Amerigo Vespucci was a Florentine sailor, and explorer who played an important part in discovering the New World and provided the inspiration for the name America.
On May 10th, 1497, he embarked on his first voyage and found present- day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata on his third and most successful journey. He named South America the New World because he believed he had found a new continent. America was named after him in 1507.
His Childhood
Amerigo Vespucci, navigator, and adventurer, was born on March 9, 1451, in Florence, Italy, the third son of a learned family. Despite being born in Italy, Vespucci became a naturalized Spanish citizen in 1505.
Ser Nastagio and Lisabetta Mini, Vespucci' s parents, were friends of the powerful and volatile Medici family, who controlled Italy from the 1400s until 1737.
He was educated by his uncle, a Dominican monk named Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, while his older brothers attended the University of Pisa in Tuscany.
Another uncle, Guido Antonio Vespucci, offered Vespucci one of his first jobs while he was in his early twenties. Guido Antonio Vespucci, ambassador of Florence under King Louis XI of France, sent his nephew to Paris on a short diplomatic assignment. The expedition most likely reawakened Vespucci' s interest in travel and adventure.
Before His Exploration
In the years leading up to his first trip of discovery, Vespucci worked in a variety of occupations. When Vespucci was 24, his father pushed him to start a company.
In the beginning, he pursued a range of business ventures in Florence. Later, he went into banking in Seville, Spain, where he established a company with another Florentine called Gianetto Berardi.
Vespucci became associated with merchants that supplied Christopher Columbus on his subsequent journeys in the late 1490s. Vespucci had the chance to see Columbus at Seville in 1496 when he returned from his expedition to America.
The dialogue arouses Vespucci' s desire to observe the world through his own eyes. Vespucci' s enterprise was already struggling to generate a profit by the late 1490s.
He was well aware that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were eager to sponsor future expeditions by other explorers. Then, in his 40s, tempted by the potential for renown, Vespucci resolved to abandon his company and become an explorer before it was too late.
His Voyages
According to a letter that Vespucci may or may not have written, he went on his first voyage on May 10, 1497, traveling from Cadiz with a fleet of Spanish ships. Five weeks after leaving the West Indies, the ships landed in Central America.
In May 1499, Vespucci departed on his second journey as a navigator under the leadership of Alonzo de Ojeda, sailing under the Spanish flag.
They journeyed over the equator to the coast of what is now Guyana, where it is thought Vespucci abandoned Ojeda to investigate the coast of Brazil. On this voyage, Vespucci is supposed to have found the Amazon River and Cape St. Augustine.
He embarked on another trans- Atlantic voyage on May 14, 1501. Vespucci set off for Cape Verde on his third expedition, this time in service to King Manuel I of Portugal.
The third journey of Vespucci is often regarded as his most successful, although he did not initially lead the expedition when Portuguese officers requested him to do so, he accepted.
His ships traveled along South America' s coast from Cape So Roque to Patagonia. They found modern- day Rio de la Plata and Rio de Janeiro along the journey.
Vespucci' s ships returned through Sierra Leone and the Azores. In a letter to Florence, Vespucci referred to South America as the New World, believing he had found a new continent.
His argument was primarily based on Columbus' previous conclusion: in 1498, upon reaching the mouth of the Orinoco River, Columbus concluded that such a vast outpouring of freshwater had to originate from territory of continental proportions.
Vespucci made the decision to begin documenting his achievements, noting that chronicles of his trips would enable him to leave some reputation behind him once he died.
On June 10, 1503, Vespucci sailed back to Brazil under the Portuguese flag, accompanied by Gonzal Coelho. The flotilla dispersed when the mission failed to make any new discoveries. The captain of the Portuguese ship was suddenly nowhere to be discovered, much to Vespucci' s disgust.
Despite the odds, Vespucci persisted, discovering Bahia and the island of South Georgia along the way. Soon after, he was compelled to call it quits and return to Lisbon, Portugal, in 1504.
The Namesake Of America
In 1507, three academics in Saint- Dié- des- Vosges, northern France, were working on Cosmographi Introduction, a geography book that included huge cut- out maps that the reader could use to make his or her own globes.
One of the book' s writers, German geographer Martin Waldseemüler, recommended naming the newly found Brazilian region of the New World America, the feminine variant of the name Amerigo, after Amerigo Vespucci. As a thank you to the finder, Vespucci gained the distinction of becoming America' s namesake as a result of his deed.
Death And His Final Years
Vespucci, who was born and reared in Italy, became a naturalized Spanish citizen in 1505. Three years later, he was appointed as Spain' s piloto mayor.
His mission in this post was to recruit and train additional navigators, as well as collect data on continuing New World exploration. He remained in the role for the rest of his life.
Vespucci died of malaria on February 22, 1512, in Seville, Spain.