Biography

  Ferdinand Magellan was born in 1480, but no one really knows if that is his real birth year or not. He was a Portuguese explorer though he sailed for the Spanish. Magellan set out on an expedition around the world to get to Asia. He found a path around North and South America; that’s called the Magellan Straight. Magellan was the first explorer to explore the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, Magellan did not live to circumnavigate to Asia. Magellan encountered the fillipino people. He died in a skirmish in the Philippines. But eighteen out of the two hundred crew members on one of the five boats lived to circumnavigate around the world. All they ate was saw dust and rats after they ran out of food. Magellan died in 1521, one year before the eighteen crew members reached Asia.

     Map timeline

1480: Magellan was born

1519: Magellan set out to circumnavigate

1521: Magellan encountered natives, Magellan died

1522: The rest of the 18 crew members reached Asia

Summary 

     Feridinand Magellan belongs in the explorer hall of fame, he convinced the Spain government to go on an expedition around the world to get to Asia from Spain. Everyone expected it would take a couple months, but it took three years, even though Magellan died a year before the rest of the crew reached Asia, i respect him for taking a big risk and trying. He discovered  the path to the Pacific Ocean and discovered and named the Pacific Ocean.

The route to the Pacific ocean is called the Magellan straight, named after the man who discovered it.

  Reflection 

     Exploration in the 15th and 16th century and space exploration today have and had many risks. Some people today think that we can still go and colonize another planet, such as mars. Just as people wanted to colonize the new world. Both Space exploration and sea exploration had risks such as death, food shortage, water shortage (no you can't drink salt water). More than half of Magellans crew died, including himself. and they only had 18 sailors left with 1 boat out of the 5 boats left. Thats a scary thought.

Work Cited

Unger, Dallace W., Jr. "Magellan, Ferdinand." In Ackermann, Marsha E., Michael Schroeder, Janice J. Terry, Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur, and Mark F. Whitters, eds. Encyclopedia of World History: The First Global Age, 1450 to 1750, vol. 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Modern World History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?

ItemID=WE53&iPin=WHIII175&SingleRecord=True (accessed October 9, 2009).

http://my.execpc.com/~culp/space/reasons2.html 10/9/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_people 10/9/09