| Popis: |
The Islands of the West or the “Moluccas” were island Territories in which The Spaniards and the Portuguese converged for their possession. The expansive Spanish policy safeguarded its claim over those islands on the inaccuracy of the geographical latitudes contained in the Treaty of Tordesillas while the Lusitanians considered that it was they who had the right and were fully determined to defend it, since they were settled there since 1511. The Spanish Crown sent several expeditions with very little success, such as the one led by Ferdinand Magellan at the beginning of the decade of 1520. After that difficult first trip, the Spanish companies gravitated to the Spice Islands, under a policy of no confrontation and preservation of peace, but of indisputable recovery of possessions. The second expedition (1525-1527) was led by the Commander of the order of San Juan, frey Garcia Jofre de Loysa, who was commissioned by the Emperor so that, for the same purpose, the rescue of the Moluccas from the hands of the Lusitanians, he would travel southbound to the distant land of spices. In this work, we deal with, in this first part, the narrative and reviews of that unfortunate journey which cost its captain his life and also that of his second in command, Elcano. We rely on original, primary sources that provide it with originality and freshness. This unsuccessful expedition would give reason to the presence of Hernán Cortés, at the request of the Emperor, in the incursions of New Spain into the South Sea. In the four incursions sponsored, he explored the coasts of New Spain, Baja California, and California and also went beyond, towards the “Islands of the West”. That is the second part of this work which we hope also appears in this magazine. |
