Charles V backs Magellan's westward gamble
1518 · Event
Snubbed by his own king, the Portuguese veteran Ferdinand Magellan offers Spain the prize Columbus never delivered: the Spice Islands, reached westward through a strait he swears exists at the bottom of the Americas. The eighteen-year-old Charles V signs; Portugal's ambassador tries sabotage and, some said, assassination.
On these timelines: Magellan's Voyage, Age of Exploration, Spain, Master
More from Magellan's Voyage
- Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation (1519)
- Magellan killed at Mactan (1521)
- The Victoria limps home (1522)
- The five ships sail (1519)
- Magellan finds the strait (1520)
- The Pacific crossing (1520)
- Mutiny at Port St Julian (1520)
- Pigafetta's account of the first circumnavigation (1525)
Around 1518
- English Reformation (1533)
- Columbus reaches the Americas (1492)
- Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519)
- Eighty Years' War / Dutch Revolt (1568)
- Spanish conquest of the Incas (1532)
- French Wars of Religion (1562)
- Spanish Reconquista last campaign (1482)
- The Reformation (1517)
- Luther's 95 Theses (1517)
- Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508)