Tag Archives: art history

Week 3: Explorers

After some research on Magellan, I found out about a character named Enrique who was Magellan’s personal slave. He had been with Magellan since an earlier voyage to Malacca in 1511. Enrique helped Ferdinand be his translator when he arrived in Philippines as he spoke the Malay language that was also spoken by the natives there. He was thought to be the first to circumnavigated the world, instead of Magellan.

“As many historians have noted, if Enrique was originally from that part of the world, then by the time the expedition reached the Philippines he would have already circled the earth and returned to his homeland.”

History Stories, http://amp.history.com/news/10-surprising-facts-about-magellans-circumnavigation-of-the-globe

Technically, Magellan did not complete the full cycle of circumnavigation. This is because Magellan was killed in Philippines before he ever reached the Spice Islands. It was Juan Sebastian Elcano who guided the very last ship, Victoria, to the Spice Islands then back to Spain.

 

Week 2 Response

Watching the video, it seems like Benin was fooled into colonialism. Everything seemed innocent at first with trade but the Portuguese’s intentions were ill. The spoken words of the war (killing, rape, fire) made it extremely impactful in making me feel, imagine and maybe ever hear the pain and screams of the Benin people. (Maybe this idea could be applied to our final project.) However, I feel that these series of events has made the Benin plaques even fuller with meaning and significance as it truly holds the people’s heritage, culture and history.