Age of Discovery

==Pacific Ocean (1513–1529)==
[[File:Balboa Voyage 1513.PNG|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]]'s travel to the "[[Pacific Ocean|South Sea]]", 1513]]

===Balboa's expedition to the Pacific Ocean===
In 1513, about {{convert|40|mi|0|abbr=off}} south of [[Acandí]], in present-day [[Colombia]], Spanish [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]] heard unexpected news of an "other sea" rich in gold, which he received with great interest.<ref>[[#Otfinoski 2004|Otfinoski 2004]], p. 33</ref> With few resources and using information given by ''[[cacique]]s'', he journeyed across the [[Isthmus of Panama]] with 190 Spaniards, a few native guides, and a pack of dogs.

Using a small [[brigantine]] and ten native [[canoe]], they explored the coast. Reinforced on September 6, they fought battles, entered a dense jungle, and climbed the Chucunaque River mountain range. Balboa, going ahead, spotted the Pacific on September 25, becoming the first European to see it from the New World. The expedition descended for a brief reconnaissance, marking the first European navigation of the Pacific off the New World coast. After travelling more than {{convert|110|km|mi|0|abbr=on}}, Balboa named the bay where they ended up [[Bay of San Miguel|''San Miguel'']]. He named the new sea[[Pacific Ocean|'' Mar del Sur'' (South Sea)]] since they had traveled south to reach it. Balboa's main purpose in the expedition was the search for gold-rich kingdoms. To this end, he crossed through the lands of ''caciques'' to the islands, naming the largest one ''Isla Rica'' (Rich Island, today known as [[Isla del Rey (Panama)|Isla del Rey]]). He named the entire group ''[[Pearl Islands|Archipiélago de las Perlas]]'', which they are still known as today.

===Subsequent developments to the east===
From 1515 to 1516, the Spanish fleet led by [[Juan Díaz de Solís]] sailed down the east coast of South America as far as [[Río de la Plata]], which Solís named shortly before he died, while trying to find a passage to the "South Sea".

===First circumnavigation===
{{main|Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation}}
[[File:Magellan's voyage EN.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Route of [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]]-[[Juan Sebastián Elcano|Elcano]] world circumnavigation (1519–1522)]]

By 1516, several Portuguese navigators conflicting with King [[Manuel I of Portugal]] gathered in [[Seville]] to serve the newly crowned [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles I of Spain]]. Among them were explorers Diogo and [[Duarte Barbosa]], [[Estêvão Gomes]], [[João Serrão]] and [[Ferdinand Magellan]], cartographers [[Jorge Reinel]] and [[Diogo Ribeiro (cartographer)|Diogo Ribeiro]], cosmographers Francisco and [[Rui Faleiro|Ruy Faleiro]] and the Flemish merchant [[Christopher de Haro]]. Ferdinand Magellan had sailed in India for Portugal up to 1513, when the [[Maluku Islands]] were reached, and had kept contact with [[Francisco Serrão]] who was living there.<ref>[[#Zweig 1938|Zweig 1938]], p. 51.</ref><ref>[[#Donkin 2003|Donkin 2003]], p. 29.</ref> Magellan developed the theory that the Maluku Islands were in the [[Treaty of Tordesillas|Tordesillas]] Spanish area, based on studies by Faleiro brothers.

Aware of the efforts of the Spanish to find a route to India by sailing west, Magellan presented his plan to [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles I of Spain]]. The king and Christopher de Haro financed Magellan's expedition. A fleet was put together, and Spanish navigators such as [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]] joined the enterprise. On August 10, 1519, they departed from Seville with a fleet of five ships—the [[caravel]] [[flagship]] ''[[Trinidad (ship)|Trinidad]]'' under Magellan's command, and [[carrack]]s ''San Antonio'', ''Concepcion'', ''Santiago'' and ''[[Victoria (ship)|Victoria]]''. They contained a crew of about 237 European men from several regions, with the goal of reaching the Maluku Islands by travelling west, trying to reclaim it under Spain's economic and political sphere.<ref>[[#DeLamar 1992|DeLamar 1992]], p. 349.</ref>
[[File:Detail from a map of Ortelius - Magellan's ship Victoria.png|thumb|left|''[[Victoria (ship)|Victoria]]'', the single ship to have completed the first world [[circumnavigation]]. (Detail from ''[[Maris Pacifici]]'' by [[Ortelius]], 1589.)]]

The fleet sailed further and further south, avoiding the Portuguese territories in Brazil, and became the first to reach [[Tierra del Fuego]] at the tip of the Americas. On October 21, starting in [[Cape Virgenes]], they began an arduous trip through a 373-mile (600&nbsp;km) long strait that Magellan named ''Estrecho de Todos los Santos'', the modern [[Strait of Magellan]]. On November 28, three ships entered the Pacific Ocean—then named ''Mar Pacífico'' because of its apparent stillness.<ref>[[#Catholic Encyclopædia 2007|Catholic Encyclopædia 2007]], web.</ref> The expedition managed to cross the Pacific. Magellan died in the [[battle of Mactan]] in the [[Philippines]], leaving the Spaniard Juan Sebastián Elcano the task of completing the voyage, reaching the [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]] in 1521. On September 6, 1522 ''Victoria'' returned to Spain, thus completing the first [[circumnavigation]] of the globe. Of the men who set out on five ships, only 18 completed the circumnavigation and managed to return to Spain in this single vessel led by Elcano. Seventeen others arrived later in Spain: twelve captured by the Portuguese in Cape Verde some weeks earlier, and between 1525 and 1527, and five survivors of the ''Trinidad''. [[Antonio Pigafetta]], a [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] scholar and traveller who had asked to be on board and become a strict assistant of Magellan, kept an accurate journal that become the main source for much of what we know about this voyage.

This round-the-world voyage gave Spain valuable knowledge of the world and its oceans which later helped in the exploration and settlement of the [[History of the Philippines (1565–1898)|Philippines]]. Although this was not a realistic alternative to the Portuguese route around Africa<ref>[[#Fernandez-Armesto 2006|Fernandez-Armesto 2006]], p. 200.</ref> (the [[Strait of Magellan]] was too far south, and the Pacific Ocean too vast to cover in a single trip from Spain) successive Spanish expeditions used this information to explore the Pacific Ocean and discovered routes that [[Manila galleon|opened up trade]] between [[Acapulco]], [[New Spain]] (present-day [[Mexico]]) and [[Manila]] in the Philippines.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-04-06|title=Magellan Killed in Philippine Skirmish|url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/magellan-killed-philippine-skirmish/|access-date=2021-03-26|website=National Geographic Society|language=en|archive-date=2022-05-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524100743/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/apr27/magellan-killed-philippine-skirmish/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Westward and eastward exploration meet===
[[File:Pulau Maitara and Pulau Tidore from the Floridas Restaurant in Pulau Ternate (Ternate Island), The Moluccas (Maluku) (15182126636).jpg|thumb|View from [[Ternate]] to [[Tidore]] islands in [[Maluku Islands|Maluku]], where Portuguese eastward and Spanish westward explorations ultimately met and clashed between 1522 and 1529<ref name="ReferenceC">[[#Newitt 2005|Newitt 2005]], p. 104.</ref><ref>[[#Lach 1998|Lach 1998]], p. 1397</ref>]]
[[File:Saavedra-1527-1529.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Saavedra's failed attempts to find a return route from the Maluku to New Spain (Mexico) in 1529]]
Soon after Magellan's expedition, the Portuguese rushed to seize the surviving crew and built a fort in [[Ternate]].<ref name="ReferenceC"/> In 1525, [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles I of Spain]] sent another expedition westward to colonize the [[Maluku Islands]], claiming that they were in his zone of the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]]. The fleet of seven ships and 450 men was led by [[García Jofre de Loaísa]] and included the most notable Spanish navigators: [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]] and Loaísa, who died then, and the young [[Andrés de Urdaneta]].

Near the [[Strait of Magellan]] one of the ships was pushed south by a storm, reaching 56° S, where they thought seeing "''earth's end''": so [[Cape Horn]] was crossed for the first time. The expedition reached the islands with great difficulty, docking at [[Tidore]].<ref name="ReferenceC"/> The conflict with the Portuguese established in nearby Ternate was inevitable, starting nearly a decade of skirmishes.<ref>[[#Lach 1998|Lach 1998]], p. 1397.</ref><ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], p. 375.</ref>

As there was not a set eastern limit to the Tordesillas line, both kingdoms organized meetings to resolve the issue. From 1524 to 1529, Portuguese and Spanish experts met at Badajoz-Elvas trying to find the exact location of the [[antimeridian]] of Tordesillas, which would divide the world into two equal hemispheres. Each crown appointed three [[astronomer]]s and [[Cartography|cartographers]], three [[Navigation|pilots]], and three [[mathematician]]s. [[Lopo Homem]], Portuguese cartographer and cosmographer was on the board, along with cartographer [[Diogo Ribeiro (cartographer)|Diogo Ribeiro]] of the Spanish delegation. The board met several times without reaching an agreement: the knowledge at that time was insufficient for an [[History of longitude|accurate calculation of longitude]], and each group gave the islands to its sovereign. The issue was settled only in 1529, after a long negotiation, with the signing of [[Treaty of Zaragoza]], that allocated the Maluku Islands to Portugal and the [[Philippines]] to Spain.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], pp. 368, 473.</ref>

From 1525 to 1528, Portugal sent several expeditions around the Maluku Islands. [[Gomes de Sequeira]] and Diogo da Rocha were sent north by the governor of Ternate [[Jorge de Menezes]], being the first Europeans to reach the [[Caroline Islands]], which they named "Islands de Sequeira".<ref>[[#Galvano 1563|Galvano 1563]], p. 168</ref> In 1526, Jorge de Meneses docked on [[Biak]] and [[Waigeo]] islands, Papua New Guinea. Based on these explorations stands the [[theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia]], one among several competing theories about the early discovery of Australia, supported by Australian historian [[Kenneth McIntyre]], stating it was discovered by [[Cristóvão de Mendonça]] and Gomes de Sequeira.

In 1527, [[Hernán Cortés]] fitted out a fleet to find new lands in the "South Sea" (Pacific Ocean), asking his cousin [[Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón]] to take charge. On 31 October 1527, Saavedra sailed from [[New Spain]], crossing the Pacific and touring the north of [[New Guinea]], then named ''Isla de Oro''. In October 1528, one of the vessels reached the Maluku Islands. In his attempt to return to New Spain he was diverted by the northeast [[trade wind]]s, which threw him back, so he tried sailing back down, to the south. He returned to New Guinea and sailed northeast, where he sighted the [[Marshall Islands]] and the [[Admiralty Islands]], but again was surprised by the winds, which brought him a third time to the Moluccas. This westbound return route was hard to find, but was eventually discovered by [[Andrés de Urdaneta]] in 1565.<ref>[[#Fernandez-Armesto 2006|Fernandez-Armesto 2006]], p. 202.</ref>