First Voyage of Circumnavigation by Fernãõ de Magalhães and Juan Sebastián Elcano (1519-1522)

The naval expedition that took place between 1519 and 1522, and which was initiated by Ferdinand Magellan and later concluded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, is a milestone in the history of humankind for various reasons. The most evident one is that the men who concluded this journey were the first to make a complete lap around the globe. This voyage had a significant impact in humankind’s general knowledge, as it made it possible to grasp the vastness of South America and how wide the Pacific Ocean is, all of which paved the way to a new and more concrete notion of the Earth’s dimension. The documents show the preparation of the journey, the complementary relationship between the Portuguese and the Spanish, as well as the very first testimonies of these discoveries. In the aftermath of this journey, the theories espousing that the planet’s surface was mostly covered by land were overcome by what was then unveiled: the planet was in fact blue, with masses of land locked by a great ocean.