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Just 500 years ago, a crew of 237 men spread over five ships set out from Seville in the Atlantic Ocean, heading west, towards the edge of the known world. Spearheading this expedition, the Portuguese captain Fernando de Magellan made an outrageous bet: he would find a passage through the American continent to reach the Pacific Ocean and reach India, on the other side of the world. The purpose of this great journey was to reach the Moluccan Islands in Indonesia, known as the Spice Islands, which were coveted by the rival kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. Three years later, on September 8, 1522, only 18 exhausted sailors returned to port aboard the only remaining ship, without their captain, after having achieved the greatest maritime feat of all time: sailing around the world, the first circumnavigation.
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