It also generated important scientific knowledge, including more information about the earth's circumference and new understandings of global time. Establishing this new western sailing route was vital to Spain's future as an international power.

What was the importance of circumnavigation?

The circumnavigation completed by Magellan's expedition thus confirmed the conception of the world as a globe. Map of South America and the surrounding Southern Ocean (Atlantic) and Great South Sea (Pacific), from the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, published 1768–71.

What did the circumnavigation of the Earth prove?

Although the circumnavigation alone did not entirely prove the earth was spherical (it could have been cylindrical or irregularly globular), this journey provided a concrete example of the possibility of being able to sail around the planet.