan to India in 1505.) Magellan attempted to return to Portugal afterward but was unsuccessful. At a council held at Cochin on October 10, 1510, to decide on plans for retaking Goa-which the Portuguese had captured earlier in the year but then lost-he advised against taking large ships at that season. Nevertheless, the new Portuguese governor in India, Afonso de Albuquerque, did so, and the city fell to the Portuguese on November 24. Magellan's name does not appear among those who fought.

The Portuguese victories off the eastern coast of Africa and the western coast of India had broken Muslim power in the Indian Ocean, and the purpose of Almeida's expedition-to wrest from the Arabs the key points of sea trade-was almost accomplished. Yet without control of Malacca, their achievement was incomplete. At the end of June 1511, therefore, a fleet under Albuquerque left for Malacca, which fell after six weeks. This event, in which Magellan took part, was the crowning Portuguese victory in the Orient. Through Malacca passed the wealth of the East to the harbours of the West, and in command of the Malacca Strait the Portuguese held the key to the seas and ports of Malaysia. It remained only to explore the wealth-giving Moluccas (now part of Indonesia), the islands of spice. Accordingly, early in December 1511 they sailed on a voyage of reconnaissance, and after reaching Banda they returned with spice in 1512. The claim made by some that Magellan went on this voyage rests on unproven statements by Italian geographer Giovanni Battista Ramusio and Spanish historian Leonardo de Argensola, and the want of evidence argues against its acceptance. However, it is known that Magellan's friend Serrão was in command of one of the ships and that he later sent Magellan helpful information from the Moluccas about those islands.

By mid-1513 Magellan was back in Lisbon, but he soon joined the forces sent against the Moroccan stronghold of Azamor (Azemmour). In a skirmish that August he sustained a leg wound that caused him to limp for the rest of his life. Returning to Lisbon in November 1514, he asked King Manuel for a token increase in his pension as a reward. But unfounded reports of irregular conduct on his part had reached the king: after the siege of Azamor, Magellan was accused of having sold a portion of the war spoils back to the enemy. Refusing Magellan's request for a reward, Manuel ordered him back to Morocco. Early in 1516 Magellan renewed his petition; the king, refusing once more, told him he might offer his services elsewhere.

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Ferdinand Magellan | Biography, Voyage, Map, Accomplishments, Route, Discoveries, Death, & Facts

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Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese navigator and explorer. From Spain he sailed around South America, discovering the Strait of Magellan, and across the Pacific. Though he was killed in the Philippines, one of his ships continued westward to Spain, accomplishing the first circumnavigation of Earth.

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Quick Facts
"The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church.""Rebel, this is mutiny! You are my prisoner in the king's name.""Follow me and ask no questions."

Sabrosa or Porto, Portugal

While in the service of Spain, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European voyage of discovery to circumnavigate the globe.

Who Was Ferdinand Magellan?

As a boy, Ferdinand Magellan studied mapmaking and navigation. By his mid-20s, he was sailing in large fleets and was engaged in combat. In 1519, with the support of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Magellan set out to find a better route to the Spice Islands. He assembled a fleet of ships which, despite huge setbacks and Magellan's death, circumnavigated the world in a single voyage.

Early Life

Magellan was born in Portugal, either in the city of Porto or in Sabrosa, circa 1480. His parents were members of the Portuguese nobility and after their deaths, Magellan became a page for the queen, at age 10. He studied at Queen Leonora's School of Pages in Lisbon and spent his days poring over texts on cartography, astronomy, and celestial navigation - subjects that would serve him well in his later pursuits.

In 1505, when Magellan was in his mid-20s, he joined a Portuguese fleet that was sailing to East Africa. By 1509, he found himself at the Battle of Diu, in which the Portuguese destroyed Egyptian ships in the Arabian Sea. Two years later, he explored Malacca, located in present-day Malaysia, and participated in the conquest of Malacca's port. It was there that he acquired a native servant he named Enrique. It is possible that Magellan sailed as far as the Moluccas, islands in Indonesia, then called the Spice Islands. The Moluccas were the original source of some of the world's most valuable spices, including cloves and nutmeg. The conquest of spice-rich countries was, as a result, a source of much European competition.

While serving in Morocco, in 1513, Magellan was wounded and walked the remainder of his life with a limp. After his injury, he was falsely accused of trading illegally with the Moors, and despite all of his service to Portugal, and his many pleas to the king, any further offers of employment were withheld him.

In 1517, Magellan moved to Seville, Spain, to offer his skills to the Spanish court. His departure from Portugal came at an opportune time. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) declared all newly discovered and yet to be discovered territories east of the demarcation line (46°30′ W) were given to Portugal and all territories west of the line were given to Spain. In the three years following his departure from Portugal, Magellan had religiously studied all of the most recent navigation charts. Like all navigators of the time, he understood from Greek texts that the world was round. He believed that he could find a shorter route to the Spice Islands by sailing west, across the Atlantic Ocean, around South America and across the Pacific. This was not a new idea, Christopher Columbus and Vasco Núñez de Balboa had paved the way, but such a voyage would give the Spanish open access to the Spice Islands without having to travel across areas controlled by the Portuguese.

Final Years and Death

Magellan presented his plan to King Charles I of Spain (soon to become Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire), who gave his blessing. On September 20, 1519, he set out with a fleet of five fully supplied ships, but hardly adequate to sail the distances he proposed. The fleet sailed first to Brazil and then down the coast of South America to Patagonia. There an attempted mutiny took place and one of the ships was wrecked. Despite the setback, the crew continued on with the four remaining vessels.

By October 1520, Magellan and his men had entered what is now called the Strait of Magellan. It took them over a month to pass through the strait, during which time the master of one of the ships deserted and sailed back home. The remaining ships sailed across the Pacific Ocean. In March 1521, the fleet anchored in Guam.

Later in March, 1521, Magellan' fleet reached Homonhom Island on the edge of the Philippines with less than 150 of the 270 men who started the expedition. Magellan traded with Rajah Humabon, the island king, and a bond was quickly formed. The Spanish crew soon became involved in a war between Humabon and another rival leader and Magellan was killed in battle on April 27, 1521.

The remaining crew escaped the Philippines and continued on towards the Spice Islands, arriving in November 1521. The Spanish commander of the last ship, the Victoria, set sail December and reached Spain on September 8, 1522.

The Controversy Over Who was First

There has been considerable debate around who were the first persons to circumnavigate the globe. The easy answer is Juan Sabastian Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's fleet starting from Spain on September 20, 1519, and returning in September 1522. But there is another candidate who might have gone around the world before them - Magellan' servant Enrique. In 1511, Magellan was on a voyage for Portugal to the Spice Islands and participated in the conquest of Malacca where he acquired his servant Enrique. Fast forward ten years later, Enrique is with Magellan in the Philippines. After Magellan's death, it is reported that Enrique was grief-stricken and when he found out he was not going to be freed, contrary to Magellan's will, he ran away. At this point the record gets murky. Some accounts state Enrique fled into the forest. Official Spanish records list Enrique as one of the men massacred in the attack, but some historians question the records' credibility or accuracy, citing a bias against Indigenous peoples.

So, it is possible that if Enrique had survived after his escape, he might have made his way back to Malacca where he was originally enslaved by Magellan back in 1511. If true, it would mean Enrique - not Elcano and the surviving members of the crew - was the first person to circumnavigate the globe, albeit not in a single voyage.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church." "Rebel, this is mutiny! You are my prisoner in the king's name."

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The first to sail around the world.

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Ferdinand Magellan was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, in 1480 into a noble family. After serving as a court page for two years, his adventurous spirit led him to a career as an explorer. In 1506, Magellan went to the Spice Islands (Indonesia) to participate in several military and exploratory expeditions. In 1510, he was promoted to the rank of captain. In 1512, he was stationed in Morocco and made preliminary plans to find a western shortcut to the Spice Islands. Unfortunately, Portugal's king, Emmanuel, refused to finance his journey, and in 1517, Magellan renounced his Portuguese citizenship. He promptly offered his services to King Charles I of Spain. Charles I agreed to finance Magellan's trip in the hopes of becoming the king of the richest nation in the world.

Circumnavigation

On September 20, 1519, Magellan and 237 crew members set sail on five ships from Sanlucar de Barrameda in the hopes of finding a shortcut to the Spice Islands. After three long months of sailing the Atlantic, Magellan and his crew anchored near Rio de Janeiro in the present-day South American nation of Brazil. After trading with local natives, Magellan and his men quickly set sail again, ever worried about the threat of Portuguese ships. As the expedition continued, the weather got worse, and several crew members were executed for trying to take over the ship. Others were starving or suffering from frostbite. As the ships neared the southern tip of South America, one ship smashed into the beach and lost all supplies. Nevertheless, in October of 1520, Magellan and his crew crossed the treacherous straits at the tip of South America, which became known as the Straits of Magellan.

Trouble in the Pacific Ocean

As the expedition passed through the straits, they entered the vast Pacific Ocean. Things got worse before they got better. The crew suffered from extreme hunger and was forced to survive by eating rats, sawdust, leather, and even maggots. At least 20 men died from disease, particularly scurvy (caused by a lack of vitamin C) and starvation. On March 6, the ships finally reached land-the Pacific island of Guam. Nevertheless, the crew members were able to collect clean water and food, despite being on the alert for attacks by the natives. Soon, the crew sailed to the Philippine Islands, where they converted natives to Christianity. During an attempt to convert the native chief, Mactan, to Christianity, Magellan was wounded by an arrow that was driven through his foot by a native warrior. Mactan, who had become upset with Magellan's insistence that he convert, ordered his warriors to attack. They killed Magellan on April 27, 1521. Most of Magellan's crew escaped and set sail.

Return to Spain

With the loss of their leader, Juan Sebastian del Cano took control of the ship and sailed for Spain. Only two ships and 47 men remained. Portuguese forces captured one of the ships, leaving the Victoria as the only ship left. Severe storms and Portuguese attacks battered the Victoria. As Portuguese forces bore down on the expedition near the Cape Verde Islands, del Cano was forced to continue toward Spain without supplies or rest. Finally, on September 8, 1522, the Victoria made it back to Spain with only 18 men surviving, hence completing the first circumnavigation of the world.

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Ferdinand Magellan Biography for Kids - First Circumnavigation

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Ferdinand Magellan was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, in 1480 into a noble family. After serving as a court page for two years, his adventurous spirit led him to a career as an explorer. In 1506, Magellan went to the Spice Islands (Indonesia) to participate in several military and exploratory expeditions.

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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.

Did you know? Clove was the most valuable spice in Europe during Magellan's day. It was used to flavor food, but Europeans also believed that its essence could improve vision, its powder could relieve fevers and that it could enhance intercourse when mixed with milk.

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, Southeast Asia, 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 three years later across the Pacific, 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.

The Magellan Expedition: Circumnavigation 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 of the globe, he did so on a technicality: He first made a trip from Europe to present-day Malaysia, eastward via the Indian Ocean, and may have continued further east to the Spice Islands. He 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 enslaved servant Enrique was born in the region, possibly near Malacca or Cebu, and had come to Europe with Magellan by ship. Enrique reached Cebu (and possibly Mallaca) on the expedition's westward voyage, meaning he may have been the first person to circumnavigate the world in one direction to return to the same starting point.

HISTORY Vault: Columbus the Lost Voyage

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Ferdinand Magellan - Early Years, Expedition & Legacy

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Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe and became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean.

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Quick Facts
"The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church.""Rebel, this is mutiny! You are my prisoner in the king's name.""Follow me and ask no questions."

Sabrosa or Porto, Portugal

While in the service of Spain, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European voyage of discovery to circumnavigate the globe.

Who Was Ferdinand Magellan?

As a boy, Ferdinand Magellan studied mapmaking and navigation. By his mid-20s, he was sailing in large fleets and was engaged in combat. In 1519, with the support of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Magellan set out to find a better route to the Spice Islands. He assembled a fleet of ships which, despite huge setbacks and Magellan's death, circumnavigated the world in a single voyage.

Early Life

Magellan was born in Portugal, either in the city of Porto or in Sabrosa, circa 1480. His parents were members of the Portuguese nobility and after their deaths, Magellan became a page for the queen, at age 10. He studied at Queen Leonora's School of Pages in Lisbon and spent his days poring over texts on cartography, astronomy, and celestial navigation - subjects that would serve him well in his later pursuits.

In 1505, when Magellan was in his mid-20s, he joined a Portuguese fleet that was sailing to East Africa. By 1509, he found himself at the Battle of Diu, in which the Portuguese destroyed Egyptian ships in the Arabian Sea. Two years later, he explored Malacca, located in present-day Malaysia, and participated in the conquest of Malacca's port. It was there that he acquired a native servant he named Enrique. It is possible that Magellan sailed as far as the Moluccas, islands in Indonesia, then called the Spice Islands. The Moluccas were the original source of some of the world's most valuable spices, including cloves and nutmeg. The conquest of spice-rich countries was, as a result, a source of much European competition.

While serving in Morocco, in 1513, Magellan was wounded and walked the remainder of his life with a limp. After his injury, he was falsely accused of trading illegally with the Moors, and despite all of his service to Portugal, and his many pleas to the king, any further offers of employment were withheld him.

In 1517, Magellan moved to Seville, Spain, to offer his skills to the Spanish court. His departure from Portugal came at an opportune time. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) declared all newly discovered and yet to be discovered territories east of the demarcation line (46°30′ W) were given to Portugal and all territories west of the line were given to Spain. In the three years following his departure from Portugal, Magellan had religiously studied all of the most recent navigation charts. Like all navigators of the time, he understood from Greek texts that the world was round. He believed that he could find a shorter route to the Spice Islands by sailing west, across the Atlantic Ocean, around South America and across the Pacific. This was not a new idea, Christopher Columbus and Vasco Núñez de Balboa had paved the way, but such a voyage would give the Spanish open access to the Spice Islands without having to travel across areas controlled by the Portuguese.

Final Years and Death

Magellan presented his plan to King Charles I of Spain (soon to become Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire), who gave his blessing. On September 20, 1519, he set out with a fleet of five fully supplied ships, but hardly adequate to sail the distances he proposed. The fleet sailed first to Brazil and then down the coast of South America to Patagonia. There an attempted mutiny took place and one of the ships was wrecked. Despite the setback, the crew continued on with the four remaining vessels.

By October 1520, Magellan and his men had entered what is now called the Strait of Magellan. It took them over a month to pass through the strait, during which time the master of one of the ships deserted and sailed back home. The remaining ships sailed across the Pacific Ocean. In March 1521, the fleet anchored in Guam.

Later in March, 1521, Magellan' fleet reached Homonhom Island on the edge of the Philippines with less than 150 of the 270 men who started the expedition. Magellan traded with Rajah Humabon, the island king, and a bond was quickly formed. The Spanish crew soon became involved in a war between Humabon and another rival leader and Magellan was killed in battle on April 27, 1521.

The remaining crew escaped the Philippines and continued on towards the Spice Islands, arriving in November 1521. The Spanish commander of the last ship, the Victoria, set sail December and reached Spain on September 8, 1522.

The Controversy Over Who was First

There has been considerable debate around who were the first persons to circumnavigate the globe. The easy answer is Juan Sabastian Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's fleet starting from Spain on September 20, 1519, and returning in September 1522. But there is another candidate who might have gone around the world before them - Magellan' servant Enrique. In 1511, Magellan was on a voyage for Portugal to the Spice Islands and participated in the conquest of Malacca where he acquired his servant Enrique. Fast forward ten years later, Enrique is with Magellan in the Philippines. After Magellan's death, it is reported that Enrique was grief-stricken and when he found out he was not going to be freed, contrary to Magellan's will, he ran away. At this point the record gets murky. Some accounts state Enrique fled into the forest. Official Spanish records list Enrique as one of the men massacred in the attack, but some historians question the records' credibility or accuracy, citing a bias against Indigenous peoples.

So, it is possible that if Enrique had survived after his escape, he might have made his way back to Malacca where he was originally enslaved by Magellan back in 1511. If true, it would mean Enrique - not Elcano and the surviving members of the crew - was the first person to circumnavigate the globe, albeit not in a single voyage.

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"The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church." "Rebel, this is mutiny! You are my prisoner in the king's name."

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Visit this site providing a short biography, facts, picture and information about Sir Walter Raleigh the famous explorer.Fast and accurate details and facts about the life and history of Sir Walter Raleigh.Learn the facts about Sir Walter Raleigh.

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Sir Francis Drake, favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, explorer, pirate, privateer - famous for 'singeing the King of Spain's beard' in his ship the Golden Hind...

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Contents

He studied at Oxford before serving in the Huguenot army in France (1569). A rival of the Earl of Essex for the queen's favors, he served (1580) in Elizabeth's army in Ireland, distinguishing himself by his ruthlessness at the siege of Smerwick and by the plantation of English and Scots Protestants in Munster. Elizabeth rewarded him with a large estate in Ireland, knighted him (1585), and gave him trade privileges and the right to colonize America.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) was an English adventurer, writer and nobleman. After growing close to Elizabeth I during his time in the army, Raleigh was knighted in 1585 and became captain of the guard. During Elizabeth's reign, Raleigh organized three major expeditions to America, including the ill-fated Roanoke settlement. He later drew the queen's wrath and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. After Elizabeth's death in 1603, Raleigh was implicated as a enemy of her successor, James I and given a death sentence. The sentence was commuted, and Raleigh was freed to lead an expedition to the New World, but its failure sealed his fate.

He studied at Oxford before serving in the Huguenot army in France (1569). A rival of the Earl of Essex for the queen's favors, he served (1580) in Elizabeth's army in Ireland, distinguishing himself by his ruthlessness at the siege of Smerwick and by the plantation of English and Scots Protestants in Munster. Elizabeth rewarded him with a large estate in Ireland, knighted him (1585), and gave him trade privileges and the right to colonize America.

In 1587 he explored from North Carolina to present-day Florida, naming the region Virginia in honor of Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen." In 1587 Raleigh sent an ill-fated second expedition of colonists to Roanoke. In 1588 he took part in the victory over the Spanish Armada. He led other raids against Spanish possessions and returned with much booty. Raleigh forfeited Elizabeth's favor by his courtship of and subsequent marriage to one of her maids-of-honor, Bessy Throckmorton, and he was committed to the Tower (1592). Hoping, on his release, to recover his position, he led an abortive expedition to Guiana to search for El Dorado, a legendary land of gold. Instead, he helped to introduce the potato plant and tobacco use in England and Ireland.

Elizabeth's successor, James I, distrusted and feared Raleigh, charged him with treason and condemned him to death, but commuted the sentence to imprisonment in the Tower (1603). There Raleigh lived with his wife and servants, and wrote his History of the World (1614). He was released in 1616 to search for gold in South America. Against the king's undertaking to the Spanish, he invaded and pillaged Spanish territory, was forced to return to England without booty, and was arrested on the orders of the king. His original death sentence for treason was invoked, and he was executed at Westminster. A gifted poet, writer, and scholar, many of his poems and writings were destroyed. A pioneer of the Italian sonnet-form in English, he was a patron of the arts, notably of Edmund Spenser in his composition of The Faerie Queene (1589-96).

Biography courtesy of BIO.com

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He studied at Oxford before serving in the Huguenot army in France (1569). A rival of the Earl of Essex for the queen's favors, he served (1580) in Elizabeth's army in Ireland, distinguishing himself by his ruthlessness at the siege of Smerwick and by the plantation of English and Scots Protestants in Munster.

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Francis Drake Biography - life, family, children, young, son, information, born, house, time

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Francis Drake, the eldest son of a farmer, was born near Tavistock, Devonshire, England. His father, Robert Drake, later became a preacher and raised his twelve children as Protestants (followers of the Christian religion who are not part of the Roman Catholic Church).

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Rene Robert de La Salle - New World Explorer for Kids - FREE Lesson Plans for Teachers, Games for Kids

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Rene Robert de La Salle was a French explorer. He was the first to navigate the Mississippi all the way down to the mouth of the river. He claimed a great deal of land, equal to about a third of what would become the United States, including the mouth of the Mississippi, for France. (Af…

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Christopher Columbus - Facts, Voyage & Discovery

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The explorer Christopher Columbus made four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. His most famous was his first voyage, commanding the ships the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria to the Americas.

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Sir Walter Raleigh was an English adventurer and writer who became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and put to death for treason. Learn more about his life at Biography.com.

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1. Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe

... and the second ever to complete a circumnavigation of the globe. Drake's circumnavigation of the globe was also a secret pirate mission sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth against the Spanish. Drake was a privateer, which meant that he was given permission by the crown to raid enemy ships and cargoes. Elizabeth commissioned Drake to lead an exhibition against the Spanish colonies on the Pacific coast of America.

2. Drake was one of the first British slave traders

... undertaking voyages as early as 1560 with his cousin John Hawkins to West Africa to capture men and women. They also attacked Portuguese slave ships in order to steal their human 'cargo'.
Learn more about the origins of the transatlantic slave trade
3. Drake was hated by the Spanish who nicknamed him 'El Draque' or the Dragon

This was due to numerous raids he made against Spanish ships and settlements on his voyages. Some Spanish mariners were so afraid of Drake that they believed he practised witchcraft. Drake was rumoured to be in league with the devil and to possess a magic mirror that allowed him to see the location of all the ships in the sea.

4. Drake was buried at sea off the coast of Portobelo, Panama

He died from dysentery on 28 January 1596 during a sea voyage. He was buried in a lead coffin, dressed in a full suit of armour. Numerous dives have been attempted to locate the lead coffin, but his body remains lost at sea.

5. Drake was made mayor of Plymouth for a term in 1581

Some years later Drake took a municipal contract to reconstruct a shallow canal bringing water to the town. This business arrangement has given rise to the myth that Francis Drake brought the first supply of water to the inhabitants of Plymouth. The supply of water is thought to have lasted up to 300 years.

6. A cannon ball is said to have flown straight through Drake's legs but he was uninjured

This was during a battle in the harbour at Palma on Drake's raid on the West Indies. One cannon ball 'strake atwixt our Generalls legges' (BL, Harley MS 2202, fol. 57 v).

7. Drake is often (incorrectly) credited for introducing the potato to England after his circumnavigation of the globe

The first potatoes to reach England were most likely brought by the Spanish by the 1570s (a decade before Drake's travels). However, he did return to England with tobacco and potatoes on the conclusion of his 1586 voyage to America. During this voyage he also rescued the failed colonists at Roanoke.

8. Drake did not make an inventory of the booty he had acquired to avoid taxes from the Spanish or claims for it to be returned

Only Queen Elizabeth I and Drake knew the exact amount he looted on his circumnavigation. His voyages were classified as "the Queen's secrets of the Realm." The Queen made Drake and other participants of his voyages swear to secrecy all information related to their travels, on pain of death.

9. Drake ordered a surgeon to open up his brother's body after he died of an unknown disease

He wanted to learn his brother's cause of death as this unknown disease was ravaging his ship.

10. Drake's father was a fugitive from the law

Edmund Drake was a tenant farmer for Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford. He fled his native county after being charged for "assault and robbery" in 1548.

Visit the Pigott Family Gallery: Tudor and Stuart Seafarers

Discover more about Sir Francis Drake and pirates at the Pigott Family Gallery: Tudor and Stuart Seafarers, one of the four new galleries at the National Maritime Museum. Discover Britain's emergence as a maritime nation through key events and personalities of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Explore for free
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Visit the Queen's House

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and the second ever to complete a circumnavigation of the globe. Drake's circumnavigation of the globe was also a secret pirate mission sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth against the Spanish. Drake was a privateer, which meant that he was given permission by the crown to raid enemy ships and cargoes.

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The discovery of Brazil was an episode in the creation of a Portuguese commercial empire which in less than a hundred years extended to four continents. The Portuguese established West African coastal stations from early in the fifteenth century. In 1499 Vasco da Gama returned in triumph to Lisbon from his epoch-making voyage to India round the Cape of Good Hope. In the following year, King Manuel I sent a fresh expedition to India, of thirteen ships and 1,200 men. With da Gama pleading exhaustion, the command was given to a trusted courtier named Pedro Álvares Cabral, still only in his thirties.

After a solemn Mass attended by the king in Lisbon, the fleet left the mouth of the Tagus early in March and sailed south-west past the African coast before turning out into the Atlantic to get the benefit of the prevailing winds and currents. Apparently carried further west than intended, Cabral's ships crossed the Atlantic at its narrowest point and bumped accidentally into Brazil. This is the generally accepted story, at any rate, though there are suggestions that Portuguese voyagers had secretly reached the South American coast earlier and that Cabral's landfall was no accident. At least it is clear that the Americas would have been discovered before long even if Columbus had not sailed the ocean blue in 1492.

Cabral and his men sighted the hump of Monte Pascoal on the coast and sailed north for three days to find a landfall near what is now Porto Seguro. A reconnaissance party went ashore on April 21st and the main landing was made the following day, when Cabral formally claimed what he called True Cross Island for Portugal, erected a cross and held a Christian service to mark the occasion. (The territory fell to Portugal anyway, under the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494.)

The local Amerindian population, still living in the Stone Age as hunter-gatherers and fishers, came out to see their white visitors. What they thought of them is not on record, but the expedition's official scribe, Pero Vaz da Caminha, gave an account of Portuguese reactions in a letter to King Manuel, which has been called Brazil's birth certificate. He portrayed a land of burgeoning fertility, populated by childlike naked savages. The male warriors painted their bodies vividly in red and black quarterings. The women were attractive and one had coloured her buttocks and thighs black, while leaving the rest of her body unadorned. 'Another,' he wrote, 'had both knees and calves so painted, but her privy parts so naked and exposed with such innocence that there was no shame there.'

After staying another eight days, Cabral sailed back across the Atlantic to round the Cape of Good Hope and reach Calicut on the west coast of India. Behind him he left two degredados, exiled criminals, who acquired native women and fathered the first of Brazil's mestizo population, which in time would vastly outnumber the Indians. A follow-up expedition of 1501 under Gonzalo Coelho, with Amerigo Vespucci as its chronicler, explored some 2,000 miles of the Brazilian coast and paved the way for subsequent systematic Portuguese settlement. Cabral, however, was given no further employment. He retired in dudgeon to his country estate until his death in 1520.

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The discovery of Brazil was an episode in the creation of a Portuguese commercial empire which in less than a hundred years extended to four continents. The Portuguese established West African coastal stations from early in the fifteenth century. In 1499 Vasco da Gama returned in triumph to Lisbon from his epoch-making voyage to India round the Cape of Good Hope.

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BBC - History - Historic Figures: Walter Raleigh (c.1552 - 1618)

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Discover facts about the life of Sir Walter Raleigh. Why was he a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, and why was he imprisoned in both 1592 and 1603?

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Christopher colombus - Kiddle - visual search engine for kids

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Christopher colombus - Kiddle - visual search engine for kids

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Kids learn about the biography and life of English explorer Sir Francis Drake. Privateer and pirate sailed around the world and conquered the Spanish.

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Drake was an Elizabethan sailor and navigator, and the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe.

Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon in around 1540 and went to sea at an early age. In 1567, Drake made one of the first English slaving voyages as part of a fleet led by his cousin John Hawkins, bringing African slaves to work in the 'New World'. All but two ships of the expedition were lost when attacked by a Spanish squadron. The Spanish became a lifelong enemy for Drake and they in turn considered him a pirate.

In 1570 and 1571, Drake made two profitable trading voyages to the West Indies. In 1572, he commanded two vessels in a marauding expedition against Spanish ports in the Caribbean. He saw the Pacific Ocean and captured the port of Nombre de Dios on the Isthmus of Panama. He returned to England with a cargo of Spanish treasure and a reputation as a brilliant privateer. In 1577, Drake was secretly commissioned by Elizabeth I to set off on an expedition against the Spanish colonies on the American Pacific coast. He sailed with five ships, but by the time he reached the Pacific Ocean in October 1578 only one was left, Drake's flagship the Pelican, renamed the Golden Hind. To reach the Pacific, Drake became the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan.

He travelled up the west coast of South America, plundering Spanish ports. He continued north, hoping to find a route across to the Atlantic, and sailed further up the west coast of America than any European. Unable to find a passage, he turned south and then in July 1579, west across the Pacific. His travels took him to the Moluccas, Celebes, Java and then round the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived back in England in September 1580 with a rich cargo of spices and Spanish treasure and the distinction of being the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Seven months later, Elizabeth knighted him aboard the Golden Hind, to the annoyance of the king of Spain.

In 1585, Drake sailed to the West Indies and the coast of Florida where he sacked and plundered Spanish cities. On his return voyage, he picked up the unsuccessful colonists of Roanoke Island off the coast of the Carolinas, which was the first English colony in the New World. In 1587, war with Spain was imminent and Drake entered the port of Cadiz and destroyed 30 of the ships the Spanish were assembling against the British. In 1588, he was a vice admiral in the fleet that defeated the Armada. Drake's last expedition, with John Hawkins, was to the West Indies. The Spanish were prepared for him this time, and the venture was a disaster. Drake died on 28 January 1596 of dysentery off the coast of Portobelo, Panama. Hawkins died at the same time, and their bodies were buried at sea.

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Drake was an Elizabethan sailor and navigator, and the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon in around 1540 and went to sea at an early age. In 1567, Drake made one of the first English slaving voyages as part of a fleet led by his cousin John Hawkins, bringing African slaves to work in the 'New World'.

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René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, (born November 22, 1643, Rouen, France-died March 19, 1687, near Brazos River [now in Texas, U.S.]), French explorer in North America who led an expedition down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and claimed all the region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for Louis XIV of France, naming the region "Louisiana." A few years later, in a luckless expedition seeking the mouth of the Mississippi, he was murdered by his men.

Early life

La Salle was educated at a Jesuit college. He first studied for the priesthood, but at the age of 22 he found himself more attracted to adventure and exploration and in 1666 set out for Canada to seek his fortune. With a grant of land at the western end of Île de Montréal, La Salle acquired at one stroke the status of a seigneur (i.e., landholder) and the opportunities of a frontiersman.

The young landlord farmed his land near the Lachine Rapids and, at the same time, set up a fur-trading outpost. Through contact with the Indians who came to sell their pelts, he learned various Indian dialects and heard stories of the lands beyond the settlements. He soon became obsessed with the idea of finding a way to the Orient through the rivers and lakes of the Western frontier.

If experience modified the visions of the dreamer, it enhanced the knowledge and skill of the pathfinder and trader. Having sold his land, La Salle set out in 1669 to explore the Ohio region. His discovery of the Ohio River, however, is not accepted by modern historians.

La Salle found a kindred spirit in the Count de Frontenac, the "Fighting Governor" of New France (the French possessions in Canada) from 1672 to 1682. Together, they pursued a policy of extending French military power by establishing a fort on Lake Ontario (Fort- Frontenac), holding the Iroquois in check, and intercepting the fur trade between the Upper Lakes and the Dutch and English coastal settlements.

Their plans were strongly opposed by the Montreal merchants, who feared the loss of their trade, and by the missionaries (especially the Jesuits), who were afraid of losing their influence over the Indians of the interior. Nevertheless, Fort-Frontenac was built where Kingston now stands, and La Salle was installed there as seigneur in 1675 after a visit to the French court, as Frontenac's representative. The governor had recommended him as "a man of intelligence and ability, more capable than anybody else I know here to accomplish every kind of enterprise and discovery...." Louis XIV was sufficiently impressed by him to grant him a title of nobility.

Attempts to expand New France

At Fort-Frontenac, La Salle had control of a large share of the fur trade, and his affairs prospered. But his restless ambition drove him to seek greater ends. On another visit to France in 1677 he obtained from the king authority to explore "the western parts of New France" and permission to build as many forts as he wished, as well as to hold a valuable monopoly of the trade in buffalo hides.

Since the project had to be carried out at his own expense, however, he borrowed large sums in both Paris and Montreal, and he began to be enmeshed in a tangle of debts that was to blight all of his later enterprises. La Salle's proposals also roused still further the enmity of the Jesuits, who resolutely opposed all his schemes.

When he returned to Canada in 1678, La Salle was accompanied by an Italian soldier of fortune, Henri de Tonty, who became his most loyal friend and ally. Early in the following year, he built the " Griffon," the first commercial sailing vessel on Lake Erie, which he hoped would pay for an expedition into the interior as far as the Mississippi. From the Seneca Indians above the Niagara Falls he learned how to make long journeys overland, on foot in any season, subsisting on game and a small bag of corn. His trek from Niagara to Fort-Frontenac in the dead of winter won the admiration of a normally critical member of his expeditions, the friar Louis Hennepin.

La Salle's great scheme of carrying cargo in sailing vessels like the "Griffon" on the lakes and down the Mississippi was frustrated by the wreck of that ship and by the destruction and desertion of Fort-Crèvecoeur on the Illinois River, where a second ship was being built in 1680. Proud and unyielding by nature, La Salle tried to bend others to his will and often demanded too much of them, though he was no less hard on himself. After several disappointments, he at last reached the junction of the Illinois with the Mississippi and saw for the first time the river he had dreamed of for so long. But he had to deny himself the chance to explore it. Hearing that Tonty and his party were in danger, he turned back to aid them.

After many vicissitudes, La Salle and Tonty succeeded in canoeing down the Mississippi and reached the Gulf of Mexico. There, on April 9, 1682, the explorer proclaimed the whole Mississippi basin for France and named it Louisiana. In name, at least, he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent.

The following year La Salle built Fort-Saint-Louis at Starved Rock on the Illinois River (now a state park), and here he organized a colony of several thousand Indians. To maintain the new colony, he sought help from Quebec, but Frontenac had been replaced by a governor hostile to La Salle's interests, and La Salle received orders to surrender Fort-Saint-Louis. He refused and left North America to appeal directly to the king. Welcomed in Paris, La Salle was given an audience with Louis XIV, who favoured him by commanding the governor to make full restitution of La Salle's property.

Last expedition

The last phase of his extraordinary career centred on his proposal to fortify the mouth of the Mississippi and to invade and conquer part of the Spanish province of Mexico. He planned to accomplish all this with some 200 Frenchmen, aided by buccaneers and an army of 15,000 Indians-a venture that caused his detractors to question his sanity. But the king saw a chance to harass the Spaniards, with whom he was at war, and approved the project, giving La Salle men, ships, and money.

The expedition was doomed from the start. It had hardly left France when quarrels arose between La Salle and the naval commander. Vessels were lost by piracy and shipwreck, while sickness took a heavy toll of the colonists. Finally, a gross miscalculation brought the ships to Matagorda Bay in Texas, 500 miles west of their intended landfall. After several fruitless journeys in search of his lost Mississippi, La Salle met his death at the hands of mutineers near the Brazos River. His vision of a French empire died with him.

La Salle provoked much controversy both in his own lifetime and later. Those who knew him best praised his ability unsparingly. He was considered "one of the greatest men of the age" by Tonty, who, like Frontenac, was among the very few who were able to understand the proud spirit of the dour Norman. Henri Joutel, who served under La Salle through the tragic days of the Texas colony until his death, wrote both of his fine qualities and of his insufferable arrogance toward his subordinates. In Joutel's view, this arrogance was the true cause of La Salle's death.

Undoubtedly, La Salle was hampered by faults of character and lacked the qualities of leadership. On the other hand, he possessed prodigious vision, tenacity, and courage. His claim of Louisiana for France, though but a vain boast at the time, pointed the way to the French colonial empire that was eventually built by other men.
David C.G. Sibley

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Rene-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle | Biography, Discover, Expedition, Route, Death, & Facts

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Rene-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, French explorer who claimed the basin of the Mississippi River and its tributaries for Louis XIV of France, naming the region 'Louisiana.' In 1687, while on an expedition seeking the mouth of the Mississippi River, he was murdered by his men. Read more about La Salle here.

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Learn more and understand better with BrainPOP's animated movies, games, playful assessments, and activities covering Science, Math, History, English, and more!

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Francis Drake - Exploration - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Francis Drake, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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Sir Francis Drake | Biography, Routes, Ship, Born, Death, Accomplishments, & Facts

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Sir Francis Drake, (born c. 1540–43, Devonshire, England—died January 28, 1596, at sea, off Puerto Bello, Panama), English admiral who circumnavigated the globe (1577–80) and was the most renowned seaman of the Elizabethan Age. Born on the Crowndale estate of Lord Francis Russell, 2nd earl…

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Christopher Columbus believed the world was round. Everyone around him said the world was flat. Christopher was determined to prove his theory, and this timeline shows how he did it.

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Free Essays from Bartleby | Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Spain in 1451. Genoa back in 1451 was an old sea port which was by the Ligurian Sea....

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Christopher Columbus leaving Palos, Spain

Christopher Columbus aboard the "Santa Maria" leaving Palos, Spain on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Mariners' Museum 1933.0746.000001

Introduction
We know that In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But what did he actually discover? Christopher Columbus (also known as (Cristoforo Colombo [Italian]; Cristóbal Colón [Spanish]) was an Italian explorer credited with the "discovery" of the America's. The purpose for his voyages was to find a passage to Asia by sailing west. Never actually accomplishing this mission, his explorations mostly included the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, all of which were already inhabited by Native groups.

Biography Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, part of present-day Italy, in 1451. His parents' names were Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers: Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo; and a sister named Bianchinetta. Christopher became an apprentice in his father's wool weaving business, but he also studied mapmaking and sailing as well. He eventually left his father's business to join the Genoese fleet and sail on the Mediterranean Sea.
Early Life
¹ After one of his ships wrecked off the coast of Portugal, he decided to remain there with his younger brother Bartholomew where he worked as a cartographer (mapmaker) and bookseller. Here, he married Doña Felipa Perestrello e Moniz and had two sons Diego and Fernando.

Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo's famous book, and it gave him a love for exploration. In the mid 15th century, Portugal was desperately trying to find a faster trade route to Asia. Exotic goods such as spices, ivory, silk, and gems were popular items of trade. However, Europeans often had to travel through the Middle East to reach Asia. At this time, Muslim nations imposed high taxes on European travels crossing through. ² This made it both difficult and expensive to reach Asia. There were rumors from other sailors that Asia could be reached by sailing west. Hearing this, Christopher Columbus decided to try and make this revolutionary journey himself. First, he needed ships and supplies, which required money that he did not have. He went to King John of Portugal who turned him down. He then went to the rulers of England, and France. Each declined his request for funding. After seven years of trying, he was finally sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Voyages Columbus' voyage departed in August of 1492 with 87 men sailing on three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Columbus commanded the Santa María, while the Niña was led by Vicente Yanez Pinzon and the Pinta by Martin Pinzon.
Principal Voyage
³ This was the first of his four trips. He headed west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. On October 12 land was sighted. He gave the first island he landed on the name San Salvador, although the native population called it Guanahani. ⁴ Columbus believed that he was in Asia, but was actually in the Caribbean. He even proposed that the island of Cuba was a part of China. Since he thought he was in the Indies, he called the native people "Indians." In several letters he wrote back to Spain, he described the landscape and his encounters with the natives. He continued sailing throughout the Caribbean and named many islands he encountered after his ship, king, and queen: La Isla de Santa María de Concepción, Fernandina, and Isabella.

It is hard to determine specifically which islands Columbus visited on this voyage. His descriptions of the native peoples, geography, and plant life do give us some clues though. One place we do know he stopped was in present-day Haiti. He named the island Hispaniola. Hispaniola today includes both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In January of 1493, Columbus sailed back to Europe to report what he found. Due to rough seas, he was forced to land in Portugal, an unfortunate event for Columbus. With relations between Spain and Portugal strained during this time, Ferdinand and Isabella suspected that Columbus was taking valuable information or maybe goods to Portugal, the country he had lived in for several years. Those who stood against Columbus would later use this as an argument against him. Eventually, Columbus was allowed to return to Spain bringing with him tobacco, turkey, and some new spices. He also brought with him several natives of the islands, of whom Queen Isabella grew very fond.

Subsequent Voyages
Columbus took three other similar trips to this region. His second voyage in 1493 carried a large fleet with the intention of conquering the native populations and establishing colonies. At one point, the natives attacked and killed the settlers left at Fort Navidad. Over time the colonists enslaved many of the natives, sending some to Europe and using many to mine gold for the Spanish settlers in the Caribbean. The third trip was to explore more of the islands and mainland South America further. Columbus was appointed the governor of Hispaniola, but the colonists, upset with Columbus' leadership appealed to the rulers of Spain, who sent a new governor: Francisco de Bobadilla. Columbus was taken prisoner on board a ship and sent back to Spain.

On his fourth and final journey west in 1502 Columbus's goal was to find the "Strait of Malacca," to try to find India. But a hurricane, then being denied entrance to Hispaniola, and then another storm made this an unfortunate trip. His ship was so badly damaged that he and his crew were stranded on Jamaica for two years until help from Hispaniola finally arrived. In 1504, Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain.

Later Years and Death
Columbus reached Spain in November 1504. He was not in good health. He spent much of the last of his life writing letters to obtain the percentage of wealth overdue to be paid to him, and trying to re-attain his governorship status, but was continually denied both. Columbus died at Valladolid on May 20, 1506, due to illness and old age. Even until death, he still firmly believing that he had traveled to the eastern part of Asia.

Legacy Columbus never made it to Asia, nor did he truly discover America. His "re-discovery," however, inspired a new era of exploration of the American continents by Europeans. Perhaps his greatest contribution was that his voyages opened an exchange of goods between Europe and the Americas both during and long after his journeys.
⁵ Despite modern criticism of his treatment of the native peoples there is no denying that his expeditions changed both Europe and America. Columbus day was made a federal holiday in 1971. It is recognized on the second Monday of October.

1. Fergus Fleming, Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 30.

2. Fleming, Off the Map, 30

3. William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 142-143.

4. Phillips and Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 155.

5. Robin S. Doak, Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World (Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005), 92.

Bibliography

Doak, Robin. Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005.

Fleming, Fergus. Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration. New York: Grove Press, 2004.

Phillips, William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Map of Voyages

Click below to view an example of the explorer's voyages. Use the tabs on the left to view either 1 or multiple journeys at a time, and click on the icons to learn more about the stops, sites, and activities along the way.

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Christopher Columbus is credited with the discovery of the Americas in 1492, though Leifr Eiriksson explored the North American continent centuries prior.

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Pedro Álvares Cabral

Detail of painting "Vaz de Caminha reads to Commander Cabral, Friar Henrique and Master João the letter that will be sent to King Dom Manuel I". It depicts Pedro Álvares Cabral, leader of the Portuguese expedition that discovered the land that would later be known as Brazil in 1500.
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Introduction Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese explorer who is credited with discovering Brazil in South America. He landed near present-day Bahia off the eastern coast of South America. Several years after Cabral, the Portuguese began colonizing the area. They found great profit by exporting lumber, specifically the brazilwood tree. This was a tropical tree that produces a bright red dye that became very popular. It was also a strong, sturdy wood that was used to make furniture and in ship-building. The name "Brazil" began to be popular in 1503, and was associated with this brazilwood tree.
¹

Biography Pedro Álvares Cabral was born in Belmonte, Portugal in either 1467 or 1468. Although little is known of his early life, we know that he was the second son and came from a noble family.
Early Life
² His family was in service to the crown, so young Pedro received his education at the royal court. In 1497, the king of Portugal, King Manuel I, made him part of the king's council. At this time, the Portuguese were searching for a route to Asia by trying to sail around Africa. Fellow explorer Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to sail around Africa's southern tip in 1488 but failed to complete the journey to Asia. Nearly ten years later between 1497 and 1498, Portuguese explorer rounded Africa, and made it all the way to Asia, landing in Calicut, India. This accomplishment opened up a faster trade route for the Portuguese empire.

Three years after da Gama's great journey, the king of Portugal wanted to establish trading ports for Portugal in Asia. He chose Pedro Cabral to head this expedition. It unsure why the king chose Cabral. It is believed that he had little to no sailing experience. ³ But he had connections to the king and was loyal to the crown, so this is possibly why he was chosen. In addition to setting up trading relations in India, Cabral was also tasked with spreading Catholicism. ⁴ Catholicism is a branch of the Christian religion, and was practiced throughout many European countries. Explorers throughout the ages believed that most native religions were wrong, so they would press Christianity upon the natives - sometimes by force. Not only was Cabral to follow the same route as da Gama, but he was also to sail farther west into the Atlantic ocean to see if any land was out there to be claimed by Portugal. ⁵ Cabral would indeed find a vast piece of land that would expand the Portuguese empire across the Atlantic.

Voyages Pedro Cabral set sail from Lisbon, Portugal on March 9, 1500. He had a fleet of 13 vessels and 1200 men, including famed explorer Bartolomeu Dias. Dias was in command of one of the vessels. Cabral and his fleet sailed past the Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa. Shortly after leaving, one of Cabral's ships was missing, and believed to have sunk. Cabral was to follow the same route as da Gama around Africa to India. However, he accidentally sailed too far south west into the Atlantic Ocean. This accident brought him to the South American coast and to a new land unknown to the Europeans. Cabral realized that the land was not India. He and his fleet made achor, at Porto Seguro, on the coast of the present day state of Bahia.
Principal Voyage
⁶ They went ashore and erected a large wooden cross which he used to claim the land in the name of Portugal. He believed he had landed on an island so he. ⁷ We know this country today as Brazil.

Cabral sent a ship back to Portugal to tell the king of his news. He and the rest of his fleet stayed in Terra de Vera Cruz about 10 days. While here, he interacted with different native people. One account mentions that the natives were curious of the Portuguese's religion. Several of the Portuguese sailors gave some of the Indians tin crucifixes (crosses) to wear around their necks. ⁸ Cabral was ready to continue his mission to India. Before leaving, he left two members of his crew - both convicts - to further investigate the land. ⁹

Subsequent Voyages Cabral and his fleet left South America and headed back southeast towards the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. Along the way, the fleet encountered bad storms. On May 24, 1500, the storm sank four of Cabral's ships, including the one carrying Bartolomeu Dias. Dias and all men aboard the four ships drowned and died. With his remaining six ships, Cabral continued onward to India. They stopped at several African ports along the way including Sofala, Mozambique, and Kilwa. They did not have much luck trading, and often encountered unfriendly natives. So they soon headed onward. They finally reached Calicut, India (today called Kozhikode) on September 13, 1500. His time in Calicut was filled with challenges. Disputes between the Arab traders and the Portuguese were common. At one point, several Portuguese men were killed by the Arabs. Cabral got even by raiding the city and capturing ten Arab ships, and then executing their crew.
¹⁰ Cabral continued traveling to other Indian cities, selling and trading goods and spices into 1501 before heading back home. He reached Lisbon, Portugal on July 1501.

Later Years and Death Pedro Cabral's return to Portugal had mixed reception. He discovered Brazil, and helped set up trade in India. However, relations in India with the Arab traders did not go well. Plus, Cabral lost more than half his fleet and crew along his journey. Still, the king of Portugal gave him command for another voyage to India. Cabral spent several months preparing, but he was replaced by Vasco da Gama shortly before they were to leave.
¹¹ Cabral left the king's court and retired. He eventually got married and had six children. He lived a quiet life until his death in 1520.

Legacy Pedro Álvares Cabral's work in India often get overshadowed by Vasco da Gama's. Also, explorers Amerigo Vespucci, Vincente Yánez Pinzón, and Diego de Lepe all sailed along the Coast of Brazil and went ashore before Cabral. But these trips were all part of a larger expedition, and none claimed the land for their king and country. So we still give Cabral credit for being the first European to discover Brazil. They still speak Portuguese in Brazil today. And with over 150 million people living in Brazil, it is the largest Portuguese speaking nation in the world.
¹² Cabralia Bay in Brazil is named in honor the explorer.

1. Boris Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 9.

2. James Stuart Olson, ed., Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), 104.

3. Peter O. Koch, To the Ends of the Earth: The Age of the European Explorers (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003), 149.

4. DK, Explorers: Tales of Endurance and Exploration (New York: Tall Tree Ltd., 2010), 96.

5. Koch, To the Ends of the Earth, 149.

6. Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil, 6.

7. Koch, To the Ends of the Earth, 149.

8. Koch, To the Ends of the Earth, 149.

9. Koch, To the Ends of the Earth, 150.

10. Britannica Educational Publishing, Biographies of the New World: Leif Eriksson, Henry Hudson, Charles Darwin, and More, ed. Michael Anderson (New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2013), 28.

11. Olson, Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism, 106-107.

12. V. K. Subramanian, The Great Ones Vol. IV (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 2005), 105.

Bibliography

Britannica Educational Publishing. Biographies of the New World: Leif Eriksson, Henry Hudson, Charles Darwin, and More. edited by Michael Anderson. New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2013.

DK. Explorers: Tales of Endurance and Exploration. New York: Tall Tree Ltd., 2010.

Fausto, Boris. A Concise History of Brazil. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Koch, Peter O. To the Ends of the Earth: The Age of the European Explorers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003.

Olson, James Stuart, ed. Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Subramanian, V. K. The Great Ones Vol. IV. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 2005.

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Detail of painting "Vaz de Caminha reads to Commander Cabral, Friar Henrique and Master João the letter that will be sent to King Dom Manuel I". It depicts Pedro Álvares Cabral, leader of the Portuguese expedition that discovered the land that would later be known as Brazil in 1500.{{PD-Art}} Introduction Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese explorer who is credited with discovering Brazil in South America.