Magellan and the first voyage around the world
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 September 2019
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In September 1519, a fleet led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan set off on what would be the first circumnavigation of the world. Magellan was the first navigator to find a route round South America, but he had to quell several attempted mutinies and he was eventually killed by tribesmen in what is now the Philippines. His circumnavigation was completed in 1522 by one of his subordinates, Juan Sebastian Elcano. Simon Watts tells Magellan’s story through the book published by his on-board chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta.
PHOTO: Magellan's fleet (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.0 | Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of the BBC World Service History program Witness History with me Simon Watts. |
| 0:48.0 | Today I'm taking you back 500 years to the start of the first voyage around the world led by the |
| 0:55.6 | Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. I'm using a contemporary account written by |
| 1:01.5 | one of the men on board. |
| 1:07.0 | Finding myself in Spain in the year of 1519 and knowing by the reading of many books of the great and awful things of the open ocean |
| 1:18.0 | I decided to go and see with my own eyes a part of these things. |
| 1:22.0 | In 1519 Antonio... own eyes a part of these things. |
| 1:23.0 | In 1519 Antonio Pigafeta, a wealthy intellectual from the Republic of Venice got himself |
| 1:30.1 | a place on an expedition that would change the course of history. a the islands of Malacca from where the spices come. The Captain General was Ferdinand |
| 1:44.7 | Magellan. |
| 1:47.0 | Magellan was one of the most important navigators in an age when both Portugal and Spain were exploring the world. |
| 1:54.9 | The crucial Tordassia's Treaty of 1494 had divided the globe in two, with the Spanish exploring westwards and the Portuguese like Magellan heading east. |
| 2:06.8 | Dr Rachel Winchcombe. |
| 2:08.3 | Well, Magellan was born in around 1480 to a noble family and he spent some of his formative years fighting abroad |
| 2:15.5 | on behalf of the Portuguese crown in India and in modern day Malaysia and Indonesia. |
| 2:21.6 | He also took part in the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511. |
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