An explorer born on the Florentine soil, Amerigo Vespucci is the navigator who explored the world in ways that the world today remembers him in the name of America.
On March 9th 1451 or 1454, Amerigo was born in Italy in the city of Florence. He was a great traveller who reached a new milestone on every one of his voyages and discovered the lands of today’s America.
Early Life of Amerigo
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Amerigo Vespucci was the third born of his family. His family had ties with the turbulent and wealthy Medici family who have ruled the empire of Italy for nearly 4 centuries. His father, Ser Nastagio was an appointed notary in France and his mother was Lisabetta Mini.
He got familiar with his early education from his uncle Giorgio Antonio Vespucci who was a Dominican friar while rest of his brothers studied in the University of Pisa in Tuscany.
Amerigo has another uncle named Guido Antonio Vespucci who gave him a task that gave Amerigo his right direction to move forward in his life. His uncle, who was an ambassador of Florence under the rule of King Loius XI, asked him to visit Paris for a small diplomatic mission.
Even being born in Florence, Amerigo was later a citizen of Spain.
Before becoming a traveller
Travelling was not something that fell into the lap of Amerigo, there were other aspects also which he had to take into consideration before affirming that he was made to explore.
At the age of 24 years, he was pressurized by his father to opt the line of being a businessman and he obliged. So, on the path to become one, he began with a variety of endeavours to find out the best suitable and profitable one.
He then stepped up for business in Spain being in partnership with a person named Gianetto Berardi from Florence. Records speak that Amerigo worked for the Medici Family from 1483 to 1492 and learnt about the explorer’s packages.
Even after a lot of effort, Amerigo’s business was struggling to make any profits and amid this, he got a chance to meet with Christopher Columbus. In a conversation with the man, Amerigo made his mind to explore the other lands by himself. Being in his 40’s, Amerigo was set to be a world-famous voyager without any further delay.
Voyages of Amerigo
According to a letter by Amerigo, he left Cadiz with Spanish ships on 10th May 1497 and made their way to Central America in just 5 weeks. This letter also claims that Amerigo found the lands of Venezuela before Christopher Columbus did. He came back with his ships to Cadiz in 1498.
The second voyage of Vespucci was again under the Spanish flag and under the command of the Alonzo de Ojeda as a navigator. They both crossed the equator together when discovered the lands of today’s Guyana. However, after that, they parted their ways and Amerigo was headed to Brazil.
It is said that during this journey, Amerigo discovered the river in the Amazon and Cape St. Augustine.
Vespucci was all ready and set for his third voyage on May 14th, 1501 under King Manuel of Portugal and was headed to Cape Verde. This was Amerigo’s most successful voyage of all. Although not planned initially but on request from the Portuguese officers he took charge of the upcoming journey. He sailed from Cape Sao Roque to Patagonia along the coast of South America.
On this journey, Rio de la Plata and Rio de Janeiro of today’s map were also discovered. He made their way back to home alongside the Azores and Sierra Leone. In a letter to Florence, he mentioned he had discovered a new land, South America.
He was sent on another voyage in 1503 again under the flag of Portugal. This time Amerigo was accompanied by Gonzal Coelho. However, this journey bought nothing new to be discovered and the commander of the ship was lost midway. Despite this, Vespucci continued further and was lucky to discover islands of South Georgia and Bahia. He was made to terminate and return to Portugal in 1504.
There are no further discrete records of his voyages. Some say there were two more and some say the fourth was the last.
America’s Namesake
The geography oriented book of 1507 named Cosmographia Introduction was written by Martin Waldseemuler, a German cartographer. He was the one who proposed to name the new lands America after the mane to discovered it.
America is an actual female version of Amerigo and means to include more territory. Until 1538, only the southern lands were the legacy of Amerigo but thanks to another map maker Mercator, even the northern portion was named after Amerigo.
Final Years
Amerigo became a citizen of Spain in 1505 and was later honoured as the master navigator of Spain. He was assigned a job to find new recruiters and train them. He was appointed at this until his death.
He died of malaria in 1512 in Spain at the age of one month less than 58 years.
On February 22, 1512, Amerigo Vespucci died of malaria in Seville, Spain. He was just a month shy of 58 years old.
