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Wednesday, May 29, 2019

 
The Magellan Projecthttps://magellanproject.orgRetracing The Route 500 Years LaterThu, 27 Dec 2018 04:41:52 +0000en-UShourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.1Journals of Pigafetta: Gutenberg Projecthttps://magellanproject.org/journals-of-pigafetta-gutenberg-project/https://magellanproject.org/journals-of-pigafetta-gutenberg-project/#respondThu, 27 Dec 2018 04:41:52 +0000https://magellanproject.org/?p=400This post Journals of Pigafetta: Gutenberg Project appeared first on The Magellan Project.

The primary source for all things Magellan, the journals of Antonio Pigafetta, are now available online. The Gutenberg Project, a volunteer project to digitize and archive cultural works, is the largest and oldest digital library online, comprised mainly of works in the public domain. Volunteers with this project work to digitize these old and valuable […]

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This post Journals of Pigafetta: Gutenberg Project appeared first on The Magellan Project.

The primary source for all things Magellan, the journals of Antonio Pigafetta, are now available online. The Gutenberg Project, a volunteer project to digitize and archive cultural works, is the largest and oldest digital library online, comprised mainly of works in the public domain. Volunteers with this project work to digitize these old and valuable texts to make them available to the public. It is our good fortune to have the journals of Pigafetta, in both Portuguese and English, available on this site. The journals are available to download for free to your Kindle or as plain text. But you can also read them online. The digital transcript of the journals was made from the original document which exists in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy.

These journals appear in two volumes on Gutenberg. They are part of a larger collection that focuses on the Philippine Islands and their history. Pigafetta’s journals make up volumes 33 and 34 of this set.  The Portuguese and the English translation are presented side-by-side. Do explore the Gutenberg Project for other sources of Magellan’s story, but for a direct link to our favorite storyteller, click here.

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Who Closed the Circle First?https://magellanproject.org/who-closed-the-circle-first/https://magellanproject.org/who-closed-the-circle-first/#respondWed, 26 Aug 2015 15:40:14 +0000http://www.magellanproject.org/?p=371This post Who Closed the Circle First? appeared first on The Magellan Project.

While many people correctly associate the first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth with Ferdinand Magellan, most do not know that Magellan only made it part of the way. On April 27th, 1521, Magellan died at the Battle of Mactan in the archipelago he named San Lazaro, known today as The Philippines. Juan Sebastian del Cano […]

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While many people correctly associate the first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth with Ferdinand Magellan, most do not know that Magellan only made it part of the way. On April 27th, 1521, Magellan died at the Battle of Mactan in the archipelago he named San Lazaro, known today as The Philippines.

Juan Sebastian del Cano captained the Victoria, the only surviving ship of the original five, home to Spain, arriving just two weeks short of when and where the Magellan Armada de Moluccas left from three years earlier. Cano was a competent mariner. As the ranking leader among the 18 Europeans onboard the returning Victoria, he initially received all the Spanish royal recognition for the first circumnavigation.

Subsequently in 1526 Cano rose to the rank of Captain General on what started out as a seven ship fleet trying to sail west to the Spice Islands via the Magellan expedition route. On August 6th, 1526, he died of scurvy in the mid-Pacific Ocean less than one week after replacing Jufre de Loaisa, the initial Captain General of the fleet, who also died of scurvy. Cano was buried at sea. The smudge on his record is his participation in the mutiny against Magellan over Easter weekend at Port St. Julian in 1520. His death sentence for participation in the mutiny was not carried out. The need for competent mariners spared him to a hard labor sentence that progressed to return to duty on deck and eventually to be the only surviving captain of the expedition. Sebastian del Cano’s name is associated with the Earth’s first circumnavigation mostly only by historians.

There is the possibility Magellan’s slave Enrique was the first person to circumnavigate the earth. Magellan had participated in the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511. While there, Magellan purchased Enrique, then estimated to be 14 years old, as a slave. While still a servant to Magellan when the Armada de Moluccas departed Spain in 1519, Enrique da Malacca was listed with the fleet as a supernumerary (interpreter) and was being paid 1,500 maravedis per month. Antonio Pigafetta, the de facto expedition chronicler, was only paid 1,000 maravedis per month. One can say Enrique was no longer a slave at this point but instead an indentured well-paid servant.

Pigafetta reported Enrique was from Sumatra. Linguists suggest a Sumatran would not have understood the language of the central Philippines (Visayan) as Enrique did when the expedition first reached the Philippines in early 1521. Enrique’s language skills facilitated Magellan’s alliance with the leaders there at the time and played a key role in the mass baptisms that were to follow.

Enrique was possibly raised in the central Philippines and sold into slavery in Sumatra, eventually being taken to Malacca where he was purchased by Magellan. Another possibility is for Enrique to have been born of Filipino parents in Sumatra or Malacca where he lived in a ‘Filipino Town’ community similar to ‘China Town’ communities around the world, from whence he came to the service of Magellan.
Enrique disappears from the historical record after the Massacre of Cebu, 4 days after the Battle of Mactan.

The historical record documents both Enrique and Magellan being in Malacca before returning to Portugal, travelling to Spain, and then sailing west as far as Cebu. Cebu is 1,528 miles from Malacca. Dividing this distance by the circumference of the Earth (24,901) shows they both came at least 94% of the way to a complete circumnavigation.

If Enrique was not indeed the first human to encompass the planet, he deserves an A for the effort.

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Prince Henry The Navigatorhttps://magellanproject.org/prince-henry-the-navigator/https://magellanproject.org/prince-henry-the-navigator/#respondSat, 08 Aug 2015 17:24:48 +0000http://www.magellanproject.org/?p=368This post Prince Henry The Navigator appeared first on The Magellan Project.

This is the story of how Prince Henry of Portugal became the instigator of serious sea exploration in the west. It’s a story of how one family’s tragedy turned into history’s good fortune. Portugal’s independence from Castile was won largely through the efforts of Prince Henry’s father, King João I. The King had the support […]

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This is the story of how Prince Henry of Portugal became the instigator of serious sea exploration in the west. It’s a story of how one family’s tragedy turned into history’s good fortune.

Portugal’s independence from Castile was won largely through the efforts of Prince Henry’s father, King João I. The King had the support of the knights of the local, minor nobility and of the artisans and merchants of the region. Between the knight’s fighting prowess and the merchants’ money, they prevailed against mighty Castile.

The King awarded the Knights with land grants and positions of status and financial ease, a medieval system that was passed on for generations, even into Britain. In fact, these medieval ideals were the roots of the chivalry made famous by the Knights of the Round Table in England.

The King’s three oldest, youthful and energetic sons, wished to prove their manliness in real combat rather than jousts and competitions. They convinced their father to let them capture a Moroccan fortress by the name of Ceuta on the north coast of Africa. Not only did they justify this with religious righteousness (driving the Moors out of the region), but the fortress was a destination point for gold-carrying caravans from West Africa.

Prince Henry proved himself such a worthy commander at this successful and highly profitable endeavor, that he was knighted and made Governor of the southern coast of Portugal and Ceuta.

Defending the fortress from repeated counterattacks proved to be costly and wearying, though, and the West African traffic (and gold) shifted to Tangier and other coastal cities. Finally, Henry decided to attack Tangier.

It was a catastrophe. Not only did he lose the battle, but his little brother was captured by the Moors, and Henry could not raise the ransom fast enough to save him. What a terrible day it must have been when the family learned that the beloved, younger prince died in captivity.

Afterwards, Prince Henry’s favor, and his will to participate in court, declined. One of his older brothers’ son became King, and Henry retreated into the seclusion and asceticism of a monk on his estate in the coastal city of Sagres.

There, he used his time and mind to study navigation and send out fleets to claim lands for Portugal along the west coast of Africa. On their way back from these expeditions, his ships had to sail a long way out into the deep waters west of Portugal to have the wind. With the knowledge gained from these far offshore travels, Henry developed a school of navigation, designed new equipment for navigation and the next generation of sailing ship, the caravel.


These short articles are from the reading of Magellan by Tim Joyner. The book, Magellan is the main resource being used for the route and timing of The Magellan Project.

The Magellan Project is a seafaring, documentary adventure that will retrace the 3-year route of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world – in time for the 500-year anniversary. It’s an ambitious project, and we need your help. See how you can JOIN THE ADVENTURE.

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The Silk Roadhttps://magellanproject.org/the-silk-road/https://magellanproject.org/the-silk-road/#respondSat, 18 Jul 2015 06:36:19 +0000http://www.magellanproject.org/?p=360This post The Silk Road appeared first on The Magellan Project.

When you Google for “The Silk Road” today, you find a lot more search results for the drugs-and-guns site than for the historically significant network of travel routes between China, the middle east and ancient Rome. Yet, for centuries this “international commercial highway” was the source of valuable goods, spices, gems and China’s silks for […]

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When you Google for “The Silk Road” today, you find a lot more search results for the drugs-and-guns site than for the historically significant network of travel routes between China, the middle east and ancient Rome. Yet, for centuries this “international commercial highway” was the source of valuable goods, spices, gems and China’s silks for those who had the money to pay.

Watch a short, well-done video at History.com.

When the Great Mongol State (the largest empire in history from 1206 to 1368) began to break down, the anarchic conditions in the middle east made it virtually impossible to travel the Silk Road by land. There was a sea route from China to the Near East, but in 1453, The Turks captured Constantinople and took control of the sea routes in the Black Sea. The Turks also controlled Egypt at this time and created an expensive hardship on both land and sea routes to and within that region as well.

Ottoman Empire just after the capture of Constantinople

These bottlenecks to trade began to take its toll on the price of goods for the ruling classes in Europe. Gold and silver coffers were being severely drained. As we shall see, viewed from the vantage point of the future, this strain on the wealthy acted as a catalyst to the Age of Discovery.

The Iberian Peninsula just after Portuga's independence

In the meantime, the little kingdom of Portugal attained its independence from Castile with the help of a contingent of English archers in 1385. Twenty-six years later a treaty was signed.

In the next episode, you will see how the events of this revolution created the life of a significant player in Magellan’s Geodrama, Prince Henry the Navigator.


These articles are small essays from the reading of “Magellan” by Tim Joyner.

The Magellan Project is a seafaring adventure that will retrace the 3-year route of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world – in time for the 500 year anniversary.

Ongoing documentation, in various media, will be transmitted to the public as it happens. Outreach and cultural research are being planned for the ports o’ call. Collected materials will be compiled to produce a documentary, and all materials will be available to educators and researchers.

This is an ambitious project, and we need your help. See how you can JOIN THE ADVENTURE.


References

Featured Image (at top)
http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-silk-roads-in-history/

Silk Road and Related Trade Routes ~Maps / Atlas~
http://www.silkroutes.net/orient/mapssilkroutestrade.htm

Genghis Khan (where we learn the pronunciation is really ‘Chingas’ )
Watch an entertaining and educational video HERE

Ottoman Empire Map
http://www.academia.edu/4675909/The_Fate_of_the_Caliphate_-_Part_1_Byzantium_and_the_Ottomans

Map of Portugal (Citation)
By Gabagool (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

China, Central Asia, and the New Silk Road (where we learn about modern-day China’s Silk Road initiative)
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/09/china-central-asia-new-silk-road/


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The Iberianshttps://magellanproject.org/the-iberians/https://magellanproject.org/the-iberians/#commentsWed, 15 Jul 2015 04:00:17 +0000http://www.magellanproject.org/?p=357This post The Iberians appeared first on The Magellan Project.

We continue the exploration of Tim Joyner’s book Magellan with Chapter 2, The Iberians. Who are the Iberians and what do they have to do with Ferdinand Magellan and his expedition? There are Eastern Iberians and Western Iberians. The Eastern group have millennias of history in the Caucuses, the descendents of which are Georgians in […]

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We continue the exploration of Tim Joyner’s book Magellan with Chapter 2, The Iberians. Who are the Iberians and what do they have to do with Ferdinand Magellan and his expedition?

There are Eastern Iberians and Western Iberians. The Eastern group have millennias of history in the Caucuses, the descendents of which are Georgians in Russia. The Western group are from what is commonly referred to as the Iberian Peninsula, or Spain and Portugal.

It was the Greeks who named both groups Iberians. There has been much research to determine a genetic, ethnic or language link between them. These lines of study haven’t clearly panned out, although they are still going on. It’s not even clear why the ancient Greeks would have called these two different groups by the same name.

Celts are not Iberians Map

The original Western Iberians occupied only a portion of the squarish peninsula of Spain and Portugal. Here is a sketch from Total War Center that illustrates the point.

How this relates to Magellan’s world becomes quite clear as we continue with this chapter. The Portuguese and Spanish became the first great navigators and seafarers of the west. The following graph puts the role of The Iberians in perspective. They were the first to travel extensively by sea, although that role gave way to the Dutch, French and British in the early 1600s.
Graph of early western sea explorers
(Graph found on the website of Mr. Barnes’ class. Click the image to go there.)

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Windward Ho!https://magellanproject.org/windward-ho/https://magellanproject.org/windward-ho/#respondSat, 11 Jul 2015 04:52:38 +0000http://www.magellanproject.org/?p=353This post Windward Ho! appeared first on The Magellan Project.

The sailing term “Windward Ho!” means to turn the boat towards the wind, or to ride ‘close to the wind.’ This is what the boat is doing when you see it ‘heeled over’ on its side, with all the people on the other side leaning out to keep it from tipping. Traveling close to the […]

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JOIN THE ADVENTURE

The sailing term “Windward Ho!” means to turn the boat towards the wind, or to ride ‘close to the wind.’ This is what the boat is doing when you see it ‘heeled over’ on its side, with all the people on the other side leaning out to keep it from tipping. Traveling close to the wind, or windward, is one way to get a lot of speed, and the boat’s design determines how close into the wind it can point and still keep moving forward.

There are lots of ways to join the adventure. Follow us on Facebook, follow our progress, and share our story!

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