Sign
up to receive
your daily A
Moment In Time!
Just click on
"Not a Member?"
in the menu bar
to your left
to become a member.
Today's
A Moment In
Time 
.
02-165 The Voyage of Magellan - II
Lead: In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan sailed from the port of Seville in Spain. Three years later one of his ships returned, having circumnavigated the globe. Such a voyage was possible because of a revolution in the technology of exploration.
Intro: A Moment In Time with Dan Roberts.
Content: That Europeans should increasingly find themselves on shores far from home came about as a result of advances in the design of ships, expansion in the understanding of navigation and a sea change as it were in the way overseas exploration was financed.
The development of ships capable of enduring extended ocean voyages took a long time. Until the 1400s, offshore shipping was conducted in oar-propelled galleys that stuck close to the coastline. The open sea required sails for propulsion and broad, round hulls rather than the narrow ones found on galleys. Ships that crossed the ocean could carry a smaller crew since operating sails took fewer men than rowing galleys. Fewer mouths to feed meant larger cargoes and longer distances.
The Portuguese built the first truly oceangoing vessels. By the 1400s they had designed a three-masted caravel, two masts with square sails to run before the wind and a mast with triangular sail for tacking into the wind.
Having a ship able to make the journey was only the first step. To cross the vast stretches of ocean shipmasters needed some means of determining their course and position. Navigation by the sun and stars was imprecise and impossible in overcast weather. A rudimentary compass was available after 1300, often used with an astrolabe, an instrument that helped determine position by measuring the elevation of the sun and stars. Finally, portolan charts helped sailors recognize the approach to most European ports.
Commerce that hugged the seashore or crossed the Mediterranean could be financed by city-states such as Venice or Genoa, but their resources were inadequate for overseas trade. Transoceanic travel and exploration required great sums of money. It was only after nations such as Portugal, Spain, England, France, and Holland had unified their countries and established strong national governments that there was enough concentration of money to man and equip fleets of oceangoing vessels and establish colonies. Next time: Magellan sets sail.
The producer of A Moment In Time is Steve Clark. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.
Resources
Morrison, Samuel Eliot. "Following Magellan's Wake in his Strait," Smithsonian, 4 (11, February, 1974), 44-51.
Nowell, Charles E. Magellan's Voyage Around the World: Three Contemporary Accounts Evanston [Ill.] Northwestern University Press, 1962.
Parr, Charles McKew. So Noble a Captain: The Life and Times of Ferdinand Magellan. New York, Crowell Publishing Company, 1953.
Copyright 2008 by Broadcast Partners, LLC
LAC031208
About
A Moment in
Time and Why
We Are Committed
to Bringing
History to
Life
In spring
2000 The Wall
Street Journal
reported that
a survey of
senior class
students at
the 55 best
universities
in the United
States revealed
that a large
percentage
could score
no higher than
a D- on a high
school history
test and that
while 78% of
these young
scholars knew
the identity
of Bevis and
Butthead, only
33% knew that
George Washington
was at Yorktown.
These are the
people who
are about to
inherit our
nation's mantle
of leadership.
These are the
people who
are going to
formulate policies
that govern
our lives…a
scary thought.
Ten years
ago, University
of Richmond
History Professor
Dan Roberts
decided to
try and do
something about
this growing
epidemic of
ignorance about
the past. In
response, he
developed the
syndicated
radio show,
A Moment in
Time, a brief,
exciting and
compelling
journey into
the past. Episodes
play weekdays
on over 140
public and
commercial
radio stations,
XM and Sirius
Satellite Radio,
Voice of America,
and the Armed
Forces Radio
Network around
the world.
Since 1999,
the University
of Richmond
has become
a partner in
this enterprise.
We have earned
an audience
of over 2 million
listeners daily.
In addition,
we have established
this full-service
Web site to
provide historical
resources for
listeners,
students, and
teachers.
