Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan (1480 - 1521) led the first sea expedition to circumnavigate the globe. A Portuguese explorer, Magellan would come to serve King Charles I of Spain in order to find a Western passage to the "Spice Islands" (now called the Maluku Islands). His famed three year voyage was also the first to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. While Magellan died at the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines, his crewmen finished the journey without him.

Magellan is the hero of A World Lit Only By Fire. Manchester glorifies him enormously, crediting him with fundamentally destroying the "medieval world." Magellan had a number of incredible qualities. He knew his craft extremely well, he was an effective leader and extremely confident. But most of all, he was an extraordinary dreamer who read about those he admired and strove to imitate them. This led him on an epic...