Program Information

On August 10, 1519 Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailing master of noble upbringing in service to the King of Spain, set sail on one of history's greatest voyages of discovery.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: On August 10, 1519 Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailing master of noble upbringing in service to the King of Spain, set sail on one of history's greatest voyages of discovery.

Intro: A Moment In Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: In 1400, Europeans knew little more than the Romans about the rest of the world. The tantalizing stories brought back by exploring merchant traders such as Marco Polo told of an advanced civilization in the Far East. This served to stimulate the European imagination but did little to expand contacts with a much wider world.

Europeans were certainly motivated to reach out. Many had the desire to see the entire world converted to Christianity, but perhaps even greater was the concern for economics. In an age without refrigeration, the spices of Asia helped preserve meat and cover up the taste when it turned rancid. Pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves were luxuries, yet were almost necessities. Because of the distance over which these goods had to be shipped, an Arab monopoly on Far Eastern trade and a shipping cartel dominated by the Republic of Venice, the price for spices in the markets of central and northern Europe was steep.

Also, the Europeans could only offer for trade commodities such as wool or iron that had very little appeal to the Asians. The result: Asian spices had to be purchased for cash. The only practical way to provide money for imports from the East was gold or silver bullion and by 1400 the gold and silver mines in Europe were nearly exhausted. It is not surprising that when explorers such as Christopher Columbus promised a quicker and cheaper way to get to the riches of Asia, national leaders such as Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were willing in 1492, and afterwards, to finance voyages of exploration.

Such was undoubtedly the case when Ferdinand Magellan approached King Charles I of Spain with the idea of finding a passage through the newly discovered American land mass, a voyage seeking a shorter route to the Spice Islands of Asia. Next time: new technology for exploration.

The producer of A Moment In Time is Steve Clark. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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