Which explorer completed the first expedition to circumnavigate Earth after Ferdinand Magellan died?

Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the first expedition to circumnavigate Earth after Ferdinand Magellan died.

Magellan commanded the Spanish expedition that left Seville in 1519, but he was killed at the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines in 1521. Elcano then took command of the surviving ship Victoria for the return voyage westward across the Indian Ocean and around Africa.

Victoria reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda in September 1522, nearly three years after the expedition began. Only one of the original five ships returned, and the crew had suffered enormous losses from disease, conflict, hunger, and shipwreck.

Magellan is often credited with the circumnavigation because he initiated the voyage and guided it through the Pacific, but he did not complete the journey. Elcano’s achievement was recognized by Spain’s King Charles I, who granted him a coat of arms featuring a globe and the motto “You first encircled me.”