Amerigo Vespucci Facts

Vespucci was born and raised in Florence, on the Italian Peninsula.

He was the third son of Ser Nastagio (Anastasio) Vespucci, a Florentine notary, and Lisabetta Mini.

His uncle educated Vespucci. Although his parents sent elder brothers to the University of Pisa to pursue scholastic careers, Amerigo embraced a mercantile life.

Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Florentine House hired him as a clerk.

Amerigo Vespucci Career Facts

Later, he moved on to a banking business in Seville, Spain, where he formed a partnership with another man from Florence, named Gianetto Berardi.

During that time he learned that other explorers were looking for a northwest passage through the Indies.

In the late 1490s, Vespucci became affiliated with merchants who supplied Christopher Columbus on his later voyages.

Amerigo Vespucci Facts
Amerigo Vespucci Facts

In April 1495, the Crown of Castile broke their monopoly deal with Christopher Columbus and began licensing other navigators for the West Indies.

Amerigo Vespucci Voyage Facts

Around 1499–1500, Vespucci joined an expedition in the service of Spain with Alonso de Ojeda (or Hojeda) as the fleet commander.

Its intention was to sail around the southern end of the African mainland into the Indian Ocean.

After reaching the coast of present-day Guyana, Vespucci and de Ojeda seem to have separated.

Soon Vespucci sailed south, discovering the mouth of the Amazon River and reaching 6°S before turning around, seeing Trinidad and the Orinoco River, and returning to Spain via Hispaniola.

On May 14, 1501, Vespucci departed on another trans-Atlantic journey.

Now on his third voyage, Vespucci set sail for Cape Verde—this time in service to King Manuel I of Portugal. Vespucci’s third voyage is largely considered his most successful.

Later Vespucci and his fleets headed back via Sierra Leone and the Azores. Believing he had discovered a new continent, in a letter to Florence, Vespucci called South America the New World.

On June 10, 1503, sailing again under the Portuguese flag, Vespucci, accompanied by Gonzal Coelho, headed back to Brazil.

When the expedition didn’t make any new discoveries, the fleet disbanded.

Amerigo Vespucci Rise to Fame & Death

On March 22, 1508, King Ferdinand made Vespucci chief navigator of Spain at a large salary.

The King commissioned him to found a school of navigation to standardize and modernize navigation techniques used by Iberian sea captains exploring the world.

Later Vespucci developed a rudimentary but fairly accurate method of determining longitude, which was improved by more accurate chronometers.

Vespucci’s expeditions became known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and 1503.

In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the new continent America.

Soon after his return to Spain, Vespucci became a Spanish citizen. Later Vespucci ran a school for navigators in Seville’s Casa de Contratación.

On February 22, 1512, Amerigo Vespucci died of malaria in Seville, Spain. He was just a month shy of 58 years old.

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