Ferdinand Magellan

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Earth, the world we live in today, as everyone knows and acknowledges for granted is spherical or round. However, this indisputable fact was not entirely considered the truth by many of the great philosophers and thinkers of the 16th century, who believed that the earth was flat or quadrilateral. For the majority of people, it would have taken a physical form of evidence to convert their beliefs. Therefore, this evidence was proved by the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan.

In Northern Portugal, during 1480, Ferdinand Magellan was born into a noble Portuguese family. However, both of his parents had unfortunately met their death during Magellan’s young age. Therefore, young Magellan had found himself in the service of royalty at an early age (“World Biography.”). Magellan was only the age of 12 when he began serving the queen of Portugal as a page; a position of employment for youths in royal courts. In addition, as a young member of Queen Leonora’s School of Pages in Lisbon, Magellan was supported to be educated on subjects that would greatly aid him in the future, such as mapmaking(cartography), astronomy, and celestial navigation of learning how to steer ships based on the positions of the stars ("World Biography."). Hence, the death of his parents had allowed him the opportunity to become adequately educated to learn about the various Portuguese expeditions in India and Africa, including those conducted by Christopher Columbus, opportunities of taking part in various sea voyages and experience in battles.

Around this time of the 15th century, spices were valuable and at the center of the world economy. However, since no spices could be cultivated in the cold and arid Europe ("Ferdinand Magellan." History.), no effort wa...

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... of seafaring navigation, and this process had made the world a much smaller place. Furthermore, European geographic knowledge was expanded immensely by Magellan’s expedition, and his ambitious voyage around the world provided the Europeans with far more than just spices. Also, he discovered the Strait of Magellan, and named the Pacific Ocean (“Ferdinand Magellan”). Moreover, mapmakers gained more knowledge about the shape and size of South America and the Pacific Ocean, and knew more about the location of Asia in relation to Europe and the Americas. This mapping proved invaluable source to European understanding of the world. The most important geography is Magellan’s realization/understanding of full extent of the earth, which was something that significantly helped in the development of future geographic explorations and the resulting knowledge of the world today.

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