on the 20th of september 1519 ferdinand magellan left spain to find a route to the famed spice islands in the east through the west granted with spanish provisions the portuguese navigator left with over 200 men and five sheeps for almost two years the fleet of magellan experienced starvation disease and gluten in march 1521 magellan would reach the islands which would be called the philippines and through interpreters he was able to reach cebu where he found himself entangled in a case of classic inter-island politics leading to his violent death in the hands of the natives of maktan in april 1521 [Music] who discovered the philippines antonio pigafeta's first voyage around the world by magellan welcome to the first episode of primary sources and you the second season of podcasts conversations on philippine history politics and society all right welcome back to podcast everyone and despite what seems like well a continuation of uh the tumultuous 2020 happy new year parents happy new year happy history 101 where we talked about the nature meaning and characteristics of history so thank you thank you guys head over to those episodes and it's very fitting to open 2021 with an episode on the quote-unquote discovery of the philippines by ferdinand we are actually commemorating the kin centennial anniversary of magellan's arrival in the philippines so five hundred years nan lumipas fleet visayas yeah that's right so five centuries ago magellan leading a spanish armada reached the visayas so what was the context of this event uh annoying like why would magellan go on such a tedious extremely dangerous voyage well there were things that ought to be considered during this period and before the 1500s or the 16th century the rise of the ottoman empire in the middle of the 1400s or on 1453 when they wrapped constantinople and claimed turkey or istanbul [Music] no quest of the iberian powers the portugal and spain for the supremacy in the spice trade bettering the argument ottoman empire uh they had the control on important seas like the baltic the adriatic the black sea and portugal and spain ottoman empire they had to seek for alternate routes to break the islamic monopoly definitely you know so mahala ganga point out nothing game eventually would lead to the consolidation of their political and economic power in europe capital to to launch these expeditions and try to find ways you not to break the monopoly of the muslims europa during this time competition era so much so that the pope the considered legitimate leader of the holy roman empire had to step in and draw out what we would know as the treaty of tordesillas the pope sliced the earth like an orange and divided it into [Music] during this time very much coveted and spices belong i don't know prestige goods and the spices during this time at least those that mattered like cinnamon cloves they only grew in the farthest all known routes were through the east at and therefore spain had to find a way to get to the spice islands through a different route contrary to popular belief now uh before for centuries they already knew that the world was spherical and later this lack of awareness would actually cost magellan a lot i don't know when they reached the pacific strait of magellan locking ocean so they were you know at sea for a very long time anyway so it is in this context before the king of spain during the time charles the first plan alternative or naruto [Music] italian nobleman scholar cartographer antonio pigafeta and the role that you know pigafetta played in this journey was actually very very important especially in terms of posterity now in order to decipher the commencement of my voyage having heard that there was in the city of seville a small armada to the number of five ships ready to perform this long voyage that is to say to find the islands of maluco from whence the spice has come of which armada the captain general was fernandez a portuguese gentleman commander of saint james of the sword who had performed several voyages in the ocean sea in which he had behaved very honorably as a good man i set out with many others in my favor from barcelona where at the time the emperor was and came by sea as far as malaga and thence i went away by land until i arrived at the said city of seville so that was an excerpt from antonio pigafeta's first voyage around the world by magellan [Music] seville and then 28th of september they left san lucar at aegon so they started their their long journey sobrang interesting adventure more than 200 men [Music] and these accounts were actually very valuable because these were first-hand accounts and primary social he was an eyewitness he was there from the beginning he lived to see the end of the journey and you know he was deliberately recording it for this purposes not for posterity so he fought in the battle of maktan he reached the moluccas and he actually made it back so good for him and later on picafeta's account would be considered as you know among the most important documentary primary source in philippine history or the pre-colonial period earliest records written records this is arguably our first european contact in 1521. it also tells the account of you know the initial contact between east [Music] glimpse of the dynamic and active economic life in visayas it also gives us an insight about political networks and relationships and i think actually but i think it has to be understood that cebu was a big trading port during this time not this period is it as if magellan and pigafetta and their crew were actually the first foreigners is social structure political networks and thriving economic activities lagging claim or connotation that magellan discovered the philippines how can you discover something that's already been there that has been inhabited by people regularly didn't have the adenoma goods trading ports et cetera et cetera and then a typical european arrogance oh we have discovered this land oh we have discovered people oh definitely magellan discovered the philippines kailangan maintained the hanatin that it may be true because magellan discovered the philippines for spain from from a filipino perspective and from a wider global perspective in that magellan discovered the philippines economic life a political life name so they're not there to be found and discovered exactly and interestingly i mean we're talking about picafeta's account of the first voyage around the world by magellan but this is not really the first account of the philippines exist exactly prior to this that talks about these um early communities in the philippines like you know mae in mindoro if i'm not mistaken we have the laguna harbor update inscription which talks about this system of debt yeah yeah so although we are talking in this episode about magellan and pigafetta this doesn't mean that prior to them the philippines was a random pile of rocks in the pacific there was a thriving group of people they were brought there and you see historians actually summarize the motivation of both portugal and spain into 3g the god gold and glory so they really engage in explorations or quote-unquote discoveries they colonize they pillage they enslave people because they wanted to acquire precious metals and in our country's economy at spices uh prestige good shape more than the real purpose that it serves [Music] and also they wanted to christianize native populations [Music] so the expedition of magellan was under the same umbrella they were seeking for the spice trade route and for precious metals like gold and silver young silver south america all right spices they wanted to go to the far east adorned with gold or young king himself golden rings large golden rings or yonkanyang dagger or bangles again [Music] they exist almost autonomously from one another also they have custom laws and then they share a language politically they are separated by by their leadership so they would form you know conglomerates alliances amongst them to protect themselves against raiding barangay so in this particular context as uh islands cebu yes [Music] to pay tribute which is you know standard practice foreigners foreign very powerful so i think you know being the good businessman here yeah by the movies but it doesn't mean are we really letting go of this potential business still received magellan despite uh magellan's refusal to pay tribute and so from there so they they shared so they they broke bread commander and from there magellan conducted the mass and he conducted mass uh baptizing of the natives so shihumabu and pabinyaki was renamed on carlos after king charles of spain and people were generally okay with the new faith and thing during this time in the uh indie bag i mean with all of their trading style himself are recorded that the natives actually resisted burning their idols [Music] himself they made excuses human himself made excuses for their healing etc etc and this is a very interesting part of reading picafeta and reading primary source in general [Music] is an american historian i see william henry scott now cracks in the parchment curtain and primary sources can interpret and make meaning out of out of certain parts of the text i mean from here it can be inferna that the natives were okay um to receive new faith but they resist beliefs he sought for humans assistance in dealing with a certain datu la pulapu na nireira says because well as we as we know huma was as we mentioned earlier human was considered primus interpares among the chieftains so expected within that network so if umabon was you know recognizing magellan et cetera et cetera expected employing the classic divide and conquer and also since we're friends we're brothers uh let me deal with this local chieftain asked for magellan's help or human asked for magellan's help they didn't according to pigafetta himself magellan volunteered he wanted to flex some european muscles then let me deal with this person at confidence modern supposedly wanting to invoke their their their superiority and wanting to persuade lapu lapu to koto to humabon and in effect to magellan and then what happened was this we were 49 in number the other 11 remained in charge of the boats when we reached land we found the islanders 1500 in number drawn up in squadrons they came down upon us with terrible shouts two squadrons attacking us on flanks and the third in front the captain then divided his men in two bands our musketeers and crossbowmen fired for half an hour from a distance but did nothing since the bullets and arrows though they passed through their shields made of thin wood and perhaps wounded their arms yet did not stop them the islanders seeing that the shots of our guns did them little to no harm would not retire but shouted more loudly and springing from one side to the other to avoid our shots they at the same time drew nearer to us throwing arrows javelins spear hardened with fire stones and even mud so that we could hardly defend ourselves some of them cast lances pointed with iron at the captain general they perceived that our bodies were defended but that the legs were exposed and they aimed at them principally the captain had his right leg pierced by a poisoned arrow on which a count he gave borders to retreat we were oppressed by the lances and stones which the enemy hurled at us and we couldn't make no more resistance as they knew the captain they aimed especially at him and twice they knocked the helmet off his head we fought for more than an hour until an indian succeeded thrusting a cane lance into the captain's face he then being irritated pierced the indian's breast with his lens and left it in his body and trying to draw his sword he was unable to dwight more than halfway on account of a javelin wound he received in the right arm the enemy seeing this all rushed against him and one of them with a great sword gave him a great blow on the left leg which brought the captain down on his face then the indians threw themselves upon so that they deprived of life our mirror light comfort and true guide all right so that was uh topical was in the battlefield himself and also it was a account he was fighting side by side with magellan and pikafeta was actually wounded in the battle of maktan so imagine and then 1500 natives nikolam if pikafeta was you know blowing up the number but that's i mean yeah obviously they were they were hugely outnumbered so i remember the new context march april the basa navigating the heat in the philippines yes the number of people they're fighting against with and you're walking on water actually shallow water yes water rocks i think indiana if we devote a separate episode discussing young different perspective about war natives yes espanol [Music] carlos or rahu mabon at this time could actually send reinforcements to be fair foreign i think the relationship was too shallow and maybe um went up and seeing that fraud demand christian god because so and actually later on uh picafeta would suspect among the natives satyanathra darcilla and so on so better to be fair after dunya they fled what what remained of magellan's men uh fled back uh sailed back to to to cebu general but they refused to they wanted to keep it they wanted to keep magellan's body as a memento of their victory according to pigafetta himself so they really never you know they never got to give magellan a burial so yeah what remained of um what remained of magellan's men um sailed to the journey and they reached so despite everything when they reached spain um she see king charles duncan yaring circumnavigation so they reached spain um almost exactly three years after they left and this is what biga fed had to say about this at last when it pleased heaven on saturday the 6th of september of the year 1522 we entered the bay of salloca and of 60 men composed our crew and we left maluku we were reduced to only 18 and these for the most part sick of the others some died of hunger some had run away at the island of timur and some had been condemned to death for their crimes from the day when we left this bay of san lucar until our return thither we reckoned that we had run more than 14 460 leagues and we had completed going around the earth from east to west monday the 8th of september we cast anchor near the mall of seville and discharged all the artillery tuesday we all went in shirts and barefoot with a taper in our hands to visit the shrine of saint mary of victory and of saint mary of antigua then leaving seville i went to valladolid where i presented to his sacred majesty don carlos neither gold nor silver but things much more precious in the eyes of so great a sovereign i presented to him among other things a book written by my hand of all the things that had occurred day by day in our voyage all right so i am a very eventful one and um despite heavy losses um very influential and young looking successful circumnavigate after magellan died a certain who won sebastian el cano took over and uh became captain general so showing the leaders are remaining in the ship so i remember out of five ships [Music] a present day indonesia so is 15 1521 in philippine history and in looking at pigafetta's account everything's at the end that magellan and therefore the europeans did not discover the philippines it has always been there okay so we didn't discover in pilipinas du matinsilla mero is an uh dynamic and thriving economic life is a civilization you know political networks at play and alliances uh merocelo um systema uh at structural social or panlipunan so i am pero um they were successful in circumnavigating uh the globe or the world um at this point so um and in fact young spices [Music] it was enough to to cover the cost of the voyage and it was enough to actually earn spain some profit it is very important to bear in mind this context that he was a european who lived at this period uh that he was of course very fascinated young yoga so that's a very you know fascinating way of reading pikafeta understanding you know very foreign despite of course uh certain biases belong is remains a very important primary source in studying in philippine history see it's very exciting to read actual primary sources and it's it should not be boring but you should find and i'm pretty sure that that's going to be a very interesting discussion if you want to know more about podcast you can visit our website www.podcast.org you can also check us out on several podcasting platforms like anchor fm apple podcast spotify google podcasts and many others and they're also very much looking forward to your questions and to your feedback so you can send us all of these through our social media accounts linked in the description or you can also send us an email it's a team podcast.org so okay we really love hearing from all of you so once again thank you very much for listening and have a good day [Music]