Which expedition is traditionally credited with completing the first circumnavigation of Earth?

The Magellan expedition is traditionally credited with completing the first circumnavigation of Earth.

Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet left Spain in 1519 to find a western route to the Spice Islands. Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, so he did not complete the voyage himself. Juan Sebastián Elcano took command of the remaining ship, Victoria, which reached Spain in 1522.

The expedition’s surviving sailors therefore completed the first recorded circumnavigation. Only Victoria returned, while the other ships were lost, abandoned, or captured. The voyage provided powerful practical evidence of the planet’s global scale and the vast distances between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The expedition was not the first journey to discover every part of its route: much of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean world was already known to European and Asian navigators. Its historical importance lies in linking the oceans in one continuous voyage and documenting a route around the Earth.