Circumnavigating the world
At the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain had promised that the southern route to Asia was only for Portugal. The Spaniards still wanted to be involved in the spice trade and thus started expeditions to sail west to get to Asia. The Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan was hired by Spain. He left in 1519 and passed Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America in 1520. From there he crossed the Pacific Ocean. He believed that it would take him a few days, but the journey lasted months. Eventually he reached the Philippines, which he named after his King Philip II, but got in a fight with native warriors and was killed. His shipmaster Elcano continued the trip and he and the remaining crew reached Spain in 1522. They were more dead than alive and their ship was almost destroyed but they had been the first to sail around the world.