Amerigo Vespucci: The Man Who Gave America Its Name

By 50minutes

Keen to learn but short on time? Get to grips with the life of Amerigo Vespucci in next to no time with this concise guide.

50Minutes.com provides a clear and engaging analysis of the life and expeditions of Amerigo Vespucci. The 15th and 16th centuries were a key period for European naval exploration. While he was not the first man to set foot on American soil, the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci was the first to realise that the landmass was a new continent, and made major contributions to navigation and cartography during the period.

In just 50 minutes you will:
• Understand the social, political and economic context of Vespucci’s expeditions, in particular with regard to the colonial ambitions of Spain and Portugal
• Learn about Vespucci’s four expeditions to the New World and the discoveries he made
• Discover the major impact Vespucci had on Europeans’ understanding of the geography of the world

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• Language: English
• Publisher: 50Minutes.com
• Release date: Mar 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9782806289568

Book preview

Amerigo Vespucci

Key information

Born: 9 March 1454 in Florence (Italy).

Died: 22 February 1512 in Seville (Spain).

Aim of the expedition: to explore and chart unknown lands.

Regions explored: Central and South America.

Famous discoveries:

The mouth of the Amazon River.

The bay of Río de Janeiro.

Introduction

Amerigo Vespucci’s name has achieved posterity thanks to the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller (1470-1518 or 1521). In 1507, Waldseemüller published the first map of the continent unknowingly discovered by Christopher Columbus (Genoese navigator and explorer, 1450-1506) and named the southern half of it ‘America’ in homage to Vespucci. Vespucci, who was born in Italy and was close to the powerful Medici family, but undertook maritime voyages on behalf of Spain, was a businessman with a passion for geography and cartography. He was the first person to believe that the lands he discovered were not an unknown part of Asia, but rather a completely separate continent.

He produced a number of written accounts of his expeditions to South America. Although many of these have now disappeared, his descriptions of the customs of the populations he encountered on the Brazilian coasts were very popular with his contemporaries. Nonetheless, there are still some mysteries surrounding his career: we do not know how many voyages he undertook or what his exact role was, and the suspicion that he had usurped Christopher Columbus’s role in the discovery of the New World tarnished his reputation. A popular chronicler whose writings were circulated thanks to a fast-growing printing industry and who was passionate about