Vespucci was the one person for whom North and South America was named after.
Vespucci had a wonderful life and found many things on his voyages. Amerigo
Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy in March of 1451, and grew up in a considerable
mansion near the river. As a young boy, Amerigo's happiest moments studying
the stars. He excelled in mathematics and his hobby was copying maps. His dream
as a young boy was to travel and get a better picture about what the Earth looked
like. Amerigo spent half of his life as a business man hoping to strike it rich
so he could explore. Amerigo was the third son, there were two older brothers,
Antonio and Girolamo, the youngest was Bernardo. The parents were Stagio and
Elisabetta Vespucci. Italy, at this time was not yet a civilized country. Italy
was a bunch of city- states each self governed and looking for money for it's
own purposes and not for the benefit of the country. Florence, where Amerigo
was born and grew up, was in the city-state governed by the powerful Medici
family. Later in Vespucci's life he ends up working for this family helping
govern the city-state. Italy, at this time was not a good country as it is today.
In 1492 Vespucci left Florence for Seville, Spain because Italy had the monopoly
and didn't need, or want, exploration. Well into his forties, around 1495, Vespucci
became the director of a ship company that supplied ships for long voyages.
This was the first opportunity Vespucci had to make voyages and he was very
happy about this, therefore he was only looking for "new worlds" to discover
and not money or rewards for finding exotic places. In 1497 Vespucci said that
he went on a voyage to the "New World." Little is known about this because there
was not much evidence to support that he actually made this voyage such as:
journals, maps they used, or any crew members journals about what happened.
He was said to be back in 1498. Later on down the road, after this journey was
said to take place people began to doubt this and Columbus became known as the
founder of the "New World" even though he thought he was in India.
In 1499 Vespucci was said to have made his second voyage with Alonso
de Ojeda as the captain. This voyage could be backed by a great deal of
evidence and is supposed to have occurred. The watchman finally did spot
land, the Cape Verde Islands, and this is the first time anyone has been
purposely to the "New World." On this first journey Vespucci explored the
north eastern coast of South America and also came in contact with Cuba,
Hispaniola, and the Bahaman Islands. Vespucci got back to Spain in 1500
and told everyone about his findings of the land and the people. On May
19, 1501 Vespucci left from the ports of the sponsoring Spain on his third
voyage. On this voyage Vespucci was second in charge behind Gonocalo Coelho,
another one of Spains' explorers. They explored on this expedition the
Cape Santo Agostinho at the shoulder of present day Brazil. This voyage
was one of the less successful because they explored only limited water
area. On the fourth, and last, voyage Vespucci explored more of South America.
In 1503, on this journey, led by Amerigo Vespuccci himself, the captain
and crew explored the south eastern side of South America. They ran along
the coast and visited such places as Cape Soo Roque, Guanabara Bay, Rio
de la Plata, Cape Santo Agostinho, San Julian and spotted the Falkland
Islands. His crew returned back to Spain in 1504 and told their story to
mapmakers to put on the maps. After the findings of the "New World" a mapmaker
suggested they call it America, after the knowing founder. Martin Waldseemuller
a German mapmaker was one of the first to believe that Vespucci was the
first European to reach the "New World." In 1507, he suggested they call
it America and soon this name was used throughout and eventually used officially
in the naming of the continent.
Vespucci left a controversy when he died saying that he did not make
the voyage that started in 1497. Today scholars still doubt that Vespucci
made the voyage. Vespucci also claimed, in his writings, that he captioned
all the journeys himself when he only captained one of the four reported
expedition. The results to Vespucci's findings was that North and South
America were named after him, and back in the late 1400's and the early
1500's they would know that there was a "New World" out there and they
didn't have to go on believing that Asia was just beyond the horizon and
that in reality there was two of the biggest continents in the way of their
destination, Asia.
