A simple biography explains the accomplishments of explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who in 1519 sailed from Spain around the New World to get to the Spice Islands--a treacherous voyage that took three years and cost him his life. Simultaneous.[...]

From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain's early conquests in the Americas. Hugh Thomas's magisterial narrative of Spain in the New World has all the characteristics of great historical literature: amazing discoveries, ambition, greed[...]

For almost five hundred years, human beings have been finding ways to circle the Earth-by sail, steam, or liquid fuel; by cycling, driving, flying, going into orbit, even by using their own bodily power. The story begins with the first centuries of circumnavigation, when few survived the attempt: in[...]

Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor working for the Spanish, believed he could find a shorter route to India by heading west instead of east. Like Columbus before him, he was destined to reach the Americas. Magellan, however, continued past the New World and sailed into the Pacific Ocean. The ex[...]

The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) is one of the most famous navigators in history-he was the first man to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and led the first voyage to circumnavigate the globe, although he was killed en route in a battle with natives in the Phillipine[...]