Ferdinand Magellan was born circa 1480 at Sabrosa near Vila Real, in the province of Tras-os-Montes, one of the wildest districts of Portugal. However, he subsequently obtained Spanish nationality in order to serve the Spanish Crown, so that he could try to find a westward route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. He thereby became the first European to lead an expedition across the Pacific Ocean. This was also the first successful attempt to circumnavigate the Earth. Although he did not complete the entire voyage (he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines), Magellan had earlier traveled eastwards to the Spice Islands. So he became one of the first individuals to cross all of the meridians of the Globe.
Magellan and his crew were the first Europeans to enter the Pacific from the eponymous Strait of Magellan, which he discovered. However it is clear they were not the first Europeans in the Philippines, parts of which were known to the Portuguese before their landing. Arab traders had established commerce within the archipelago centuries earlier. A number of geographic features and biological species have been named for Magellan, including the eponymous Magellanic Penguin, which Magellan was the first European to note.
Of the 237 men who set out on five ships to circumnavigate the earth in 1519, only 18 completed the circumnavigation of the globe and managed to return to Spain in 1522. They were led by the Basque navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano who took over command of the expedition after Magellan's death. Seventeen other men arrived later in Spain: twelve men captured by the Portuguese in Cape Verde some weeks earlier, and between 1525 and 1527 five survivors of the Trinidad.
