Today we know how beautiful the Pacific Ocean is – and its islands scattered around. Some tourists may enjoy the beautiful beaches there nowadays. But for the first circumnavigator, the Spaniard Ferdinand Magellan (1480 – 1521), the discovery ended as disaster…
title=”~ Piece of Paradise ~ A small Maldivian atoll seen on the way to Mauritius – photo by ρrakaz (Digital Monk) / Prakash Bajracharya, kindly sent to my group BLOG IT!, click on the picture to enter his galleries on Flickr.com
My fragment about Magellan:
If Magellan had not possessed this concrete character, mankind would have to wait a century longer for a complete circumnavigation. When his five Spanish ships started, the journey were disturbed less by adverse winds, shrunken supplies or the endless searching along the coast of South America, than through continuing subversions among the five captains of the project. Only an almost psycho-pathological shrewdness of Magellan, an unbreakable self-esteem and an enviable loyal faith into the project of earth-circumnavigation possible to all directions could overcome all hesitations and setbacks. The same character (to be always ready for revenge, with too much self-esteem) brought the early death to Magellan – just in his happiest moment, when he had been able to sit back on a golden Philippine throne: after he just had found the slip through into the Pacific Ocean! But absolutely he wanted to prove that he, armored with only a small number of sailors, were able to force an insignificant island with applied spear throwers to give him reverence: Sadly he was not able to get out off his rat race for victory: So he was miserably massacred wading in the water. The ending was not exactly of papal dignity – the beginning of the enterprise entirely…
related:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan
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http://www.amazon.de/review/R2XA9YDWOC9D1J
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Flickr Comments 
Thanks for the history lesson, It is so important to share more than our traditional text books tell kids.
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Reblogged this on Restore the HARMONY and commented:
Such a mesmerizing picture. Never have I seen such breathtaking view ^^
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The history of the search for spices, the navigations, and the international relations, are fascinating and worthwhile. So few survived these great explorations. They paid heavily in sacrifices. And for those of us who follow the history, they provide wonderful stories of adventure and triumph over difficulty. It is hard to imagine these days, such sacrifice and losses. Thank you for opening the window to this fascinating subject.
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you have summed up the straits of Magellan so well 😉
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But the goal of Magellan was not only to discover the world or to verify if earth was a globe or not… It was also for commerce, to find spice, gold, new kingdoms to have power. The story of this man is sad and it is sad for all the populations sailors and conquistadors discovered and then exploited…
But the sea is always fascinating, as a child or an adult. Pacific, Atlantic…What is behind the horizon line ? A secret island, a treasure …
http://icezine.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/week-23-the-sea/
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like Columbus! He wanted gold for the roof of the church in Jerusalem!
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Now it’s oil!
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Great tidbits of history I didn’t know — thanks for posting!
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Good history lesson, Frizz…and well articulated!
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For us who have Filipino heritage running through our veins, Magellan was nothing but an invader, representing an opportunist society in need of many things such as silk, tea, spices, tobacco eventually. History books as they have been written, has always been one-sided. I remember seeing on my daughter’s desk when she was in middle school, a book entitled “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” about many misrepresentations of history that we have dutifully swallowed through the years. And how they have been debunked. It’s good to see advancements in data gathering and many different viewpoints. They collectively tend to produce a much better picture of events.
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thank you for: “… History books as they have been written, has always been one-sided… Magellan was nothing but an invader, representing an opportunist society in need of many things such as silk, tea, spices, tobacco eventually…”
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Sorry to rant here.
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no, it’s very good! My favorite writer, G.C. Lichtenberg, 1742-1799, once wrote ironically: “The native Indian, who at first discovered the Columbus, he made a very bad discovery!” Frizz: The same for Magellan and all the other killers and gold hunters, sex maniacs, ignorers …
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Hahaha! Thanks.
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