The most important thing was that this was the first round-the-world trip,
the first ever circumnavigation,
which was done in the direction of the parallels,
and this trip had extraordinary consequences for the future,
because in this expedition they obtained hydrographic data, geographic data
and data about the zone's riches,
they discovered many ways of reaching this area.
Therefore, it was much easier
to explore the Pacific from then on.
The Archive of the Indies is essential
for our knowledge of the round-the-world expedition,
because it contains the documents produced by the House of Trade
regarding the provisioning of the ships
and so we now know everything that the five ships carried.
And all of this information, about the ships,
the provisions, the crew and so on,
can be found in the documents filed in the General Archive of the Indies.
To find the path
they had to keep moving forward,
and their progress was mapped out on a cartography.
And so this cartography of Magellan's voyage
was the culmination of all of the House of Trade's cartography
and it was also the point of union
between the cartography of the Atlantic and the cartography of the Pacific.
And by bringing all of this together on one single map
they had essentially mapped out the whole world.
...events that changed our vision of the world.
The celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Circumnavigation
not only looks to teach us
about who we are or who we were
and showcase a great Spanish feat
and emphasise the figure of Elcano,
and the figure of Magellan,
but it also looks to promote
further research into this heroic deed.
500 YEARS SINCE THE 1ST ROUND-THE-WORLD-TRIP
THE SPANISH ARMADA OF THE SPICE ISLANDS
On the 6th of September, 1522,
the Nao Victoria arrived to Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
Two years, eleven months and fifteen days had passed
since the Fleet of the Spice Islands had left from that very same location
on its way to the Maluku Islands on the 20th of September, 1519.
Still on board, Juan Sebastián de Elcano,
the captain of the ship and one of the few survivors of the expedition,
wrote a letter to Emperor Charles V, giving an account of the expedition.
LETTER FROM SEBASTIÁN ELCANO TO CHARLES V
"Your Majesty,
we must tell you that we have discovered
and gone around all of the roundness of the world,
going along the west and coming back along the east."
Elcano knew that this was the most important aspect.
And when he went to see Charles I, now Charles V,
because he had since been proclaimed emperor,
he told him that this was the most important aspect of the Expedition,
but that they had also brought 600 hundredweights of clove,
which they had sold very well, paying for the entire expedition with this money.
but, the question remained, was it within the parallel or not?
He told him that he had no way of demarcating this
and to do so would require another expedition with more resources.
That was the first ever complete circumnavigation of the world.
And it had been done by a Spanish armada,
commanded by the Portuguese, Ferdinand Magellan
until the 27th of April, 1521
when he was defeated by Lapulapu, a native chieftain
on Mactan Island in the Philippines.
From then on the armada was led by other captains
and finally it was Juan Sebastián Elcano who took the command.
Magellan did not live to see them fulfil their goal
of arriving at the Spice Islands.
After many trials and tribulations, the armada finally managed it.
However, only one of the five ships, The Victoria
managed to come back with a shipment of spices
and was able to finish its circumnavigation of the globe.
It has been 500 years since that voyage
and in 2018
numerous activities were organised to commemorate it.
An Executive Commission was created,
which was formed by political authorities, academics,
cultural figures and representatives of civil society.
Three years later when the voyage was completed,
with Elcano finally arriving to Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Seville,
we then had a lot more information
which would enable us to discover
new points of view, new perspectives...
New information
that helped us to truly understand
the importance of their accomplishment.
What is true is that part of a small map of the Strait of...
...another specific purpose leave room...
... would have been a bit happier,
and this is the great outcome of this Congress. Thank you very much.
Generally speaking, this expedition had
two fundamental objectives.
Firstly, they were particularly interested
in being able to do trade with the Maluku Islands,
or with the Moluccas, as they were referred to back then,
as this was as a privileged place
for purchasing spices.
The most sought-after spices at the time in Europe cost a fortune
compared to all other goods,
and these were cloves, nutmeg and pepper.
And the second objective was political and was closely related to
the first objective, as they were not sure
whether the Moluccas were on the Portuguese
or Spanish side of the Antemeridian, as defined
in the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494.
And Charles I tried to see
if it would be possible, being there in situ,
to demonstrate that the Maluku Islands
were on the part which belonged to Spain.
And so what had been a strictly commercial objective
became a political objective, in which they looked
to establish sovereignty,
as this would make it possible for a long-term regular line to be created.
The Line of Tordesillas, was defined in the Treaty of Tordesillas.
The capitulations are dated the 7th of June, 1494,
but these already corresponded to a previous treaty,
the Treaty of Alcasobas of 1479.
Portugal and Spain
had already advanced along
the coast of Africa,
towards the south, in search of the spices along the east,
and Portugal's expedition was already ahead,
but as they both moved forward,
there was a point at which a conflict arose.
And this conflict was resolved by the Treaty of Alcasobas.
Their expansion routes were established,
that is to say, they established a horizontal line
and to the south of this line,
the Portuguese were able to move along the coast
in search of these spices,
and to the north of this line, and passing the Canary Islands,
the Castilians were able to move.
And this is why when Columbus chose to head westwards,
it was because he had no other option, as he couldn't head south.
And so when they arrived to America
this line, and the status quo of these expansion lines was altered,
and it was necessary to make another treaty,
and this treaty was the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494.
The problem was, how should this line be established?
When they arrived to the Maluku Islands,
Nuño Garcia de Toreno drew up the Map of the Maluku Islands
and the Line of Tordesillas was established,
however, it is worth mentioning that until this time,
the Line of Tordesillas had only been considered as
the line that went over the Atlantic crossing South America,
over Brazil,
but the continuation of this line on the other side,
the antemeridian, hadn't been considered
and that was the line that passed through the Moluccas.
The Spanish cartographers positioned the Line of Tordesillas,
the Moluccas antemeridian,
more to the west, which favoured Castile,
whereas the Portuguese placed it to the east, which favoured them.
It was later demonstrated that the Portuguese were right.
Magellan had come very close to the Maluku Islands,
he hadn't arrived, but he had been very close,
he'd played a role in a very important feat of arms,
which was, the Capture of Malacca.
The Capture of Malacca represented a very easy route,
as once they'd taken Malacca it could be used as a base to go to China,
to go to Japan, to go the Spice Islands.
So Magellan knew very well
that this was within his reach.
In Portugal, Magellan's plans to go another way
were of no interest whatsoever
and that is why he decided to abandon Portugal,
as Christopher Columbus had done before him
and he came to Seville.
Seville was the Centre where everything was coming together.
It was a very big city with great wealth
and in the Middle Ages it was one of the biggest cities in Europe,
but most importantly the city had a river port.
And it was an inland port, and of course an inland port
was easier to protect
and was safer than a sea port.
An obvious example of this was the city of Cadiz,
which is 100 kilometres from Seville,
and which had been conquered by pirates on three occasions.
Seville was never conquered.
So one of the reasons was to protect the fleet
and they also had to have a hinterland to supply the products
that they had to bring to America.
And for these reasons and for other political motives, the decision was made
and this was during Columbus' lifetime, as it was in 1503,
that the whole system of relationships with America
would be managed through this monopoly,
and this monopoly was to be established in the city of Seville,
where it would remain until 1717.
In 1503 the House of Trade of the Indies was created,
as the organism responsible for the Indies Fleet's bureaucratic affairs
and for organising and preparing the different armadas.
VIEW OF SEVILLE GENERAL ARCHIVE OF THE INDIES
It became an important cartographic centre
and it taught what was known as
the "art of navigation".
In 1508, the Crown created the role of the Chief of Navigation of the House,
establishing a single cartographic model, the Royal Register.
This was firstly maintained in the Reales Ataranzanas
before being moved to the Reales Alcázares of Seville
where it was kept in the Admiral's Room.
Circulating the Royal Register and the navigation charts was prohibited.
The House of Trade
established that this cartography was to be kept a secret.
These maps depicted the
areas that Spain could expand into in the different areas of the world
and obviously they were not going to make these available
to the rest of the powers that were pursuing the same thing.
The thing was that the navigators and the cosmographers
were just like football players moving from one team to another.
For example Américo Vespuchi
went on a voyage with Juan de la Cosa and Alonso de Ojeda,
in the year 1499, 1500,
at the service of Castile,
and two years later, in 1502, and at the service of Portugal
he went down the Atlantic coast of South America,
and it was then that he realised that in the continent
the lands that they were traversing, these coasts
belonged to a continent of huge proportions
and that is when they began to realise
that if they wanted to be able to find the spices
they would need a path.
And the House would be in charge of
organising the different armadas
that were to go out in search of this path.
And what happened in the end was that Magellan
claimed that you could go from the east to the west,
although this wasn't actually a new idea,
and as they continued to search for this path
they got to a point in which they had covered almost the entire Atlantic coast,
and all that was left was for them to reach South America
and see where they could get to.
The Spanish knew of the islands
because news went around spreading the idea
that there were other territories
on the other side of America,
and that these territories might belong to Cathay
and Cipango, where Columbus was unable to reach,
because they were receiving news of Portuguese explorations
which were taking place at this time, and this news was reaching Spain.
And it is important to consider one last thing, and that is
that the Spaniards had reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513
and they had named it the South Sea.
Magellan arrived to Seville on the 20th of October, 1517.
He arrived on his own, without his partner for this project,
the Portuguese cosmographer Ruy de Falero,
who had accompanied him to Spain,
with his brother Francisco Falero and the Spaniard, Cristóbal de Haro,
who was based in Portugal at the time.
Falero was very reticent about this
as he feared losing his prominence, and with good reason
as he didn't end up going on the expedition.
After a few initial difficulties
Magellan was well received in Seville.
There was an enormous number of business men
in what was a very international city.
There were people from all over the place
and there was a lot of money going around
that they wanted to invest overseas
because it seemed like this was the best paid
and most profitable business at the time.
And in this field they had to listen to Magellan.
He had a lot of support here
and if we were to name names we would be here for a while,
however, perhaps the two most important figures were
Diego Barbosa,
who became his father-in-law, as he married his daughter,
and he had strong ties with the Alcázar,
and the Ataranzanas as the governor,
and he had very good connections in Seville's commercial world,
And he also had the support of another man who proved fundamental,
Cristóbal de Haro.
He put up a considerable amount of money,
we don't know exactly how much, but a fair sum, around a quarter,
which was to be used to supply arms and equip the ships
that were going to go out in search of the spices.
And this group of Sevillians,
well, graphically speaking, it was this group that
would compel Magellan
to leave Seville and head to Valladolid in search of Charles I.
The project was conceived in the city of Valladolid,
which was where the king was at that time.
And the main event
occurred when Ruy Faleiro and Magellan arrived to Valladolid
where they firstly met with the King's advisors.
I think that went on for three days, and finally they met with the emperor
who had already given his approval,
and the Emperor signed the capitulations
in which the Crown assumed the financing and
organisation of this fleet according to the projects presented by Magellan.
And so it was in Valladolid that the order was given,
and once the king had given his approval
all of the administration's machinery was set in motion.
He promised that he would do all he could to find the Spice Islands
and that he would abide by the terms stipulated
in these capitulations, which consisted of doing business,
and in particular bringing back spices, and in particular clove,
and he promised that he would try to see if the Maluku Islands
would fall from the Portuguese part of the Meridian into the Spanish part
and that he'd try to discover other islands without Portuguese presence,
and if the capitulations allowed him to,
he would try to discover other islands
and that if he discovered at least six, or more than six,
that he would be allowed to keep two under his sovereignty,
under his control.
And that they'd have to give him some titles
because one must have a title, if not, they are worth nothing.
Columbus was named the Admiral of the Ocean Sea.
they made him a viceroy.
And Magellan was named
the Captain of the Fleet of the Spices,
or Captain of the fleet heading to the Spice Islands,
which was his main title,.
He was later named Governor
of that which is yet to be explored but which can be explored.
Every team made of several ships
that headed overseas was referred to as an "armada" in small letters,
and he was the captain of the "armada"
therefore meaning that he had supreme command over the armada
and his decisions could not be disputed by anyone else.
They could form councils but he could not be disputed.
When the Crown gave the order
for him to arm a fleet to make this expedition to Moluccas,
well this Letter had to be sent by the Council to the House of Trade,
and they said: "you have to set things in motion,
as you are the ones that have to find the boats,
and you have to provide supplies for the boats,
and you have to find the crew
and you are the ones in charge at the Guadalquivir river,
and you are responsible for the technical part,
the Council is only responsible for the political aspects".
The crown gave him instructions,
that included 74 or 75 articles...
explaining exactly what they had to do
in order to govern the boats,
and govern the armada.
This is actually very interesting,
and I'm mentioning it as I find it rather curious,
it was determined how the boats had to regulate each other
by using signals during the day
and by making fires at night.
For example, they were to use a fire
to indicate the location of the boat.
Two fires indicated that they were coming closer or moving away.
So these were instructions to help them organise themselves.
We know everything that was carried in the five ships.
The names of the 234 passengers,
although this is a rather polemic issue
because the figure oscillates.
I think the capitulations of Valladolid
said that there were 234 or 235,
but Toribio Medina claimed that 267 went.
The House of Trade was aware of all of the problems,
and all of the navigation issues
and these articles were provided to ensure that the journey went smoothly
There is a file that we call
patronage 34,
that's the name, he was a patronage, and his surname was 34.
This file contains the majority of the documents,
both for the preparation and for the journey itself.
There was documentation about how to prepare the ships,
about the vessel, the careening.
They had experience, as they'd already arrived to America,
the waters were rather warm
and there was a mollusc that they called the shipworm,
and these molluscs attacked the wood, leaving tremendous holes in it.
During the careening they fixed the hulls
covering them with all types of elements
to prevent them getting attacked by the shipworms
and to ensure that no water got into the vessels.
The documentation is very intriguing
because it tells you everything, what they brought, what they ate,
which unfortunately didn't last very long
and they even ended up having to eat rats.
I've read, and a lot has been written about
the fact that the boats that they bought
were second, or third or even fourth-hand boats,
referring to the fact that the conditions were not good
when they made the purchase.
The Victoria was not like that,
the Victoria was the most expensive
and it is thought that it was the best built boat.
The boats
were not in good condition
and they had to do significant hull repair work
when preparing for the expedition.
And...
we could say that they went out to sea in good conditions.
They were tiny boats,
when we think about the types of boats that are sailed these days,
the boats measured around 20 to 30 metres in length,
they were very small.
I think that the Victoria was built
either in Ondárroa or Zarautz,
and all except one of the rest were built in the north,
it seems that one of them was built in Brittany.
The five boats of the Spice Fleet,
Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción,
Victoria and Santiago
left Seville on the 10th of August, 1519
from a dock on the Guadalquivir river,
very close to the west side of what is now the San Telmo Bridge.
Magellan went to the Church of Santa María de la Victoria
where he pledged an oath to the King and received the royal standard.
The expedition left from here, very close to where we are now,
it set off from the dock named
"Las Muelas" or "Las Mulas",
both options are recorded in the official documentation,
and the five ships left heading towards Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
In Sanlúcar de Barrameda
they loaded more equipment and supplies
and finally they set sail from Sanlúcar
on the 20th of September, of the year 1519,
they set off and sailed in the open seas
replenishing their water supplies in the Canary Islands
as everyone always did when heading to America.
This great adventure lasted just over three years.
An Italian who travelled with Magellan
and one of those who came back on the Victoria, Antonio Pigafetta,
wrote about the voyage in his well-known book,
telling of their excitement as they set off.
FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD
The Captain General Ferdinand Magellan
had managed to set sail on a long journey across the ocean,
where the winds blew with rage
and where the storms were very frequent.
He had managed to open a path
that no navigator had known of until then,
but he didn't tell too much about this daring project
fearing that they would be dissuaded
by the dangers they would face
and knowing that his crews could be discouraged by this.