Description

The first voyage around the world was once a daring, high-stakes gamble that changed the world ceaselessly.

Portugal dominated the wildly lucrative spice trade, and Spain was once desperate for a piece of the action. Spain had the whole lot to gain. Portuguese officer Ferdinand Magellan had nothing to lose. His decades fighting for Portugal had left him with a crippled knee and his king’s withering scorn.

And so Magellan left Portugal to guide an expedition for his country’s bitter rival, Spain. He knew it might be an exceedingly dangerous voyage, however the reality proved much worse. Killer storms, mutinies, deadly battles, murders, deprivation and disease dogged the four-year journey. Magellan was once driven to ever-greater extremes of brilliance, courage, brutality and madness as he sailed around the globe.

Magellan’s World is the story of a harrowing adventure, an inspiring and unsuitable hero, and an epic event within the history of the world.