Amerigo Vespucci was a confident explorer. On his second exploration to South America he noticed that the east coast was a lot longer than he had expected. He had a bold idea. He thought that this might be a new continent.

Amerigo was born on March 9, 1451 in Florence, Italy. His parents were Stagio and Elisabetta Vespucci. Amerigo had three brothers. Their names were Antonio, Girolamo, and Bernardo. As a boy, his happiest moments were studying the stars and his biggest dream was to get a better idea of what the earth looked like. Amerigo spent half his life as a businessman. He was hoping to become rich so he could explore. In 1492, he left Italy for Seville, Spain because Italy didn’t want exploration.

In 1492 Vespucci said he had gone to the “New World”. There was no proof of this, so Columbus became known as the founder, even though he thought it was India. In 1499, Amerigo made a voyage with Alonso de Ojeda to the Cape Verde Islands. This was actually the first journey where anyone had gone purposely to the “New World”.

His second voyage was with Gonocalo Coelho. They explored Cape Santo Agostinho. Vespucci’s last journey was in 1503. He led it himself. He and his crew explored the southeastern part of South America. They went to Cape Soo Roque, Guanabara Bay, Rio de la Plata, Cape Santo Agostinho, San Julian, and the Falkland Islands. They returned to Spain in 1504. After telling their stories to mapmakers, one suggested calling it “America”, after Amerigo and that’s how America got its name.

Amerigo Vespucci was an important man. If he didn’t exist, America would probably be called “Columbus” because Columbus would have been the only person to make that trip. Or maybe it would have been known as the East Indies, because that’s what most Europeans thought was out there. Either way, America would have been a very different country, so we’re all glad Amerigo Vespucci was alive.

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August 26, 1507

Dear Martin Waldseemuller,

Thank you for naming the New World after me. It makes me proud of myself for making those trips. They were long and hard and we went through a lot. “America” is a wonderful name!

I am sure you will be well known for this. I can imagine all of the other Europeans realizing how wrong they were. It makes me happy knowing that I discovered a new continent! And thank you again for coming up with such a wonderful name for the New World.

Sincerely,

Amerigo Vespucci

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