Secrets of the Dead (2000–…): Season 19, Episode 1 - Magellan's Crossing - full transcript
Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set sail to gain control of the global spice trade, but end up becoming the first to circumnavigate the earth.
♪♪♪
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
♪♪♪
-September 1519.
Ferdinand Magellan
sets out from Spain
on what would be the first
expedition around the world.
♪♪♪
Magellan sails in search
of a western sea route to Asia
and the Spice Islands.
For Europeans, spices
from the other side of the world
are worth their weight in gold
and Magellan hopes his
voyage will lead to a huge payoff.
-Voyages of discovery
are propelled
by commercial greed,
by ambition.
-His obsession takes his crew
to distant shores
where no Europeans
had been before.
-So these are voyages
of the imagination,
as well as voyages of discovery.
-In the end, Magellan would
not complete the epic journey.
But members of his crew did,
setting the foundation
for global commerce
and colonization
that remains with us today.
After three long years at sea,
only a handful of survivors
returned to the Spanish harbor.
Their ship, laden with spices,
provided proof
that it is possible
to sail around the world.
It is a moment in history that
transformed global civilization.
♪♪♪
-"Secrets of the Dead"
was made possible in part by
contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.
♪♪♪
-At the beginning
of the 16th century,
Seville is the starting point
for Spanish expeditions
into the recently discovered
New World.
The sailors hope to find a more
efficient route to the Far East
so they can bring back
exotic goods
and extremely valuable spices...
Cloves and nutmeg.
Determined to make his fortune,
Portuguese sailor
Ferdinand Magellan tries
to convince his king
to sponsor a voyage
in search of a western sea route
to the Spice Islands.
But the king refuses.
-Dom Manuel is seeing Portugal
becoming a great power
and traveling to the Far East
by odd routes
really isn't very interesting.
He sees a vision which doesn't
involve Magellan's voyage.
-Desperate and embittered,
Magellan leaves Portugal
and offers his services
to its archenemy...
Spain.
-Magellan is working
for the king of Spain
because the king of Portugal,
Dom Manuel,
despises him,
has rejected his plans.
-His experience and energy
quickly convince
the Spanish king
to fund his costly venture.
-Just like today, if you want
backing for a big project,
you have to promise
to find something
worth spending your money on.
So it's about investment.
It's about organization.
It's about persuasion.
You've got to sell the vision.
And Magellan's success is he
sells the vision to Charles I
and that's his big breakthrough.
The Portuguese often said
Magellan was a traitor.
He wasn't.
He was rejected
by his own country
and, like many other Portuguese
mariners and navigators,
he went off
to serve elsewhere...
In Spain, in England.
All over the world, Portuguese
navigators are serving.
-Magellan sets sail
from Seville's shipyard,
which today bears witness
to centuries
of maritime history.
-Seville is the center
of the Spanish enterprise
of the Indies.
It's where Spain is organizing
all its great voyages.
The bureaucrats are here.
The money men are here.
The sailors are here.
The visionary navigators,
like Magellan, are here.
Indeed, we're just
outside the walls
of Old Seville, in the shipyard.
Magellan would've been here,
fitting out his ships.
He would've had
that conversation
about getting his ship ready,
finding the men,
right here,
right outside the old city.
-The voyages to the other side
of the world are just one facet
of a great shift happening
in Europe at the time.
-The 16th century is an age
of transformation.
Nicolaus Copernicus
has just placed the world,
not at the center
of the universe,
but as part of the mechanics
of a much greater solar system.
Christopher Columbus
has discovered America,
although he thinks
it's still India.
And Martin Luther is challenging
the Universal Church
of Western Europe.
So this constellation
of little parochial places
has suddenly woken up
and realized
there's a whole wide world
out there to be discovered
and the 16th century will be
the Age of Discovery.
♪♪♪
-The goal of these
expeditions, however,
is not to improve
the geographic understanding
of the world.
Power and money are at the heart
of these so-called voyages
of discovery.
But the sailors do bring back
important knowledge
for scientists
and cartographers.
Magellan is convinced
he will find
an unknown passageway
at the tip of South America,
and he isn't the only one
who believes
there is a southern route
around the continent.
♪♪♪
The Historical Museum
in Frankfurt has
in its collection a globe
that was made roughly five years
before Magellan's journey
and still puzzles
historians today.
-[ Speaking German ]
-[Interpreter]
In South America,
we see a route going
between the tip of the continent
and the land mass of Antarctica.
This passageway is puzzling.
How is this route going
around South America possible
on a globe from 1515,
even though Magellan
didn't take this route
until five years later?
-Each ship returning from the
newly found Western Hemisphere
brings with it more information
about the true shape
of the Earth.
-Very quickly,
the Spanish realized
they needed
to control knowledge.
They needed to bring all
of the cartographic
understanding of the world
as it expanded
inside Seville, to control it,
to limit it,
to stop other people having it,
to make sure their people
knew where to go
and other people didn't.
♪♪♪
So they have a succession
of expert cartographers
working here,
taking all the information
coming back
from Columbus' voyages
and, later, Magellan's voyages,
into the city, to be processed,
to record how much more we know,
year after year,
across the century.
So this is where
that knowledge expands.
Decade by decade, the map grows,
the details become finer,
and, ultimately,
we have a map of the world
that we would recognize
being produced in this city.
♪♪♪
-And finding a western sea route
to the Spice Islands
becomes a battle for control
of the most lucrative trade
of the day.
♪♪♪
Today, Ternate and Tidore,
the island hubs of the
16th-century spice trade,
are part of Indonesia.
Tidore,
less than six miles across,
is the larger
of the two islands.
Despite their size,
they were the center
of conflict for centuries.
The fight for these islands'
resources began long
before Europeans came ashore,
as the crown prince
of Ternate explains.
-[ Sniff ]
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter]
The first to discover
cloves and nutmeg
were the Chinese.
They became
world trade commodities,
resulting in exchange
between China and Ternate,
more well-known as the
Spice Road or the Silk Road.
-In Seville,
Magellan presses ahead,
furnishing the fleet.
Five ships are readied,
and a crew mustered.
A seasoned sailor
from the Basque region
is part of the crew.
-Next!
Name.
- Sebastián Elcano.
♪♪♪
-Elcano signs on as a crewman
at the start of the expedition.
But by the time he returns,
he will have become its leader,
guiding his ship across the
Indian Ocean and back to Spain.
♪♪♪
Elcano's family
has a long history
of shipping and shipbuilding.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
We know that he came
from a very influential
family in Getaria,
that was in the ship business
and sea trade,
outfitting expeditions,
organizing transports.
And that's no coincidence,
since 80% of all ships
leaving Seville
in the 16th century,
bound for America,
were built in the Basque region.
[ Gulls squawking ]
-In Pasaia, not far
from Elcano's hometown,
a unique project is underway.
A team is building a replica
of a 16th-century galleon,
relying on the same methods
used nearly 500 years ago.
♪♪♪
-These ships were used
for the most fantastic trips
and adventures in the past.
You know, 500 years ago,
the only way humankind
could connect with the world
was with ships because there
was no other way
of transportation
or communication, like nowadays.
So this was really
a magical object.
It was like a floating church
or cathedral, you know,
it was the most sophisticated
object that mankind could build.
And, still, it comes
from a few trees, you know.
You go to the forest with an ax,
you cut the trees,
and then, with your work
and your knowledge,
you are able to build what
could be considered a spaceship.
♪♪♪
-The forests bear witness
to the impact
of shipbuilding
throughout the centuries.
♪♪♪
-As the Basque countries
are small,
they had to manage
the forests very wisely
and so they were keeping the
trees in the shape they needed.
So they leave them grow upwards,
like two, three meters
and then, from that height,
they would grow branches
in the shape they needed
for shipbuilding.
♪♪♪
Now, I cannot come to a forest
without looking at the trees,
like looking for naval timber
on their branches.
-The original ship
had three masts
and was used to transport whale
oil back to Spain from Canada.
Few written plans or blueprints
of this type of galleon remain,
but Agote and his team
want the ship
to be as authentic
to the period as possible.
The ropes, iron nails,
and other elements
have all been made using
historically accurate tools,
just like those of the
Basque builders 500 years ago,
who outfitted a fleet that
could sail around the world.
-In the 16th century,
the entire coast
was filled with shipyards.
It was the main specialty,
you know,
because of the iron mines,
because of the oak forests.
So it was a society
that was meant
to build ships in that time.
Hundreds of people,
highly specialized,
building several boats and ships
at the same time, you know,
and one of them
was the Nao Victoria,
that was probably built
very quickly.
I would say maybe three months.
-On the 20th of September 1519,
the five expedition ships
finally leave Spain.
♪♪♪
Magellan has negotiated
a detailed contract
with the Spanish king,
guaranteeing himself a handsome
share in the expected profits
and making him
captain general of the fleet.
♪♪♪
But Magellan's Portuguese roots
create tension
with the mostly Spanish crew.
♪♪♪
-He's surrounded by Spanish
captains, Spanish officers.
Most of his crew are Spanish,
although there are Germans,
English, and others onboard.
He is not in command
of a national expedition
and many of the Spanish leaders
do not trust him
and they despise him,
as a Portuguese.
-Fearing espionage,
Magellan keeps the details
of his plans to himself,
refusing to share information
with crewmen.
♪♪♪
The Portuguese are determined
to protect their interests
in the Spice Islands.
Magellan is sailing
in treacherous waters.
Spain and Portugal
are bitter adversaries,
fighting for control
of the open seas.
♪♪♪
Brokered by the Pope,
the Treaty of Tordesillas
divided the world
into east and west,
two hemispheres separated
by an imaginary line running
down the Atlantic.
♪♪♪
While the treaty clearly divides
Europe, Africa,
and the Americas,
the other side of the world,
where Asia, including the
Spice Islands is located,
remains unknown.
♪♪♪
Any hope of Spain controlling
the islands depends
on Magellan finding
a direct western sea route
in the half of the world
Spain possesses.
♪♪♪
For Magellan, the voyage
means a return to Asia.
As a young soldier,
he fought for Portugal
in the conquest of Malacca,
an important trading post
near today's Singapore.
Magellan's confidence comes
from his previous
seafaring experience.
-What Magellan brought
to this was all
of the knowledge
the Portuguese already had
of how to get
to the Spice Islands.
-He even brought a Malay slave
back to Europe with him,
Henrique,
who joins him on this voyage.
On that initial trip to Asia,
Magellan did not visit
the Spice Islands,
but his friend
and brother-in-arms
Francisco Serrao stayed behind
and sent letters back
to Magellan,
describing an island paradise.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] These letters
are enormously important.
There's one letter
where Magellan asks Serrao
to wait for him.
He didn't know
how he would get there,
via Portugal or Castille,
but he would come at any cost.
Plus, the letters also tell
of the riches
in the Moluccas
and the exotic islands,
this paradise
where Serrao lives,
and, for Magellan, that probably
added to the attraction.
[ Waves crashing ]
-Magellan's fleet
finds the winds needed
to carry them south
in the Atlantic.
But then,
without consulting the crew,
he orders the ships
to change course,
off the Cape Verde Islands.
The ships sail to the southeast,
rather than moving west,
directly for Brazil.
♪♪♪
Perhaps he wants to lose
Portuguese ships
that might be chasing him,
or is seeking
a more favorable wind.
The crew would've accepted
either explanation,
but Magellan's silence only
worsens relations between them.
♪♪♪
After two months at sea,
the ships reach South America.
♪♪♪
And, two months after that,
they sail into a huge passageway
opening toward the west.
♪♪♪
Magellan spends 15 days
exploring the passage.
Has he really found
the dreamed-of path
so quickly and so easily?
Is this the long-desired route
to the riches
of the Spice Islands?
♪♪♪
Magellan has gambled everything
on finding a passage
to the Pacific.
But the water
on which the ship sails...
-[ Spits ]
...is not an ocean.
-[ Speaking German ]
-[Interpreter]
Magellan was disappointed
to taste fresh water,
a sign that they were
in the huge mouth of a river
denying them a passage.
They had to turn around.
Today, we know it was
the Río de la Plata,
where seafarers had been before
and said they saw no land,
so it had to be a passage,
something Magellan also assumed.
-Sailors returning from sea
and sharing their experience
with cartographers
mistook the vast mouth
of the Río de la Plata
for the Southern Coast
of the South American continent.
Magellan is depending on maps
that have only
limited information.
♪♪♪
Despite this setback,
Magellan continues
to push his fleet further
into unchartered waters,
without any sign
of a westward passage.
♪♪♪
Morale begins to flag.
The climate becomes colder
and wetter.
Winter has begun
in the Southern Hemisphere.
♪♪♪
This is the farthest south
any European has ever sailed.
Icy winds from Antarctica
make the crew miserable.
Confidence...
In Magellan and in his belief
in a western sea route
to the Spice Islands...
Begins to fail.
And then, to everyone's despair,
Magellan makes another
shocking decision.
-At the end of the first
year's voyage,
they've reached
the Bay of San Julián,
down on the South Coast
of America,
and Magellan has
to tell his people...
Who are exhausted, weary,
and slightly frightened
at being beyond the map...
They're going to have
to stay there for the winter.
They're going
to have to overwinter
in an inhospitable,
unpleasant place,
when it would be so much easier
to just turn round and go home.
This is what leadership
looks like.
He has to persuade
these people...
Many of whom don't trust him,
a lot of whom don't
like him... that he's right;
that the king of Spain has given
him authority to do this;
and that, if they don't do
as they're told,
he will punish them.
-In the Bay of San Julián,
the crew reaches
its limit and rebels.
A mutiny breaks out,
but Magellan and a handful
of loyal allies crush it
with ruthless brutality.
Magellan has the ringleader
of the mutiny executed.
Sebastián Elcano
joined the mutiny
and awaits Magellan's sentence,
along with 40 other sailors.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] Elcano supports
this mutiny against Magellan.
We know that.
And we also know
how this mutiny ends.
It looks as if Elcano
was demoted,
but, unlike others,
spared of any severe punishment.
This was quite reasonable,
since Magellan needed
the experienced sailors
who knew how to navigate.
And among those were
the so-called masters
and Elcano was such
a master sailor
and knew how to navigate
such ships.
And so, he may have been
demoted, but he's not killed.
But, naturally, relationships
were damaged and at a low.
-With this demotion,
Elcano temporarily disappears
from any of the voyage's
official records.
But, in just 12 months,
as he continues to sail
around the world,
his fortunes
would change dramatically.
The fleet waits out the winter
and spends seven months
in San Julián.
A year after they left Spain,
the crew set sail again.
Magellan feels the pressure.
If he does not find
the passage soon,
the voyage
will have been a waste.
♪♪♪
But, just two weeks
after they return to sea,
another broad channel
opens to the west.
♪♪♪
Knowing what happened
at the Río de la Plata,
Magellan sends
two scouting ships ahead.
♪♪♪
Those left behind
can do nothing but wait.
♪♪♪
-iMiran!
IMiran el barco!
-Magellan knows
this is his last chance.
The crew will not accept
another disappointment.
♪♪♪
[ Two blasts ]
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- And that
is an extremely happy moment
for Magellan.
Of course he was extremely
excited about it.
I mean, there were
rebellions and mutinies
and he really had his share
of troubles,
caused by nature, itself,
but also by his own crew.
And so, at this moment, he was
vindicated as a good captain
because he had led his men
to a good destination
that can make them rich.
Basically, they were
at the doorstep to wealth
and that's why he
was very, very happy.
-Magellan has achieved
the first goal of the voyage...
Finding a western route
to the Pacific.
But then, he quickly suffers
another setback.
The San Antonio and
her crew disappear.
It's a devastating loss.
The ship was the largest
in the fleet
and carried indispensable
equipment and vital provisions.
And the San Antonio
made its way back to Spain,
with disastrous consequences
for Magellan.
-The desertion
of the San Antonio
has two terrible consequences.
Magellan runs out of food,
but, more importantly,
it gets back to Spain,
there's a court-martial,
and the Portuguese hear
that Magellan
has entered the Pacific.
From this point on,
Magellan is a hunted man.
The Portuguese are
out to stop him
and they are not going
to do anything,
other than kill every last
person onboard this expedition.
This is a secret
they need to preserve.
The Spice Islands are the source
of their wealth.
They will kill everybody.
♪♪♪
-The problems continue.
A ship runs aground.
The three remaining ships sail
slowly through the rocky maze
of what today are called
the Straits of Magellan.
Antonio Pigafetta,
one of the men who made
the complete voyage,
chronicled what he observed
aboard the ship.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-Pigafetta's story is
of great interest to us,
since he is the first to write
about the indigenous people
he met up north in Patagonia.
And also, when passing
through the strait,
Magellan describes signs
of people in Terra del Fuego.
He saw fire and columns
of smoke everywhere.
-He gives this barren stretch
of land its name...
Tierra del Fuego,
"Land of Fire."
Even now, 500 years later,
Magellan is celebrated
for discovering Tierra del Fuego
and the straits.
But little attention
has been paid
to the fate
of the indigenous population,
who had lived there
for thousands of years
and included the Kawésqar,
Selk'nam, and Yaghan people.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
We are not celebrating
the 500-year anniversary,
since it marks
the ensuing disappearance
of ancient civilizations,
rape, death, arrests, poisoning,
and the vanishing
of ethnic identities.
And this place was not called
Magellan's,
but Kawésqar,
a part of the Kawésqar land.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] The Europeans
have not discovered anything at all.
They kidnapped the locals
and dragged them
to various places,
even Germany,
to be part of a human zoo.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
In the process,
the people were taken
away from their culture
and this happened in an area
where the Kawésqar,
who did not speak Spanish,
did not understand
the newly established order.
Many were shot and driven
from their temporary campsites.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
But since the Kawésqar
were excellent navigators,
many were able
to escape that mission.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
But this is what was here before
and even shortly
after Magellan came here
and he presumed to be
called a discoverer.
-Today, these people
celebrate their heritage.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] I am proud to
have this ancestral lineage
and it fills me with energy
as well, as it manifests.
-Historian Andrew Lambert
offers an explanation
for the Europeans' violent
and oppressive colonial tactics.
-Now, we look at the world
to understand.
They looked at the world
to control, to subjugate,
and to exploit.
That it's the right and duty
of Christian Europeans
to dominate the world, at the
expense of all other peoples,
and everybody else they meet
must convert to their faiths,
follow their rules,
obey their orders.
It's a whole different world
and Magellan is of that world.
-The Spanish hope
to use the passage
to defend their
Pacific territories.
They attempted
to establish a settlement
on the north shore
of the straits
several times
over the next 50 years.
The country sent dozens of
ships and thousands of soldiers.
The results were disastrous.
-[ Conversing in Spanish ]
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
And then, the fatal ending...
Within the space of a few years,
they were all dead.
There were two survivors
and, in the end,
only one of them was left.
They christened the city
Port of Hunger, Famine.
Different designations
were used on maps,
but they all referred
to either hunger,
bad luck, failure, or misery.
-But Magellan
must keep sailing west.
Facing dwindling provisions
and the loss of two ships,
he cannot afford
to spend much time
at the southern tip
of the Americas.
And, after four weeks,
the vastness
of the Pacific Ocean
stretches
before Magellan's fleet.
-The discovery of the passage
faces Magellan
with a huge problem.
He thinks the islands
that he's heading for
are a few weeks away, so,
instead of stopping
and gathering as much provision
as he can on the coast,
he decides to take a risk.
They'll just set off.
They'll go now
and it'll be fine.
They'll arrive in the
Spice Islands.
His friend lives there.
They will pick up supplies.
It'll be good.
So he takes a big decision
and, this time,
it's the wrong decision
and it's going to cost
a lot of men their lives.
It's going to compromise
the expedition
and it could've led
to an absolute disaster.
-Magellan believes
the Spice Islands
are roughly
600 nautical miles away.
In reality, the actual distance
is 30 times that...
20,000
nautical miles lie
between him and his destination.
-So it's a question of scale.
His world is half the size
of the real world
and that nearly destroyed
his expedition.
-The Pacific becomes a graveyard
for Magellan's crew.
Pigafetta, the voyage's
chronicler, writes,
"And we ate all biscuit
turned to powder,
all full of worms
and stinking of urine,
which the rats made on it,
having eaten the good.
And we drank water impure
and yellow.
And every time someone
had drawn his last breath,
Magellan quickly committed
their bodies to the sea.
He probably feared some of his
crew could turn into cannibals.
♪♪♪
-[ Grunts ]
♪♪♪
-Magellan doesn't
understand why,
after two months in the
scorching heat of the Pacific,
they have not reached land.
Where are the eagerly
awaited Spice Islands?
-[ Hyperventilating ]
♪♪♪
-Guided by the Sun
and the stars,
Magellan is able to determine
the latitude of his position.
He knows, relatively well,
his exact position north
or south on the globe.
What he cannot measure
is his east-west position,
his longitude.
-This proves critical
in Magellan's voyage
because, as he leaves
the Magellan Straits,
he thinks he's only a few days,
maybe a week or two,
away from the Spice Islands,
so he's looking
for those islands
day after day after day,
and they're not going
to be there.
He's about to cross
the biggest ocean in the world
and he thinks it's a pond.
The irony, ultimately,
of Magellan, is
he proves his point, but
he has to go way beyond
what he expected
would be necessary.
He has to take his men,
not just to the jaws of death,
but beyond.
He has to take them through that
and bring them
out the other side.
It's a tremendous feat
of human endurance,
but, above all,
of compelling leadership.
♪♪♪
-Land! Land ahoy!
Land ahoy!
♪♪♪
-On March 16, 1521,
a year and a half
after leaving Spain,
Magellan's emaciated crew
make landfall.
♪♪♪
They spent 100 days drifting
through the Pacific
before casting anchor
on the shores
of what are today
the Philippine Islands.
♪♪♪
For Magellan and his crew,
the islands feel
like heaven on Earth,
even though they still don't
know where they've landed.
♪♪♪
Magellan is sure they must be
close to the Spice Islands,
but that also means
the Portuguese could be nearby,
coming from the other direction.
If they find him,
they will stop him
from laying claim
to the islands' resources,
as negotiated
by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
-The great problem with the
Treaty of Tordesillas is
they knew where the Atlantic was
and they divided it very neatly
down the middle.
The problem was,
on the other side of the globe,
nobody really knew
how big the world was
or where the line came,
so nobody knew
who owned the Spice Islands.
The most valuable
real estate on Earth was
in unknown territory.
Claiming it and owning it
would be the key to success,
but proving that would lead
to many misfortunes
along the way.
-When successful,
these voyages of discovery
become part of history.
But far more often, they ended
in failure and the loss of life.
As soon as the crewmen
regained their strength,
Magellan set sail again.
On the Island of Cebu,
he forges an alliance
with its ruler
and is drawn
into a local conflict.
♪♪♪
To demonstrate the superiority
of his religion and his power,
Magellan decides
to make an example
of the local rebels' leader,
Lapulapu.
-[Shouting]
♪♪♪
-Hoping to impress
the new allies
with the military skill
of his men,
Magellan declines
the offer of reinforcements.
-[ Grunting ]
♪♪♪
-But Magellan
deeply underestimates
the men he is fighting.
Lapulapu is a keen
strategic thinker
and battle-hardened warrior.
Each of his tattoos symbolizes
a victorious battle.
♪♪♪
[ Gunshot ]
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
Ultimately, Magellan's
overconfidence proves fatal.
♪♪♪
On April 27, 1521,
he dies without ever having
reached the Spice Islands.
-After Magellan's death,
the Spanish leaders
were ambushed.
They were wiped out
and this left
just one man standing
who could really take
the expedition back home again.
It was the sailor
Sebastián Elcano, the Basque.
He was the man
who would ultimately have
to bring the expedition home
because everybody else
in a leadership role
had been killed or had died.
♪♪♪
-With the death of Magellan
and most of the
high-ranking officers,
Sebastián Elcano must now
lead the expedition.
After the mutiny a year earlier,
in San Julián,
this is the first time
Elcano is mentioned again
in official records.
♪♪♪
His first decision is to
leave the Concepción,
the third remaining ship,
behind.
It is not fit for the challenges
of the voyage to come.
♪♪♪
Once empty of supplies,
the crew sinks the ship
off the Philippines,
leaving no trace
of their presence.
♪♪♪
Elcano sails on
with the two remaining ships,
the Trinidad and the Victoria.
♪♪♪
The search for the Spice Islands
continues unsuccessfully
for another two months.
♪♪♪
And then, more than two years
into the voyage,
the long-searched-for
destination appears
on the horizon...
The Spice Islands,
with their promise
of immense wealth.
♪♪♪
Pigafetta recorded this moment
in his travel diary.
"On Friday,
the 8th of November 1521,
we entered the port
of an island called Tidore
and, after anchoring
in a depth of 20 fathoms,
we discharged
all our artillery."
♪♪♪
The arrival of the Europeans
begins centuries of colonization
and memories of Elcano
and the sailors
remain vivid
on the small island today.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] When the Trinidad
and Victoria entered Matara Bay,
they knew that the capital
of Tidore
was located here in Maluku
and that's why Sebastián Elcano
ordered 20 cannon shots
to honor them.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-Sultan al-Mansur appeared
and he lifted his hands up.
A long time before,
he'd had a dream
and it came true...
The Europeans,
particularly the Spaniards,
will bring prosperity.
-But is the Europeans
who benefit the most
from this new prosperity.
At that time, the spices
could fetch a purchase price
easily multiplied by 1,000
when sold to Europeans markets.
The profit margins
were astronomical
and the tiny volcanic islands
become part
of the global conflict
between Spain and Portugal.
- [ Speaking native language ]
- [Interpreter] The Portuguese
were already on Ternate in 1512.
Ten years later,
the Spaniards arrived at Tidore.
Although the two islands
are right net to each other,
there has always been
a great rivalry.
Tidore and Ternate were enemies
at that time.
-The arrival
of the warring Europeans
only emphasizes the conflict
between the two islands.
Today's crown prince of Ternate
is a direct descendant
of the family that's ruled
the island since Elcano arrived.
The current heir to the throne
views the initial encounters
with Europeans
as a meeting of exchange,
not domination.
- [ Speaking native language ]
- [Interpreter] It just happened
that the trigger for interaction
among us and the Europeans
were cloves and nutmeg.
When they arrived in search
of these spices,
they also brought over
technologies.
But that doesn't mean they came
to a primitive country.
No, we were civilized,
just like the Europeans.
If anything, back then,
the Europeans were still
in the Dark Age.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] We know that,
back then, our civilization,
in terms of technology,
was still simple.
Our swords were still short.
After the Europeans came,
we were able
to create long ones.
Our ships were small.
After the Europeans came,
we were able to build a
big ship named Kagunga.
Kagunga is a big
ship from Ternate,
a battleship
that is quite large.
This is what is inevitable
about human interaction.
It can't be denied
that humans need
to know and interact
with each other.
-Global trade for the
Spice Islands' commodities
had existed for centuries,
but the Europeans
brought changes.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] Ternate was so
famous for its cloves and nutmeg
that the Europeans,
Chinese, and Arabs came here.
But it was the Europeans
who wanted
to occupy and monopolize
the spice trade
and that's the beginning of the
Colonial Era in Indonesia.
Once the Portuguese
conquered Ternate
and monopolized the spice trade,
they wanted to keep
the location a secret.
-With the arrival
of the Spanish on Tidore,
the secrecy is over.
Elcano is lucky
the Portuguese base on Ternate
has just been deserted
and there is no trace
of Francisco Serrao,
whose letters drove Magellan
halfway around the world.
- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- [Interpreter] We really
cannot say that the story
has a happy end
because the two protagonists
have never met.
As we know, Magellan died
in the Battle of Mactan
and Serrao died
at about the same time.
It's possible that Serrao
was poisoned
in a conspiracy
against the Sultan of Ternate.
In the end, these two pen pals
never managed to meet.
-Finding the Portuguese trading
post on Ternate deserted,
Elcano is relieved he
and his men
will not be forced
to fight their rivals.
But he knows the Portuguese
fleet is hunting him
and could show up at any time.
He and the crew immediately
secure the island's spice crops.
The men are dazzled
by what they see...
More cloves and nutmeg
than they ever dared dream.
♪♪♪
Today, the nutmeg harvest
takes place
in much the same way
it did 500 years ago
and, as a commodity traded
on stock exchanges
around the world,
it still has the power
to enrich people.
♪♪♪
Half a millennia later,
spices continue to be one
of the most important
sources of income
for the island population.
♪♪♪
- [ Speaking native language ]
- [Interpreter] In my shop,
the amount
of one-year-old nutmeg
could be more than 100 tons.
As for cloves, it depends
on the harvest season.
During harvest season,
I could get up to 10 containers,
even 20 containers.
-Elcano and his men
quickly get to work.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] Antonio
Pigafetta writes in his report
that they succeeded in filling
the holds of the two ships,
the Trinidad and the
Victoria, within only 40 days.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] And so Tidore
became a Spanish trading center.
-Elcano has made good
on the promise
Magellan made
to the Spanish crown.
He establishes
direct trading relations
with the royal family on Tidore.
After that, he wants to sail
home as quickly as possible.
But he is faced
with a difficult decision.
-He can go back the way he came,
but he's a sensible fellow.
He doesn't want to do that.
It's dangerous.
It's a long way.
So he sets off the way that
the Portuguese would've gone...
Spice Islands, Indian Ocean,
south of Africa,
up the Atlantic,
back into Seville.
-He decides to split up the two
remaining ships in his fleet.
The Trinidad will sail east,
back through the Pacific;
and the Victoria
will take its chances,
sailing westward,
into enemy territory.
-So Elcano, I think he was
in a very desperate situation
and that's there because he
understood the Pacific,
so it was going to be
very difficult
to go back home
through the Pacific.
So it is only then
that Elcano decided
to face the circumnavigation
of the world.
-Elcano knows they must sail
halfway around the world,
through Portuguese
sovereign territory,
and the hunt has already begun.
-The Portuguese, if they
catch him, they'll kill him.
They'll sink the ship, they'll
kill all the people onboard,
and they'll take the spices home
and sell them for themselves.
So he's sailing through enemy
waters, quite literally.
Outside Europe,
Spain and Portugal are at war.
-While Elcano
tries his luck going west,
the Trinidad fails
at her attempt
to cross the Pacific again.
Violent storms batter the ship.
Utterly exhausted, they try
to go back to the Spice Islands.
But, in the meantime,
the Portuguese fleet
has arrived there...
A catastrophe for the Spanish.
-So the Trinidad had to return,
very damaged by the storms,
to the Spice Islands
and she was, right away,
captured by the Portuguese.
They took her near the fortress
to take all the valuable items,
like the anchors and the masts
and the sails
and also part of the timber
of the ship,
to build a fortress.
Afterwards, the
Trinidad sank right there,
very close to the shore.
We had a very fair idea
of where she can be
and I hope
that she will be found.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-Today, the Indonesian Ministry
of Marine Affairs
is leading an expedition
to find out the
fate of the Trinidad.
-We are conducting a marine
archeology survey.
We want to find a shipwreck site
that is the Trinidad shipwreck,
a Spanish shipwreck,
and it's said that Trinidad
sank in front of Kastela.
We want to find the coral reef
in front of the port
because the archives
mentioned that the Trinidad
smashed the coral reef
and then it caught a storm.
So we have to find
the reef, first,
so we will have a clue
where Trinidad sank.
[ Speaking native language ]
-The search is made
more difficult
by the fact that the seabed
has sunk considerably
since the 16th century.
As a result,
the remains of the former
Portuguese fort
are not located
at the shore anymore,
but at the bottom of the sea.
♪♪♪
-So our diving team,
they mentioned that, underwater,
they found like a structure,
the ruins.
Looks like similar
with the Kastela Fort
and also, they found like
a passage or a tunnel,
the channel and the water,
between the reef.
-It is likely
that the bigger ships had
to anchor outside the reef.
Only small dinghies
would've been able
to shuttle back and forth
through a manmade breach
to unload the ships.
-So, later on,
we can do the things
to prove this is a part
of the Kastela Fort, or not.
♪♪♪
-If the archeological findings
confirm the historical accounts
of a harbor entrance
through the reef,
the team will return
to continue its search
for the wreck of the Trinidad.
♪♪♪
With the sinking
of the Trinidad,
Elcano's ship is now
the expedition's only hope.
In order to avoid
the Portuguese,
he sails
the Southern Indian Ocean
for four months,
without making landfall once.
♪♪♪
Hunger and scurvy
decimate the crew,
and the ship
is barely seaworthy.
By the end of the voyage,
the crew must pump out water
around the clock.
♪♪♪
On September 6, 1522,
nine months after leaving
the Spice Islands,
Sebastián Elcano
miraculously sails
into the port
of Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
as one of only 18 survivors.
Magellan is generally credited
as the first person to sail
around the world,
despite dying halfway
through the trip.
But what about Sebastián Elcano,
the man who actually completed
the entire voyage?
Some years ago, a unique
written document turned up
in a private Basque archive...
A handwritten letter
that Sebastián Elcano sent
to his king upon his return.
- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- [Interpreter] It was really
emotional because,
within four or five seconds,
I realize that it's
the letter from Elcano,
that it's the original letter.
What shall I say?
I start sweating
and all the people in the
archives standing around me.
I'm holding the letter
and saying, "Look what I found!"
How can it be possible that
the letter is now being found,
after several centuries?
I mean, everybody
believed it to be lost.
- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- [Interpreter] You can't just
read this like,
"We sailed around the globe
and then we were here
and there"... no, no.
He returns with a ship
so ravaged,
that it was just about to sink.
That's how damaged it was.
A week longer, and it goes down.
The ship is loaded,
but absolutely ruined.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
Elcano reports in his letter
that they had to bail out water
for more than 30 days.
A week more,
and no one would've arrived.
There would've been no
circumnavigation of the world.
♪♪♪
-Upon arrival,
25 tons of spices are
unloaded from the Victoria.
♪♪♪
Elcano and his crew
are rewarded handsomely
and the investors make a profit
off the cloves, cinnamon,
and nutmeg,
despite the loss
of four of the five ships
and the deaths of 200 sailors.
-In some ways, this is a very
unusual expedition of discovery.
They actually made
a slight profit.
Despite losing three
of the ships,
despite coming back
with very few people,
the spices on the
Victoria paid off the costs,
so the investors
got their money back.
Nobody made a windfall profit.
The men didn't get
particularly well-paid,
but they did set off
to do it all over again.
♪♪♪
-Elcano is knighted
and the king grants him
his own coat of arms,
emblazoned with spices, a globe,
and the words
Primus circumdedisti me,
"You were the first
to circumnavigate me."
And, still,
his name rarely appears
in today's history books.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
He is, indeed, a tragic hero.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] In part,
he only has himself to blame
for this tragedy
because, when he returned
after sailing around the world
and was given the title
Primus circumdedisti me
and his own coat of arms,
in this moment of glory,
he fails to write
or publish a book.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] The printing press
was the Internet of those days.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] Instead,
he was trying to assemble
a new expedition
to the Moluccas and back,
to establish and secure
the sea route for good.
However, another member
of the expedition,
Antonio Pigafetta, writes a book
and he does something
very peculiar.
He doesn't mention Elcano
at all.
Not a single word.
-Four years later,
Sebastián Elcano sets off
for the Spice Islands
for the second time.
He dies on this voyage
and is erased from humanity's
collective memory.
The passage found at the
southern tip of South America
proves too dangerous
to be of much use.
Despite the great sacrifices
made to find the Spice Islands,
the Spanish only possess them
for a few years
before selling them
to the Portuguese.
The islands would go on to be
Dutch and British territories
for the next 350 years,
until Indonesia declared
its independence in 1950.
But the significance
of Magellan and Elcano's voyage
is still felt
half a millennia later.
-Even at the end
of the expedition,
with only 18 crew left standing,
these men are still recording
data in their log books.
They're taking an accurate
record of every single day,
every single position.
And, when they get back
to Seville,
they realize they've lost a day,
and that information
is priceless.
It proves
that the Earth is round,
that it's rotating
through space,
and this breakthrough
changes the way
16th-century men see the Earth.
They begin to understand
what's going on.
They begin to understand our
place in the planetary system...
Not just the size of the Earth,
but the place of the Earth.
That, perhaps,
is Magellan's greatest legacy.
[ Poignant tune plays ]
-With Magellan's voyage
came an understanding
of the true shape of the Earth
and the beginnings of what,
today, we call
globalization.
The Earth remains immense,
but, thanks to explorers,
like Magellan and Elcano,
it is now connected.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
♪♪♪
-September 1519.
Ferdinand Magellan
sets out from Spain
on what would be the first
expedition around the world.
♪♪♪
Magellan sails in search
of a western sea route to Asia
and the Spice Islands.
For Europeans, spices
from the other side of the world
are worth their weight in gold
and Magellan hopes his
voyage will lead to a huge payoff.
-Voyages of discovery
are propelled
by commercial greed,
by ambition.
-His obsession takes his crew
to distant shores
where no Europeans
had been before.
-So these are voyages
of the imagination,
as well as voyages of discovery.
-In the end, Magellan would
not complete the epic journey.
But members of his crew did,
setting the foundation
for global commerce
and colonization
that remains with us today.
After three long years at sea,
only a handful of survivors
returned to the Spanish harbor.
Their ship, laden with spices,
provided proof
that it is possible
to sail around the world.
It is a moment in history that
transformed global civilization.
♪♪♪
-"Secrets of the Dead"
was made possible in part by
contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.
♪♪♪
-At the beginning
of the 16th century,
Seville is the starting point
for Spanish expeditions
into the recently discovered
New World.
The sailors hope to find a more
efficient route to the Far East
so they can bring back
exotic goods
and extremely valuable spices...
Cloves and nutmeg.
Determined to make his fortune,
Portuguese sailor
Ferdinand Magellan tries
to convince his king
to sponsor a voyage
in search of a western sea route
to the Spice Islands.
But the king refuses.
-Dom Manuel is seeing Portugal
becoming a great power
and traveling to the Far East
by odd routes
really isn't very interesting.
He sees a vision which doesn't
involve Magellan's voyage.
-Desperate and embittered,
Magellan leaves Portugal
and offers his services
to its archenemy...
Spain.
-Magellan is working
for the king of Spain
because the king of Portugal,
Dom Manuel,
despises him,
has rejected his plans.
-His experience and energy
quickly convince
the Spanish king
to fund his costly venture.
-Just like today, if you want
backing for a big project,
you have to promise
to find something
worth spending your money on.
So it's about investment.
It's about organization.
It's about persuasion.
You've got to sell the vision.
And Magellan's success is he
sells the vision to Charles I
and that's his big breakthrough.
The Portuguese often said
Magellan was a traitor.
He wasn't.
He was rejected
by his own country
and, like many other Portuguese
mariners and navigators,
he went off
to serve elsewhere...
In Spain, in England.
All over the world, Portuguese
navigators are serving.
-Magellan sets sail
from Seville's shipyard,
which today bears witness
to centuries
of maritime history.
-Seville is the center
of the Spanish enterprise
of the Indies.
It's where Spain is organizing
all its great voyages.
The bureaucrats are here.
The money men are here.
The sailors are here.
The visionary navigators,
like Magellan, are here.
Indeed, we're just
outside the walls
of Old Seville, in the shipyard.
Magellan would've been here,
fitting out his ships.
He would've had
that conversation
about getting his ship ready,
finding the men,
right here,
right outside the old city.
-The voyages to the other side
of the world are just one facet
of a great shift happening
in Europe at the time.
-The 16th century is an age
of transformation.
Nicolaus Copernicus
has just placed the world,
not at the center
of the universe,
but as part of the mechanics
of a much greater solar system.
Christopher Columbus
has discovered America,
although he thinks
it's still India.
And Martin Luther is challenging
the Universal Church
of Western Europe.
So this constellation
of little parochial places
has suddenly woken up
and realized
there's a whole wide world
out there to be discovered
and the 16th century will be
the Age of Discovery.
♪♪♪
-The goal of these
expeditions, however,
is not to improve
the geographic understanding
of the world.
Power and money are at the heart
of these so-called voyages
of discovery.
But the sailors do bring back
important knowledge
for scientists
and cartographers.
Magellan is convinced
he will find
an unknown passageway
at the tip of South America,
and he isn't the only one
who believes
there is a southern route
around the continent.
♪♪♪
The Historical Museum
in Frankfurt has
in its collection a globe
that was made roughly five years
before Magellan's journey
and still puzzles
historians today.
-[ Speaking German ]
-[Interpreter]
In South America,
we see a route going
between the tip of the continent
and the land mass of Antarctica.
This passageway is puzzling.
How is this route going
around South America possible
on a globe from 1515,
even though Magellan
didn't take this route
until five years later?
-Each ship returning from the
newly found Western Hemisphere
brings with it more information
about the true shape
of the Earth.
-Very quickly,
the Spanish realized
they needed
to control knowledge.
They needed to bring all
of the cartographic
understanding of the world
as it expanded
inside Seville, to control it,
to limit it,
to stop other people having it,
to make sure their people
knew where to go
and other people didn't.
♪♪♪
So they have a succession
of expert cartographers
working here,
taking all the information
coming back
from Columbus' voyages
and, later, Magellan's voyages,
into the city, to be processed,
to record how much more we know,
year after year,
across the century.
So this is where
that knowledge expands.
Decade by decade, the map grows,
the details become finer,
and, ultimately,
we have a map of the world
that we would recognize
being produced in this city.
♪♪♪
-And finding a western sea route
to the Spice Islands
becomes a battle for control
of the most lucrative trade
of the day.
♪♪♪
Today, Ternate and Tidore,
the island hubs of the
16th-century spice trade,
are part of Indonesia.
Tidore,
less than six miles across,
is the larger
of the two islands.
Despite their size,
they were the center
of conflict for centuries.
The fight for these islands'
resources began long
before Europeans came ashore,
as the crown prince
of Ternate explains.
-[ Sniff ]
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter]
The first to discover
cloves and nutmeg
were the Chinese.
They became
world trade commodities,
resulting in exchange
between China and Ternate,
more well-known as the
Spice Road or the Silk Road.
-In Seville,
Magellan presses ahead,
furnishing the fleet.
Five ships are readied,
and a crew mustered.
A seasoned sailor
from the Basque region
is part of the crew.
-Next!
Name.
- Sebastián Elcano.
♪♪♪
-Elcano signs on as a crewman
at the start of the expedition.
But by the time he returns,
he will have become its leader,
guiding his ship across the
Indian Ocean and back to Spain.
♪♪♪
Elcano's family
has a long history
of shipping and shipbuilding.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
We know that he came
from a very influential
family in Getaria,
that was in the ship business
and sea trade,
outfitting expeditions,
organizing transports.
And that's no coincidence,
since 80% of all ships
leaving Seville
in the 16th century,
bound for America,
were built in the Basque region.
[ Gulls squawking ]
-In Pasaia, not far
from Elcano's hometown,
a unique project is underway.
A team is building a replica
of a 16th-century galleon,
relying on the same methods
used nearly 500 years ago.
♪♪♪
-These ships were used
for the most fantastic trips
and adventures in the past.
You know, 500 years ago,
the only way humankind
could connect with the world
was with ships because there
was no other way
of transportation
or communication, like nowadays.
So this was really
a magical object.
It was like a floating church
or cathedral, you know,
it was the most sophisticated
object that mankind could build.
And, still, it comes
from a few trees, you know.
You go to the forest with an ax,
you cut the trees,
and then, with your work
and your knowledge,
you are able to build what
could be considered a spaceship.
♪♪♪
-The forests bear witness
to the impact
of shipbuilding
throughout the centuries.
♪♪♪
-As the Basque countries
are small,
they had to manage
the forests very wisely
and so they were keeping the
trees in the shape they needed.
So they leave them grow upwards,
like two, three meters
and then, from that height,
they would grow branches
in the shape they needed
for shipbuilding.
♪♪♪
Now, I cannot come to a forest
without looking at the trees,
like looking for naval timber
on their branches.
-The original ship
had three masts
and was used to transport whale
oil back to Spain from Canada.
Few written plans or blueprints
of this type of galleon remain,
but Agote and his team
want the ship
to be as authentic
to the period as possible.
The ropes, iron nails,
and other elements
have all been made using
historically accurate tools,
just like those of the
Basque builders 500 years ago,
who outfitted a fleet that
could sail around the world.
-In the 16th century,
the entire coast
was filled with shipyards.
It was the main specialty,
you know,
because of the iron mines,
because of the oak forests.
So it was a society
that was meant
to build ships in that time.
Hundreds of people,
highly specialized,
building several boats and ships
at the same time, you know,
and one of them
was the Nao Victoria,
that was probably built
very quickly.
I would say maybe three months.
-On the 20th of September 1519,
the five expedition ships
finally leave Spain.
♪♪♪
Magellan has negotiated
a detailed contract
with the Spanish king,
guaranteeing himself a handsome
share in the expected profits
and making him
captain general of the fleet.
♪♪♪
But Magellan's Portuguese roots
create tension
with the mostly Spanish crew.
♪♪♪
-He's surrounded by Spanish
captains, Spanish officers.
Most of his crew are Spanish,
although there are Germans,
English, and others onboard.
He is not in command
of a national expedition
and many of the Spanish leaders
do not trust him
and they despise him,
as a Portuguese.
-Fearing espionage,
Magellan keeps the details
of his plans to himself,
refusing to share information
with crewmen.
♪♪♪
The Portuguese are determined
to protect their interests
in the Spice Islands.
Magellan is sailing
in treacherous waters.
Spain and Portugal
are bitter adversaries,
fighting for control
of the open seas.
♪♪♪
Brokered by the Pope,
the Treaty of Tordesillas
divided the world
into east and west,
two hemispheres separated
by an imaginary line running
down the Atlantic.
♪♪♪
While the treaty clearly divides
Europe, Africa,
and the Americas,
the other side of the world,
where Asia, including the
Spice Islands is located,
remains unknown.
♪♪♪
Any hope of Spain controlling
the islands depends
on Magellan finding
a direct western sea route
in the half of the world
Spain possesses.
♪♪♪
For Magellan, the voyage
means a return to Asia.
As a young soldier,
he fought for Portugal
in the conquest of Malacca,
an important trading post
near today's Singapore.
Magellan's confidence comes
from his previous
seafaring experience.
-What Magellan brought
to this was all
of the knowledge
the Portuguese already had
of how to get
to the Spice Islands.
-He even brought a Malay slave
back to Europe with him,
Henrique,
who joins him on this voyage.
On that initial trip to Asia,
Magellan did not visit
the Spice Islands,
but his friend
and brother-in-arms
Francisco Serrao stayed behind
and sent letters back
to Magellan,
describing an island paradise.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] These letters
are enormously important.
There's one letter
where Magellan asks Serrao
to wait for him.
He didn't know
how he would get there,
via Portugal or Castille,
but he would come at any cost.
Plus, the letters also tell
of the riches
in the Moluccas
and the exotic islands,
this paradise
where Serrao lives,
and, for Magellan, that probably
added to the attraction.
[ Waves crashing ]
-Magellan's fleet
finds the winds needed
to carry them south
in the Atlantic.
But then,
without consulting the crew,
he orders the ships
to change course,
off the Cape Verde Islands.
The ships sail to the southeast,
rather than moving west,
directly for Brazil.
♪♪♪
Perhaps he wants to lose
Portuguese ships
that might be chasing him,
or is seeking
a more favorable wind.
The crew would've accepted
either explanation,
but Magellan's silence only
worsens relations between them.
♪♪♪
After two months at sea,
the ships reach South America.
♪♪♪
And, two months after that,
they sail into a huge passageway
opening toward the west.
♪♪♪
Magellan spends 15 days
exploring the passage.
Has he really found
the dreamed-of path
so quickly and so easily?
Is this the long-desired route
to the riches
of the Spice Islands?
♪♪♪
Magellan has gambled everything
on finding a passage
to the Pacific.
But the water
on which the ship sails...
-[ Spits ]
...is not an ocean.
-[ Speaking German ]
-[Interpreter]
Magellan was disappointed
to taste fresh water,
a sign that they were
in the huge mouth of a river
denying them a passage.
They had to turn around.
Today, we know it was
the Río de la Plata,
where seafarers had been before
and said they saw no land,
so it had to be a passage,
something Magellan also assumed.
-Sailors returning from sea
and sharing their experience
with cartographers
mistook the vast mouth
of the Río de la Plata
for the Southern Coast
of the South American continent.
Magellan is depending on maps
that have only
limited information.
♪♪♪
Despite this setback,
Magellan continues
to push his fleet further
into unchartered waters,
without any sign
of a westward passage.
♪♪♪
Morale begins to flag.
The climate becomes colder
and wetter.
Winter has begun
in the Southern Hemisphere.
♪♪♪
This is the farthest south
any European has ever sailed.
Icy winds from Antarctica
make the crew miserable.
Confidence...
In Magellan and in his belief
in a western sea route
to the Spice Islands...
Begins to fail.
And then, to everyone's despair,
Magellan makes another
shocking decision.
-At the end of the first
year's voyage,
they've reached
the Bay of San Julián,
down on the South Coast
of America,
and Magellan has
to tell his people...
Who are exhausted, weary,
and slightly frightened
at being beyond the map...
They're going to have
to stay there for the winter.
They're going
to have to overwinter
in an inhospitable,
unpleasant place,
when it would be so much easier
to just turn round and go home.
This is what leadership
looks like.
He has to persuade
these people...
Many of whom don't trust him,
a lot of whom don't
like him... that he's right;
that the king of Spain has given
him authority to do this;
and that, if they don't do
as they're told,
he will punish them.
-In the Bay of San Julián,
the crew reaches
its limit and rebels.
A mutiny breaks out,
but Magellan and a handful
of loyal allies crush it
with ruthless brutality.
Magellan has the ringleader
of the mutiny executed.
Sebastián Elcano
joined the mutiny
and awaits Magellan's sentence,
along with 40 other sailors.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] Elcano supports
this mutiny against Magellan.
We know that.
And we also know
how this mutiny ends.
It looks as if Elcano
was demoted,
but, unlike others,
spared of any severe punishment.
This was quite reasonable,
since Magellan needed
the experienced sailors
who knew how to navigate.
And among those were
the so-called masters
and Elcano was such
a master sailor
and knew how to navigate
such ships.
And so, he may have been
demoted, but he's not killed.
But, naturally, relationships
were damaged and at a low.
-With this demotion,
Elcano temporarily disappears
from any of the voyage's
official records.
But, in just 12 months,
as he continues to sail
around the world,
his fortunes
would change dramatically.
The fleet waits out the winter
and spends seven months
in San Julián.
A year after they left Spain,
the crew set sail again.
Magellan feels the pressure.
If he does not find
the passage soon,
the voyage
will have been a waste.
♪♪♪
But, just two weeks
after they return to sea,
another broad channel
opens to the west.
♪♪♪
Knowing what happened
at the Río de la Plata,
Magellan sends
two scouting ships ahead.
♪♪♪
Those left behind
can do nothing but wait.
♪♪♪
-iMiran!
IMiran el barco!
-Magellan knows
this is his last chance.
The crew will not accept
another disappointment.
♪♪♪
[ Two blasts ]
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- And that
is an extremely happy moment
for Magellan.
Of course he was extremely
excited about it.
I mean, there were
rebellions and mutinies
and he really had his share
of troubles,
caused by nature, itself,
but also by his own crew.
And so, at this moment, he was
vindicated as a good captain
because he had led his men
to a good destination
that can make them rich.
Basically, they were
at the doorstep to wealth
and that's why he
was very, very happy.
-Magellan has achieved
the first goal of the voyage...
Finding a western route
to the Pacific.
But then, he quickly suffers
another setback.
The San Antonio and
her crew disappear.
It's a devastating loss.
The ship was the largest
in the fleet
and carried indispensable
equipment and vital provisions.
And the San Antonio
made its way back to Spain,
with disastrous consequences
for Magellan.
-The desertion
of the San Antonio
has two terrible consequences.
Magellan runs out of food,
but, more importantly,
it gets back to Spain,
there's a court-martial,
and the Portuguese hear
that Magellan
has entered the Pacific.
From this point on,
Magellan is a hunted man.
The Portuguese are
out to stop him
and they are not going
to do anything,
other than kill every last
person onboard this expedition.
This is a secret
they need to preserve.
The Spice Islands are the source
of their wealth.
They will kill everybody.
♪♪♪
-The problems continue.
A ship runs aground.
The three remaining ships sail
slowly through the rocky maze
of what today are called
the Straits of Magellan.
Antonio Pigafetta,
one of the men who made
the complete voyage,
chronicled what he observed
aboard the ship.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-Pigafetta's story is
of great interest to us,
since he is the first to write
about the indigenous people
he met up north in Patagonia.
And also, when passing
through the strait,
Magellan describes signs
of people in Terra del Fuego.
He saw fire and columns
of smoke everywhere.
-He gives this barren stretch
of land its name...
Tierra del Fuego,
"Land of Fire."
Even now, 500 years later,
Magellan is celebrated
for discovering Tierra del Fuego
and the straits.
But little attention
has been paid
to the fate
of the indigenous population,
who had lived there
for thousands of years
and included the Kawésqar,
Selk'nam, and Yaghan people.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
We are not celebrating
the 500-year anniversary,
since it marks
the ensuing disappearance
of ancient civilizations,
rape, death, arrests, poisoning,
and the vanishing
of ethnic identities.
And this place was not called
Magellan's,
but Kawésqar,
a part of the Kawésqar land.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] The Europeans
have not discovered anything at all.
They kidnapped the locals
and dragged them
to various places,
even Germany,
to be part of a human zoo.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
In the process,
the people were taken
away from their culture
and this happened in an area
where the Kawésqar,
who did not speak Spanish,
did not understand
the newly established order.
Many were shot and driven
from their temporary campsites.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
But since the Kawésqar
were excellent navigators,
many were able
to escape that mission.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
But this is what was here before
and even shortly
after Magellan came here
and he presumed to be
called a discoverer.
-Today, these people
celebrate their heritage.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] I am proud to
have this ancestral lineage
and it fills me with energy
as well, as it manifests.
-Historian Andrew Lambert
offers an explanation
for the Europeans' violent
and oppressive colonial tactics.
-Now, we look at the world
to understand.
They looked at the world
to control, to subjugate,
and to exploit.
That it's the right and duty
of Christian Europeans
to dominate the world, at the
expense of all other peoples,
and everybody else they meet
must convert to their faiths,
follow their rules,
obey their orders.
It's a whole different world
and Magellan is of that world.
-The Spanish hope
to use the passage
to defend their
Pacific territories.
They attempted
to establish a settlement
on the north shore
of the straits
several times
over the next 50 years.
The country sent dozens of
ships and thousands of soldiers.
The results were disastrous.
-[ Conversing in Spanish ]
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
And then, the fatal ending...
Within the space of a few years,
they were all dead.
There were two survivors
and, in the end,
only one of them was left.
They christened the city
Port of Hunger, Famine.
Different designations
were used on maps,
but they all referred
to either hunger,
bad luck, failure, or misery.
-But Magellan
must keep sailing west.
Facing dwindling provisions
and the loss of two ships,
he cannot afford
to spend much time
at the southern tip
of the Americas.
And, after four weeks,
the vastness
of the Pacific Ocean
stretches
before Magellan's fleet.
-The discovery of the passage
faces Magellan
with a huge problem.
He thinks the islands
that he's heading for
are a few weeks away, so,
instead of stopping
and gathering as much provision
as he can on the coast,
he decides to take a risk.
They'll just set off.
They'll go now
and it'll be fine.
They'll arrive in the
Spice Islands.
His friend lives there.
They will pick up supplies.
It'll be good.
So he takes a big decision
and, this time,
it's the wrong decision
and it's going to cost
a lot of men their lives.
It's going to compromise
the expedition
and it could've led
to an absolute disaster.
-Magellan believes
the Spice Islands
are roughly
600 nautical miles away.
In reality, the actual distance
is 30 times that...
20,000
nautical miles lie
between him and his destination.
-So it's a question of scale.
His world is half the size
of the real world
and that nearly destroyed
his expedition.
-The Pacific becomes a graveyard
for Magellan's crew.
Pigafetta, the voyage's
chronicler, writes,
"And we ate all biscuit
turned to powder,
all full of worms
and stinking of urine,
which the rats made on it,
having eaten the good.
And we drank water impure
and yellow.
And every time someone
had drawn his last breath,
Magellan quickly committed
their bodies to the sea.
He probably feared some of his
crew could turn into cannibals.
♪♪♪
-[ Grunts ]
♪♪♪
-Magellan doesn't
understand why,
after two months in the
scorching heat of the Pacific,
they have not reached land.
Where are the eagerly
awaited Spice Islands?
-[ Hyperventilating ]
♪♪♪
-Guided by the Sun
and the stars,
Magellan is able to determine
the latitude of his position.
He knows, relatively well,
his exact position north
or south on the globe.
What he cannot measure
is his east-west position,
his longitude.
-This proves critical
in Magellan's voyage
because, as he leaves
the Magellan Straits,
he thinks he's only a few days,
maybe a week or two,
away from the Spice Islands,
so he's looking
for those islands
day after day after day,
and they're not going
to be there.
He's about to cross
the biggest ocean in the world
and he thinks it's a pond.
The irony, ultimately,
of Magellan, is
he proves his point, but
he has to go way beyond
what he expected
would be necessary.
He has to take his men,
not just to the jaws of death,
but beyond.
He has to take them through that
and bring them
out the other side.
It's a tremendous feat
of human endurance,
but, above all,
of compelling leadership.
♪♪♪
-Land! Land ahoy!
Land ahoy!
♪♪♪
-On March 16, 1521,
a year and a half
after leaving Spain,
Magellan's emaciated crew
make landfall.
♪♪♪
They spent 100 days drifting
through the Pacific
before casting anchor
on the shores
of what are today
the Philippine Islands.
♪♪♪
For Magellan and his crew,
the islands feel
like heaven on Earth,
even though they still don't
know where they've landed.
♪♪♪
Magellan is sure they must be
close to the Spice Islands,
but that also means
the Portuguese could be nearby,
coming from the other direction.
If they find him,
they will stop him
from laying claim
to the islands' resources,
as negotiated
by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
-The great problem with the
Treaty of Tordesillas is
they knew where the Atlantic was
and they divided it very neatly
down the middle.
The problem was,
on the other side of the globe,
nobody really knew
how big the world was
or where the line came,
so nobody knew
who owned the Spice Islands.
The most valuable
real estate on Earth was
in unknown territory.
Claiming it and owning it
would be the key to success,
but proving that would lead
to many misfortunes
along the way.
-When successful,
these voyages of discovery
become part of history.
But far more often, they ended
in failure and the loss of life.
As soon as the crewmen
regained their strength,
Magellan set sail again.
On the Island of Cebu,
he forges an alliance
with its ruler
and is drawn
into a local conflict.
♪♪♪
To demonstrate the superiority
of his religion and his power,
Magellan decides
to make an example
of the local rebels' leader,
Lapulapu.
-[Shouting]
♪♪♪
-Hoping to impress
the new allies
with the military skill
of his men,
Magellan declines
the offer of reinforcements.
-[ Grunting ]
♪♪♪
-But Magellan
deeply underestimates
the men he is fighting.
Lapulapu is a keen
strategic thinker
and battle-hardened warrior.
Each of his tattoos symbolizes
a victorious battle.
♪♪♪
[ Gunshot ]
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
Ultimately, Magellan's
overconfidence proves fatal.
♪♪♪
On April 27, 1521,
he dies without ever having
reached the Spice Islands.
-After Magellan's death,
the Spanish leaders
were ambushed.
They were wiped out
and this left
just one man standing
who could really take
the expedition back home again.
It was the sailor
Sebastián Elcano, the Basque.
He was the man
who would ultimately have
to bring the expedition home
because everybody else
in a leadership role
had been killed or had died.
♪♪♪
-With the death of Magellan
and most of the
high-ranking officers,
Sebastián Elcano must now
lead the expedition.
After the mutiny a year earlier,
in San Julián,
this is the first time
Elcano is mentioned again
in official records.
♪♪♪
His first decision is to
leave the Concepción,
the third remaining ship,
behind.
It is not fit for the challenges
of the voyage to come.
♪♪♪
Once empty of supplies,
the crew sinks the ship
off the Philippines,
leaving no trace
of their presence.
♪♪♪
Elcano sails on
with the two remaining ships,
the Trinidad and the Victoria.
♪♪♪
The search for the Spice Islands
continues unsuccessfully
for another two months.
♪♪♪
And then, more than two years
into the voyage,
the long-searched-for
destination appears
on the horizon...
The Spice Islands,
with their promise
of immense wealth.
♪♪♪
Pigafetta recorded this moment
in his travel diary.
"On Friday,
the 8th of November 1521,
we entered the port
of an island called Tidore
and, after anchoring
in a depth of 20 fathoms,
we discharged
all our artillery."
♪♪♪
The arrival of the Europeans
begins centuries of colonization
and memories of Elcano
and the sailors
remain vivid
on the small island today.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] When the Trinidad
and Victoria entered Matara Bay,
they knew that the capital
of Tidore
was located here in Maluku
and that's why Sebastián Elcano
ordered 20 cannon shots
to honor them.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-Sultan al-Mansur appeared
and he lifted his hands up.
A long time before,
he'd had a dream
and it came true...
The Europeans,
particularly the Spaniards,
will bring prosperity.
-But is the Europeans
who benefit the most
from this new prosperity.
At that time, the spices
could fetch a purchase price
easily multiplied by 1,000
when sold to Europeans markets.
The profit margins
were astronomical
and the tiny volcanic islands
become part
of the global conflict
between Spain and Portugal.
- [ Speaking native language ]
- [Interpreter] The Portuguese
were already on Ternate in 1512.
Ten years later,
the Spaniards arrived at Tidore.
Although the two islands
are right net to each other,
there has always been
a great rivalry.
Tidore and Ternate were enemies
at that time.
-The arrival
of the warring Europeans
only emphasizes the conflict
between the two islands.
Today's crown prince of Ternate
is a direct descendant
of the family that's ruled
the island since Elcano arrived.
The current heir to the throne
views the initial encounters
with Europeans
as a meeting of exchange,
not domination.
- [ Speaking native language ]
- [Interpreter] It just happened
that the trigger for interaction
among us and the Europeans
were cloves and nutmeg.
When they arrived in search
of these spices,
they also brought over
technologies.
But that doesn't mean they came
to a primitive country.
No, we were civilized,
just like the Europeans.
If anything, back then,
the Europeans were still
in the Dark Age.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] We know that,
back then, our civilization,
in terms of technology,
was still simple.
Our swords were still short.
After the Europeans came,
we were able
to create long ones.
Our ships were small.
After the Europeans came,
we were able to build a
big ship named Kagunga.
Kagunga is a big
ship from Ternate,
a battleship
that is quite large.
This is what is inevitable
about human interaction.
It can't be denied
that humans need
to know and interact
with each other.
-Global trade for the
Spice Islands' commodities
had existed for centuries,
but the Europeans
brought changes.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] Ternate was so
famous for its cloves and nutmeg
that the Europeans,
Chinese, and Arabs came here.
But it was the Europeans
who wanted
to occupy and monopolize
the spice trade
and that's the beginning of the
Colonial Era in Indonesia.
Once the Portuguese
conquered Ternate
and monopolized the spice trade,
they wanted to keep
the location a secret.
-With the arrival
of the Spanish on Tidore,
the secrecy is over.
Elcano is lucky
the Portuguese base on Ternate
has just been deserted
and there is no trace
of Francisco Serrao,
whose letters drove Magellan
halfway around the world.
- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- [Interpreter] We really
cannot say that the story
has a happy end
because the two protagonists
have never met.
As we know, Magellan died
in the Battle of Mactan
and Serrao died
at about the same time.
It's possible that Serrao
was poisoned
in a conspiracy
against the Sultan of Ternate.
In the end, these two pen pals
never managed to meet.
-Finding the Portuguese trading
post on Ternate deserted,
Elcano is relieved he
and his men
will not be forced
to fight their rivals.
But he knows the Portuguese
fleet is hunting him
and could show up at any time.
He and the crew immediately
secure the island's spice crops.
The men are dazzled
by what they see...
More cloves and nutmeg
than they ever dared dream.
♪♪♪
Today, the nutmeg harvest
takes place
in much the same way
it did 500 years ago
and, as a commodity traded
on stock exchanges
around the world,
it still has the power
to enrich people.
♪♪♪
Half a millennia later,
spices continue to be one
of the most important
sources of income
for the island population.
♪♪♪
- [ Speaking native language ]
- [Interpreter] In my shop,
the amount
of one-year-old nutmeg
could be more than 100 tons.
As for cloves, it depends
on the harvest season.
During harvest season,
I could get up to 10 containers,
even 20 containers.
-Elcano and his men
quickly get to work.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] Antonio
Pigafetta writes in his report
that they succeeded in filling
the holds of the two ships,
the Trinidad and the
Victoria, within only 40 days.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-[Interpreter] And so Tidore
became a Spanish trading center.
-Elcano has made good
on the promise
Magellan made
to the Spanish crown.
He establishes
direct trading relations
with the royal family on Tidore.
After that, he wants to sail
home as quickly as possible.
But he is faced
with a difficult decision.
-He can go back the way he came,
but he's a sensible fellow.
He doesn't want to do that.
It's dangerous.
It's a long way.
So he sets off the way that
the Portuguese would've gone...
Spice Islands, Indian Ocean,
south of Africa,
up the Atlantic,
back into Seville.
-He decides to split up the two
remaining ships in his fleet.
The Trinidad will sail east,
back through the Pacific;
and the Victoria
will take its chances,
sailing westward,
into enemy territory.
-So Elcano, I think he was
in a very desperate situation
and that's there because he
understood the Pacific,
so it was going to be
very difficult
to go back home
through the Pacific.
So it is only then
that Elcano decided
to face the circumnavigation
of the world.
-Elcano knows they must sail
halfway around the world,
through Portuguese
sovereign territory,
and the hunt has already begun.
-The Portuguese, if they
catch him, they'll kill him.
They'll sink the ship, they'll
kill all the people onboard,
and they'll take the spices home
and sell them for themselves.
So he's sailing through enemy
waters, quite literally.
Outside Europe,
Spain and Portugal are at war.
-While Elcano
tries his luck going west,
the Trinidad fails
at her attempt
to cross the Pacific again.
Violent storms batter the ship.
Utterly exhausted, they try
to go back to the Spice Islands.
But, in the meantime,
the Portuguese fleet
has arrived there...
A catastrophe for the Spanish.
-So the Trinidad had to return,
very damaged by the storms,
to the Spice Islands
and she was, right away,
captured by the Portuguese.
They took her near the fortress
to take all the valuable items,
like the anchors and the masts
and the sails
and also part of the timber
of the ship,
to build a fortress.
Afterwards, the
Trinidad sank right there,
very close to the shore.
We had a very fair idea
of where she can be
and I hope
that she will be found.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-Today, the Indonesian Ministry
of Marine Affairs
is leading an expedition
to find out the
fate of the Trinidad.
-We are conducting a marine
archeology survey.
We want to find a shipwreck site
that is the Trinidad shipwreck,
a Spanish shipwreck,
and it's said that Trinidad
sank in front of Kastela.
We want to find the coral reef
in front of the port
because the archives
mentioned that the Trinidad
smashed the coral reef
and then it caught a storm.
So we have to find
the reef, first,
so we will have a clue
where Trinidad sank.
[ Speaking native language ]
-The search is made
more difficult
by the fact that the seabed
has sunk considerably
since the 16th century.
As a result,
the remains of the former
Portuguese fort
are not located
at the shore anymore,
but at the bottom of the sea.
♪♪♪
-So our diving team,
they mentioned that, underwater,
they found like a structure,
the ruins.
Looks like similar
with the Kastela Fort
and also, they found like
a passage or a tunnel,
the channel and the water,
between the reef.
-It is likely
that the bigger ships had
to anchor outside the reef.
Only small dinghies
would've been able
to shuttle back and forth
through a manmade breach
to unload the ships.
-So, later on,
we can do the things
to prove this is a part
of the Kastela Fort, or not.
♪♪♪
-If the archeological findings
confirm the historical accounts
of a harbor entrance
through the reef,
the team will return
to continue its search
for the wreck of the Trinidad.
♪♪♪
With the sinking
of the Trinidad,
Elcano's ship is now
the expedition's only hope.
In order to avoid
the Portuguese,
he sails
the Southern Indian Ocean
for four months,
without making landfall once.
♪♪♪
Hunger and scurvy
decimate the crew,
and the ship
is barely seaworthy.
By the end of the voyage,
the crew must pump out water
around the clock.
♪♪♪
On September 6, 1522,
nine months after leaving
the Spice Islands,
Sebastián Elcano
miraculously sails
into the port
of Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
as one of only 18 survivors.
Magellan is generally credited
as the first person to sail
around the world,
despite dying halfway
through the trip.
But what about Sebastián Elcano,
the man who actually completed
the entire voyage?
Some years ago, a unique
written document turned up
in a private Basque archive...
A handwritten letter
that Sebastián Elcano sent
to his king upon his return.
- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- [Interpreter] It was really
emotional because,
within four or five seconds,
I realize that it's
the letter from Elcano,
that it's the original letter.
What shall I say?
I start sweating
and all the people in the
archives standing around me.
I'm holding the letter
and saying, "Look what I found!"
How can it be possible that
the letter is now being found,
after several centuries?
I mean, everybody
believed it to be lost.
- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- [Interpreter] You can't just
read this like,
"We sailed around the globe
and then we were here
and there"... no, no.
He returns with a ship
so ravaged,
that it was just about to sink.
That's how damaged it was.
A week longer, and it goes down.
The ship is loaded,
but absolutely ruined.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
Elcano reports in his letter
that they had to bail out water
for more than 30 days.
A week more,
and no one would've arrived.
There would've been no
circumnavigation of the world.
♪♪♪
-Upon arrival,
25 tons of spices are
unloaded from the Victoria.
♪♪♪
Elcano and his crew
are rewarded handsomely
and the investors make a profit
off the cloves, cinnamon,
and nutmeg,
despite the loss
of four of the five ships
and the deaths of 200 sailors.
-In some ways, this is a very
unusual expedition of discovery.
They actually made
a slight profit.
Despite losing three
of the ships,
despite coming back
with very few people,
the spices on the
Victoria paid off the costs,
so the investors
got their money back.
Nobody made a windfall profit.
The men didn't get
particularly well-paid,
but they did set off
to do it all over again.
♪♪♪
-Elcano is knighted
and the king grants him
his own coat of arms,
emblazoned with spices, a globe,
and the words
Primus circumdedisti me,
"You were the first
to circumnavigate me."
And, still,
his name rarely appears
in today's history books.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter]
He is, indeed, a tragic hero.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] In part,
he only has himself to blame
for this tragedy
because, when he returned
after sailing around the world
and was given the title
Primus circumdedisti me
and his own coat of arms,
in this moment of glory,
he fails to write
or publish a book.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] The printing press
was the Internet of those days.
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-[Interpreter] Instead,
he was trying to assemble
a new expedition
to the Moluccas and back,
to establish and secure
the sea route for good.
However, another member
of the expedition,
Antonio Pigafetta, writes a book
and he does something
very peculiar.
He doesn't mention Elcano
at all.
Not a single word.
-Four years later,
Sebastián Elcano sets off
for the Spice Islands
for the second time.
He dies on this voyage
and is erased from humanity's
collective memory.
The passage found at the
southern tip of South America
proves too dangerous
to be of much use.
Despite the great sacrifices
made to find the Spice Islands,
the Spanish only possess them
for a few years
before selling them
to the Portuguese.
The islands would go on to be
Dutch and British territories
for the next 350 years,
until Indonesia declared
its independence in 1950.
But the significance
of Magellan and Elcano's voyage
is still felt
half a millennia later.
-Even at the end
of the expedition,
with only 18 crew left standing,
these men are still recording
data in their log books.
They're taking an accurate
record of every single day,
every single position.
And, when they get back
to Seville,
they realize they've lost a day,
and that information
is priceless.
It proves
that the Earth is round,
that it's rotating
through space,
and this breakthrough
changes the way
16th-century men see the Earth.
They begin to understand
what's going on.
They begin to understand our
place in the planetary system...
Not just the size of the Earth,
but the place of the Earth.
That, perhaps,
is Magellan's greatest legacy.
[ Poignant tune plays ]
-With Magellan's voyage
came an understanding
of the true shape of the Earth
and the beginnings of what,
today, we call
globalization.
The Earth remains immense,
but, thanks to explorers,
like Magellan and Elcano,
it is now connected.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪