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Straits, beyond the myth of Magellan, Felipe Fernández-Armesto

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

individual biography

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Straits

bibliography

Felipe Fernández-Armesto

beyond the myth of Magellan

For centuries, Ferdinand Magellan has been celebrated as a hero, a noble adventurer who circumnavigated the globe in an extraordinary feat of human bravery; a paragon of daring and chivalry. Historian Felipe FerndindezArmesto draws on extensive and meticulous research to conduct a dazzling investigation into Magellan's life, his character and his illfated voyage. He shows that Magellan did not attempt much less accomplish a journey around the globe and that in his own lifetime, the explorer was abhorred as a traitor, reviled as a tyrant and dismissed as a failure. He probes the passions and tensions that drove Magellan to adventure and drew him to disaster, the pride that became arrogance, daring that became recklessness, determination that became ruthlessness, romanticism that became irresponsibility and superficial piety that became, in adversity, irrational exaltation. And as the real Magellan emerges, so to do his real ambitions, focused less on circumnavigating the world or cornering the global spice market than on exploiting Filipino gold. Offering up a stranger, darker and even more compelling narrative than the fictional version that has been glorified for half a millennium, Straits untangles the myths that made Magellan a hero

The globe around Magellan: the world, 1492 to 1521 -- The education of an adventurer: Oporto - Lisbon - the Indian Ocean, to 1514 -- The trajectory of a traitor: Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, 1514 to 1519 -- The making and marring of a fleet: Seville and Valladolid, 1517 to 1519 -- The cruel sea: the Atlantic, September 1519 to February 1520 -- The Gibbet at San Julián: Patagonia, March to October 1520 -- The gates of fame: the Strait of Magellan, October to December 1520 -- The unremitting wind: the Pacific, November 1520 to March 1521 -- Death as advertised: the Philippines, March to July, 1521 -- Aftermath and apotheosis: the world, from 1521

adult