This is a replica of the Santo del Niño, a Flemish-made doll of the infant Jesus given by Magellan to Rajah Humabon’s wife after a mass baptismal in what is the present day Cebu City.

Forty-four years to the day after Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan across the water from Cebu Harbor, a Spanish mariner/conquistador found this in an abandoned home (The villagers had fled to the hills when the Spanish ships arrived.) near the site of the Magellan Cross.

The Basilica of the Santo del Niño was built beside the Magellan Cross site to house this religious relic where people line up to this day, filing by the glass encased doll, saying their prayers and crossing themselves.

This sign is at the site of the Magellan Cross, where Magellan staked out the 1st franchise of the Catholic Church in the Philippines in April, 1521. The Philippines is the only predominately Christian country in Asia and it all began right here. Reportedly, fragments of the original cross erected by Magellan and crew is somehow encased in the current standing cross.

Here we go! The public phase of The Magellan Project begins. This is an ambitious project, one that will keep us inspired, educated and feeling the thrill of adventure for years. We hope you agree and can find a way to join in.

For the last six weeks or so, the team has largely been focussed on designing and developing this website. Cap’n Jim has visited a few potential supporters of the project and spent some time in the Philippines. You can expect to see photos in the Library soon, as well as the first videos on YouTube.

We’ll keep you posted.

Just to put Magellan into historical context, here are some events and dates to consider. 1519 was the year Magellan set out on his expedition.

The cosmological belief system at the time was “geocentric.” Complex celestial trigonometry was used to navigate by heavenly bodies which were assumed to be rotating around the Earth.

The Spanish Inquisition is in its 39th year.

March 4th, 1519, Hernando Cortez lands in Mexico. By November he is in Montezuma’s Court in Mexico City, overthrowing the Aztec Empire by intrigue and with the assistance of Dona Marina’s interpretative language skills. “To the victor go the spoils” of gold and silver for Spain and her thugs.

May 4th, 1519 Leonardo da Vinci dies.

June 28th, 1519 Charles I of Spain becomes Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The 18-year-old Charles is Magellan’s sponsor and the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. Charles rules until 1556.

1519 Martin Luther questions the infallibility of papal decrees.

The retracing voyage will begin the journey in the Philippines where Magellan was killed. The voyage will begin here as this is the core of the commingling of European and Asian cultures resonating through the centuries to the present day.

The European perspective on this commingling has been the primary history taught in schools in the U.S. The Philippine and Southeast Asian perspective on the history of this contact is just as important and interesting, and provides an opportunity to broaden our understanding of this historic development.

For example, the majority of the world thinks Magellan completed the expedition. Filipinos, however, are taught in elementary school that Magellan introduced the Roman Catholic Church to the Philippines, and was killed by Chief Lapulapu and his warriors on Mactan Island. There is even an annual reenactment of the Battle of Mactan on April 27th. This is common knowledge to Filipinos across their country.

The Malaysian ethnic group across the islands of Southeast Asia are descendants of mariner nomads that settled across the region thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. The European contact and Magellan’s arrival led to a valuable network connection for the world’s maritime industry that continues to this day. Historically referred to as ‘Manila Men,’ Filipino mariners were sought after for their maritime skills and continued the Malaysian mariner nomad culture.

The period of the “Manila Galleon” trade from 1565-1814 spans 250 years of a Filipino diaspora that extended across the Pacific Ocean and contributed to the wealth of Spain as spices, silk, jewels and porcelain were added to the gold and silver riches of the new world booty.

The “Manila Men” were sought-after mariners in the Pacific whaling industry as smart, hardworking sailors with pleasant dispositions. The diaspora came to include both men and women, and continues to the present day as Filipinos staff ships, medical professions and service industries around the world.

Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American minority group in the United States. The “Alaskaneros” Filipino population has grown to be the largest Asian minority in Alaska at approximately 16,000. The first historical documentation of a Filipino arriving in Alaska is in 1780.

Despite Magellan having preceded Cook by 250 years, the two great explorers share a common thread of interaction with cultures and religions completely unknown to one another. Magellan’s contact with the Philippines in 1521 was the beginning of the Spain’s ultimate domination of the islands until 1898. The Philippines are the only predominately Christian country in Asia and Filipinos are predominately Roman Catholic.

An anthropological study of pre-Magellan beliefs in the Philippines from a Filipino perspective would shed interesting light on the incredible success and popularity of Catholicism in this Malaysian ethnic group over the course of time since 1st contact.

While the European historical perspective of the motivations and results of global exploration in the 16th century has been developed and recorded over the years, an opportunity to explore and develop the perspective of the complex cultures in existence along the route of the expedition is needed to further understand the impact Magellan’s voyage.

At the time of the Magellan expedition, European culture collided with other complex cultures along the way. Comparing and contrasting the world of Magellan and the world of today is relevant to the nature of the global village we now share via modern technologies.

This research will be guided by the University of Alaska’s policies governing human subjects research. The researchers for this project have completed the appropriate training provided by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Alaska.

The field research will employ two integrated social science data gathering methods. These are 1) key respondent interviews to gather qualitative information related to respondent’s knowledge and perspective on the history of indigenous cultures and European first contact and 2) key respondent interviews to gather qualitative information related to respondent’s knowledge and perspective on the impact of indigenous cultures and European contact over time.

Research Questions

1 – How has the commingling of Asian and Western cultures evolved through the Age of Adventure from Magellan’s expedition through Cook’s exploration to the continuing present day diaspora of populations of the world?

2 – What is the perspective and historical record of Southeast Asia regarding the commingling with western cultures?

3 – What anthropological factors can research identify to increase the understanding of how the population of the Philippines evolved into the only predominately Christian nation in Asia?

4 – What factors have led Filipinos to be the largest Asian minority groups in Alaska, and the second largest Asian minority group in the USA?

5 – What impacts have the Magellan expedition had on the indigenous cultures in South America, Guam, Indonesia, and Brunei?

Methods

The community outreach, research, and work done by Tony Horwitz in retracing Cook’s Expedition in Blue Latitudes and in retracing Spanish Conquistadors/Adventurers in North America in the 16th century in A Voyage Long and Strange demonstrates a model for combining research and community interface while increasing the body of historical knowledge and perspective being communicated.

Research Dissemination:

The initial project focus will be upon course work for the public middle school geography subject area and undergraduate course work in geography for meeting general education requirements at the college level.

The project will focus on providing a tele-course for the University of Alaska. As the project moves forward, further distant learning platforms will be developed. The products and services to be provided by the Magellan Foundation and will include educational programs at the public school and post secondary school levels.

A documentary of the project’s circumnavigation will also be produced. The tele-course(s) and documentary of the project will provide distance learning opportunities for both classroom and undergraduate research.

“Make no small plans, for they have no power to stir the soul.”
Niccolo Machiavelli 1469-1527

In 1519, the Magellan expedition left the west coast of Spain with five ships and approximately 270 souls in pursuit of a westward route to the Spice Islands. Three years later, one ship with 18 Europeans, a handful of Malays and a hold full of cloves and nutmeg, worth their weight in gold, arrived back in Spain.

It was spices that got the earth circumnavigated. Nutmeg, mace and cinnamon were then what crude oil is today; a means to wealth and power. (Maybe 500 years from now the slimy crude will be as valuable as a spice rack from Wal-Mart.) Spices, along with the human desire for fame and fortune (power and greed) and evangelical zeal spurred the start of the Age of Exploration.

Magellan was a short, swarthy fellow who walked with a limp from an old war wound, sustained while fighting in the service of the King of Portugal in Morocco. He was a driven man, and so he approached the king and queen with his proposal to find a western route to the Spice Islands.

Columbus, after all, got distracted. His failed pitch to find a back way to the Spice Islands led to Magellan’s. The King and Queen didn’t seem to mind. It would fall to their grandson to sponsor the successful expedition.

The expedition Magellan organized had in its ranks Spaniards, Portuguese, Irish, English, French, Italians, Flemings, Greeks, Orientals, Africans and a Moor. Even patron saints were listed on the crew manifest, the Holy Catholic Church got to collect their pay.

This “Fleet of Babel” sailed into the annals of history. The expedition had intrigue and mutiny, desertions, storms, shipwreck, starvation and disease. Fighting, dining, copulating, kidnapping, killing, trading and collaborating with locals along the way was the order of the day.

The Santiago went down first; she was driven onto the coastal rocks of southern Argentina by a storm just outside the entrance to the Santa Cruz estuary.

The San Antonio was the next to leave the fleet. Her crew mutinied against the loyal Captain Mesquita, in the straits while on a reconnoiter assignment. They turned tail and took the big provision ship running back home to Spain.

The Captain General, himself, wouldn’t complete the circle. When the expedition approached the central Philippines in March of 1521 from the Pacific Ocean for the first time, Magellan’s slave Enrique, much to everyone’s surprise, could converse fluently with the Visayan speaking occupants of the pirogue paddling out to greet them.

Enrique’s speaking ability provided Magellan with an interpreter to forge an alliance with Rajah Humabon, the ruler of Cebu. This alliance led to a mass baptismal of Rajah Humabon and thousands of Philippine natives by Magellan and his fleet chaplain, Pedro de Valderrama.

This alliance also led to Magellan’s death on April 27th after he injected himself into a local squabble between Humabon and a local chief named Lapu Lapu. National pride, and evangelical zeal got the best of him; he was certain God was on his side.

After Magellan’s death, Humabon and his men turned on the surviving officers of Magellan’s fleet leaving only enough men to sail two of the three remaining expedition ships. The Conception was scuttled and burned to the waterline. After cramming their holds with cloves, the Trinidad and the Victoria sailed south.

The Trinidad tried going home the way they came and failed. The Victoria foundered back to Spain going west, wallowing its way to close the circle.