First circumnavigation of the globe

What was discovered

The expedition found the passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific, crossed the largest ocean in the world and returned to Seville with 18 survivors. It empirically proved the Earth's sphericity, the vastness of the Pacific and the need for a date line.

Coordinates of the Strait of Magellan, the key geographical discovery. Magellan died at Mactan (Philippines); Elcano completed the voyage. Tehuelche and Kawésqar peoples inhabited the strait.

What it led to

• Practical proof of the Earth's sphericity and true size
• The Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the Moluccas (Treaty of Zaragoza, 1529)
• Transpacific trade and the Manila Galleon
• The longitude problem as a scientific priority

Built on

• Carrack (three-masted ship)c. 1420 (muy aproximado)
• Waldseemüller's Universalis Cosmographia (the name "America")1507
• Balboa and the South Sea
• Treaty of Tordesillas
• Pigafetta as chronicler

Made possible

• Pacific return route (Urdaneta's tornaviaje)1565
• Rounding of Cape Horn (Schouten and Le Maire)enero de 1616
• International Date Line
• Manila galleon

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