Andrés de Urdaneta y Cerain | |
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Born |
Andrés de Urdaneta y Cerain November 30, 1498 Ordizia, Gipuzkoa, Crown of Castile |
Died | June 3, 1568 Mexico City, New Spain |
(aged 69)
Nationality | Basque, Castilian (state) |
Occupation | Explorer, friar. |
Friar Andrés de Urdaneta, OSA, (November 30, 1498 – June 3, 1568) was a Spanish Basque circumnavigator, explorer and Augustinian friar. As a navigator he achieved in 1536 the "second" world circumnavigation (after the first one led by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano and their crew in 1522). Urdaneta discovered and plotted a path across the Pacific from the Philippines to Acapulco in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (present day Mexico) used by the Manila galleons, which came to be known as "Urdaneta's route." He was considered as "protector of the Indians" for his treatment of the Filipino natives; also Cebu and the Philippines' first prelate.
Urdaneta was born in the town of Ordizia, Spain.
Urdaneta was one of the few survivors of the Loaísa Expedition to reach the Spice Islands late in the year 1526, only to be taken prisoner by the Portuguese. Urdaneta spent the next eight and a half years in and around the Spice Islands, but eventually he managed to return to Europe in the Portuguese India Armada and under Portuguese guard. Upon his arrival in Lisbon on June 26, 1536, he achieved the second world circumnavigation. Urdaneta accomplished his trip around the world through a journey which lasted just shy of eleven years.