Magellan Expedition Circumnavigates Earth

Ferdinand Magellan left Spain in 1519 with five ships and about 270 men, sailing westward to find a route to the Spice Islands. Magellan was killed in the Philippines, and the Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the expedition. The Victoria, the one ship to complete the circumnavigation, returned to Spain in 1522 with only 18 of the original 270 men aboard, and about 40 men in all completed it. It was the first expedition to sail around the earth and the first crossing of the Pacific by a European expedition, which revealed the vast scale of that ocean, and it proved that ships could sail around the world on a western sea route. Although the expedition did find a route, it was much longer and more arduous than expected and was therefore not commercially useful.