Ferdinand Magellan Research Paper

Ferdinand Magellan

Imagine sailing around the world with the fear of falling off the edge of the planet. Ferdinand Magellan is known for completing one of history's greatest feats. He traveled all the way around the world is known as circumnavigation. Magellan's journey to getting to complete circumnavigation was not easy. Without his extensive knowledge of circumnavigation he would have never achieved it. Some historians also question who the first was to circumnavigate the world and think that Magellan was not the first. Ferdinand Magellan was born on 1480 in a town in Portugal. Ferdinand's parents died when he was young. His parents were quite wealthy and fairly popular, in fact, they were nobles. At age 10 Ferdinand became the Page of the Queen. Ferdinand was also very smart, he studied at the prestigious school of Queen Leonora, The school only focused on Pages and documents. The school also inspired

This proved that he had a good knowledge of sailing and ships. Only a couple years later, Ferdinand was injured and for the remainder of his life he walked with a limp. Luckily, this will not impact his major voyage. Around 1517, Ferdinand moved to a town in Spain to look for new employment opportunities. There, he found a fleet that he could work for. At the time, sailing really got popular because the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed, giving Spain everywhere east of the demarcation line. (Biography.com Editors). Magellan knew that this was his chance to shine. Magellan told himself that there had to be a shorter route for the spice trade that he could find. If Magellan could accomplish this is would help out Spain tremendously. Magellan had more knowledge of Columbus when he searched for a spice trade route, Columbus did not know the obstacles of North and South America being in the way, Magellan however, did. (Kramer