The first truly global achievement began in Seville in 1519. Spain is commemorating what became the first circumnavigation of the globe: the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano.
Spain was the starting point of a voyage which would take three years and become a historic milestone. Five ships, with a crew of over 230 men, began a voyage to the Spice Islands (part of what is now Indonesia) in search of new routes, which ended in 1522 after they had sailed all the way around the world.
Spain will mark the occasion by organising special events from From March 22, 2018 to September 6, 2022. The events will be especially important in the ports where the voyage began (Seville and Sanlúcar de Barrameda), their stopping place in Tenerife, and the city of Valladolid, where King Charles I of Spain gave Magellan his consent for the expedition.
The Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation was the first voyage around the world in human history. It was a Spanish expedition that sailed from Seville in 1519 under the command of Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese, in search of a maritime path from Spain to East Asia through the Americas and across the Pacific Ocean, and concluded by Spanish navigator of Basque origin Juan Sebastian Elcano in 1522. Elcano and the 18 survivors of the expedition were the first men to circumnavigate the globe in a single expedition.
The circumnavigation was completed by one ship, Victoria, under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano and a crew of 18 men, which returned to Spain on 6 September 1522. Following Magellan’s death in Mactan (Philippines) in 1521, Juan Sebastián Elcano took command of the ship Victoria, sailing from Borneo, the Spice Islands and back to Spain across the Indian Ocean, round the Cape of Good Hope and north along the west coast of Africa.