Did Ferdinand Magellan Complete the First Circumnavigation?

Ferdinand Magellan did not complete the first circumnavigation himself. He was killed in the Philippines in April 1521, almost a year before the surviving ship of his expedition returned to Spain in September 1522. The first circumnavigation of the globe was, however, accomplished by the expedition that he had organized, financed, and led for most of the voyage. The single ship that completed the circumnavigation, the Victoria, returned to Sanlúcar de Barrameda under the command of the Spanish captain Juan Sebastián Elcano with 18 European survivors of Magellan’s original crew of about 270. For the full account of the expedition, see the cluster page Ferdinand Magellan and the First Circumnavigation.

The Question and the Answer

The question of whether Magellan himself “completed” the circumnavigation has been debated for five centuries. Strictly speaking, the answer is no: he did not return to Spain and he did not personally sail the Pacific or the Indian Ocean on the return leg. In a broader sense, however, the answer is more nuanced. The expedition was Magellan’s conception, organized and led by him for almost three years, and it was the only expedition of the era to have actually sailed around the Earth. Magellan’s name is therefore attached to the first circumnavigation, even though the final miles were completed by Elcano.

The Death of Magellan

The expedition reached the Philippines in March 1521. Magellan formed alliances with several local rulers, and on 27 April 1521, he took a force of about 60 men ashore on the island of Mactan to support his ally, Rajah Humabon of Cebu, against a rival, Rajah Lapu-Lapu. The encounter took place against the broader background of indigenous resistance to European contact across the regions that European explorers reached during the period.

The Spanish force was decisively repulsed. According to the principal eyewitness account, that of Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan was wounded in the leg by a bamboo spear and was cut down by the inhabitants of Mactan. The expedition lost about 8 men killed and most of the others wounded, including the slave Enrique, who may have been the first circumnavigator although his status contests.

The Continuation Under Elcano

After Magellan’s death, command of the expedition passed to Juan Sebastián Elcano, a Basque mariner who had been one of the few officers willing to support Magellan during the early stages of the voyage. Elcano had actually been one of the mutineers of the San Antonio in 1520, but he had been pardoned and was now chosen as the most experienced captain available.

Elcano made the decision to abandon one of the three remaining ships, the Concepción, which was no longer seaworthy, and to continue with only the Trinidad and the Victoria. The fleet reached the Moluccas, the legendary Spice Islands, in November 1521. The Portuguese, who had been active in the region since 1509, refused to allow the Trinidad to be repaired, and the captain of the Trinidad eventually attempted to return across the Pacific to Panama, an attempt that failed. Most of his crew were captured and killed by the Portuguese.

The Victoria alone continued westward. The route took her across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, up the West African coast, and back to Spain. She reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522, with 18 European survivors and a small cargo of cloves worth more than the cost of the entire expedition. Among the survivors was Antonio Pigafetta, whose account of the voyage is one of the great primary sources of the Age of Exploration.

What “Completion” Means

The question of whether Magellan completed the circumnavigation turns partly on the meaning of the word. There are several ways to count it:

Strictly, Magellan did not complete the circumnavigation, because he did not return to Spain.
As leader of the expedition, Magellan completed the circumnavigation in that the expedition he led was the first to do so, even though he personally died before reaching Spain.
As discoverer of the route, Magellan completed the discovery of the sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which is the central contribution of the voyage.
In formal European honors, the first circumnavigation is attributed to Magellan and to Elcano, in that order. The two are sometimes listed together, and the Victoria is sometimes called the First Circumnavigator.

The expedition also included at least one crew member, possibly more, who had personal experience of circumnavigation. The Malay slave Enrique of Sumatra (also called Enrique the Black), whom Magellan had purchased in Malacca in 1511, was in the Philippines at the time of Magellan’s death. There is some uncertainty about his later life, but had he survived to reach Spain, he would be the first person of color and the first person of Asian origin known to have circumnavigated the globe.

The Significance of the Result

Whatever the answer to the question, the result was the same. The Victoria’s arrival in 1522 proved that the Earth could be sailed around. It also proved that the Americas and the Pacific were laid out as the maps of the era had only begun to suggest: a great landmass on the west, a vast ocean to the west of it, and a chain of islands reaching to the Spice Islands of the East Indies. The expedition also opened the Pacific to European navigation. Although the Strait of Magellan would remain a difficult and dangerous passage for centuries, it provided an alternative to the Portuguese route around Africa, and English and Dutch navigators of the late 16th and 17th centuries, including Drake and Schouten, would follow in Magellan’s wake.

The circumnavigation also vindicated Magellan’s central insight, that the Moluccas lay within the Spanish hemisphere of the Treaty of Tordesillas. The Spanish crown did successfully assert this claim in the 1529 Treaty of Zaragoza, which adjusted the Tordesillas line in the Pacific, and the Philippines would remain a Spanish possession until 1898. The first circumnavigation of the globe thus had long-lasting political consequences, even though its original leader did not live to see them.

Magellan’s Reputation

The question of whether Magellan “completed” the circumnavigation is, a question about historical memory. Modern history has tended to credit Magellan with the achievement, while also acknowledging Elcano’s role in bringing the surviving ship home. The Strait of Magellan, the Magellanic Penguin, and the Magellan spacecraft, all named in his honor, attest to the persistent association of his name with the voyage.

In the Philippines, however, Magellan’s reputation is more complicated. The local history of Mactan celebrates the resistance of Rajah Lapu-Lapu and the defeat of the Spanish expedition. The Magellan shrine in Mactan was the site of a 500th-anniversary commemoration in 2021, which included both Spanish and Filipino participation. The historical event is therefore a shared site of memory, with different communities emphasizing different parts of the story.

Summary

Did Ferdinand Magellan complete the first circumnavigation? Strictly speaking, no. He was killed in the Philippines in April 1521.
Was Magellan’s expedition the first to circumnavigate the globe? Yes, under Elcano’s command of the Victoria, the last surviving ship.
Who was the first person to personally circumnavigate the globe? That debates, but Elcano and the 18 survivors of the Victoria have the strongest claim.