Francis Drake Research Paper

Did you know that two famous explorers discovered the same thing but at different periods? In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan started his voyage from Seville, Spain and ended his voyage near the Pacific Ocean. Traveling around the globe for the first time, Ferdinand Magellan and his crew proved that the earth was round. Later, Sir Francis Drake and his sailors from Plymouth, Massachusetts became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Being a huge accomplishment for the English, the famous discovery changed our outlook on the world’s appearance. Faced with different challenges, people, places, and discoveries, the two famous expeditors made history. With similar goals and beliefs, Ferdinand Magellan and Sir Francis Drake had both distinct

To begin with, Ferdinand Magellan was an European who started his route down to the east coast of South America looking for a western sea route to Spice Islands. Discovering the Strait of Magellan, he carried about 270 men to set sail to Brazil. Stopped by natural disasters, him and his crew were left in freezing cold conditions. Finding a new route, Magellan set sail to the Pacific Ocean in November 1520. As the first Europeans to see the Pacific ocean, they named it “Mar Pacifico because its waters appeared calm in comparison to the difficult strait waters, Magellan underestimated the size of the ocean, and the ships were unprepared for the journey. Many crewmembers starved while searching for land. Finally in March, the ships landed at Guam. There, they were able to replenish their foot supplies before sailing to the Philippines” (1).

From Queen Elizabeth’s request, Sir Francis Drake was assigned to capture Spain's treasure supply in Panama and to end the Anglo-Spanish War. With the prosperity of the Panama expedition, Queen Elizabeth sent Drake out to seek the Northwest Passage in late 1577. The idea of finding the Northwest Passage was to accomplish four main objectives which were to “preach the gospel of Christ to all the New World Natives, arm the new world natives against spanish inquisition, expel the cruel, rapacious Spaniards from the New World completely, and establish trade with Far East and make English the center of spice trade” (3). Heading north in search of the NorthPassgae, Sir Francis Drake traveled as far north as “48° N (on parallel with Vancouver, Canada) before extreme cold conditions turned him back. Drake anchored near today’s San Francisco and claimed the surrounding land, which he called New Albion, for Queen Elizabeth”(4). In 1580, Drake went around Cape of Good Hope and arrived back in Plymouth Harbor. Despite complaints from the Spanish government about his robbing, Drake was honored as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Giving us a better picture of the world, he was then personally knighted aboard the Golden Hind by Queen Elizabeth. In addition of the Queen giving recognition to him, Drake was in command for two more voyages around the globe. Ultimately, Sir Francis