Amerigo Vespucci

World history research papers illustrate the success of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Paper Masters custom writes research projects on Amerigo Vespucci for you to use as a guide in your own research. Get help today on any academic writing project you have.

Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) was an Italian explorer and cartographer who gave his name to the two continents discovered by Europeans: America. It was Vespucci who first formulated that the West Indians and Brazilian coast explored by Columbus were not part of Asia, but an entirely unknown land mass.

The following are facts you can use in your research paper on Amerigo Vespucci:

• Born in Florence
• A young Vespucci worked as a clerk for the de Medici family
• Vespucci rose to become head of the business in 1492.
• IN 1499, Amerigo Vespucci began traveling to America

In that year he was sent to Spain to investigate the Medici affairs in Cadiz. He was still at Cadiz when the Spanish king opened the West Indies to other explorers, and began to serve as a supplier to various expeditions, including two of Columbus's later voyages.

Amerigo Vespucci Voyages

By invitation of the King of Portugal, Vespucci served as an observer on several voyages to the New World between 1499 and 1502. Vespucci was part of the expedition that discovered that South America extended far more than anyone at the time thought. Vespucci also discovered the mouth of the Amazon River. Vespucci is said to have made four trips to the New World, but historians are only certain of two of these expeditions.

The accounts of these voyages became widely known throughout Europe and it was in 1507 that Martin Waldseemüller produced the first world map with the name "America." In 1508, King Ferdinand created the position of chief of navigation for Spain expressly for Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci died in 1512, in Seville, Spain, from an unknown cause.