In January 2022, the Centre for Advanced International Studies (CAIS) organized and hosted the international conference “All the Oceans are One: Magellan’s Voyage on its 500th Anniversary.” The Magellan-Elcano voyage of 1519-1522 was the crowning achievement of the Age of Explorations, as it demonstrated for the first time the possibility to navigate around the globe and that all the great oceans are connected. The largest of them, the Pacific, came to Magellan’s crew as a surprise, and its crossing would remain problematic for centuries afterwards. Yet, this expedition settled the debate on the size of the globe and rendered clear the enormous difficulties but also the potential for both the integration of distant markets and global empire-building, so its consequences were truly momentous.
This symposium brought together scholars working on issues spanning from the origins of Iberian expansion to travel literature, from early Sino-Portuguese encounters to the more long-term consequences of Magellan’s voyage. Papers will reflect on issues as diverse as the origins of Columbus’s voyage, the Portuguese arrival in Zhejiang, the intellectual and economic history of the Spanish Philippines, transimperial networks, and the history of Sino-Western relations.
The speakers, including scholars from Stanford University and the University of Macau, explored the significance of the age of European explorations, the historical origins of globalization, and the impact of curiosity and local agency in world history. The conference was attended by more than 60 colleagues and students in a hybrid format, both at UNNC and from around the world through Microsoft Teams.
Dr Matteo Salonia presented a paper titled “Measuring the Earth: Magellan’s Voyage and the Shape of Iberian Asia.”
Dr Joseph Askew presented on the topic “Through a Glass Darkly: Mutual Misunderstandings in Sino-Western Relations before 1800.”