The three men in this painting were crucial to the establishment of the Spanish colony in the Philippines, and the Manila Galleon trade. From left, they are Friar Andrés de Urdaneta (1498–1568), Miguel López de Legazpi (1502–1572), and Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521). Magellan was a Portuguese-born explorer best known for captaining on behalf of the Spanish Crown the first fleet of ships that circumnavigated the world. Lopez de Legazpi and Urdaneta formed the first European settlement in the Philippines on Cebu in 1565. Friar Urdaneta’s documentation of his voyage was the basis for the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade route. Spanish ships sailed this route across the Pacific for around 250 years, carrying luxury goods that created riches for Spain.
