The Portuguese Task Force for the Commemorations of the V Centenary of Circumnavigation

The Portuguese Task Force for the Commemorations of the V Centenary of Circumnavigation led by the Portuguese navigator Fernão de Magalhães 2019-2022 (EMCFM) was created to organise and promote the different commemorations associated with the 500th anniversary of the first voyage around the world, in conjunction with other higher education institutions and scientific institutions, local authorities and other public and private entities.

Between 2019 and 2022, EMCFM has organised, in partnership with various local and national entities, more than 500 initiatives that aim to allude, as a milestone of the expedition, to its importance in the symbolic, historical-cultural and scientific domains.

In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan, accompanied by 237 men and with a fleet of five ships, began an expedition that, later conclude by Juan Sebastián Elcano, would be the First Circumnavigation Voyage of the planet, an epic three-year odyssey that forever altered the ideas that the Western world had about the cosmos and geography, demonstrating, through the existence of a circulation strait between the Atlantic and the Pacific, the oceans are, in fact, intercommunicable.

The cultural heritage of this trip and its relevance in terms of heritage continue to this day at a global level. The universality of this historic landmark continues to be renewed today: Ferdinand Magellan, who once named several places around the globe, today names two galaxies close to the Milky Way and the space probe sent to the orbit of Venus.

Between 2019 and 2022, EMCFM has organised, in partnership with various local and national entities, more than 500 initiatives that aim to allude, as a milestone of the expedition, to its importance in the symbolic, historical-cultural and scientific domains.

It is the man, his odyssey and the scientific and symbolic heritage that is also celebrated in this digital and interactive edition that contextualises the past and the future of the first circumnavigation.