The Victoria, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano after Magellan's death in the Philippines, reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda on September 6, 1522, with just 18 of the original roughly 270 crew members aboard. The voyage proved definitively that the Earth could be circled by sea and that a westward route to Asia existed, reshaping European geography and imperial ambition.
Magellan's fleet of five ships had departed Spain in 1519 seeking a westward route to the Spice Islands, and almost nothing about the voyage went as planned. Mutinies, starvation, scurvy, and a fatal skirmish in the Philippines killed Magellan himself in April 1521, leaving Elcano to bring the last surviving vessel home three years after departure.
The Victoria arrived so battered and undermanned that its skeletal crew, having sailed continuously without proper provisions for the final stretch, reportedly could barely walk when they staggered ashore. They had also, without realizing it, lost a full day relative to the Spanish calendar — an early practical demonstration of what would become the international date line.
The voyage's cargo of cloves alone nearly covered the expedition's costs, but its real legacy was proof, undeniable and empirical, that the world was a connected sphere navigable by ship — a milestone that accelerated the age of European maritime empire.