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AMERIGO VESPUCCI
1454 - 1512
Amerigo claimed
to have discovered Central Brazil. Next thing you know, the area was named
America. In 1538, the geographer Mercator applied the
word America to the whole known western world.
The man Amerigo was
born in Florence, Italy.
AMERIGO'S FAMILY
Amerigo's father was Nastagio. Amerigo's uncle, Giorgio
Antonio, took wee Amerigo under his wing. The girl of Amerigo's dreams was Maria Cerezo.
AMERIGO VESPUCCI
AMERIGO AND CHRIS
Christopher
Columbus was just three years older than Amerigo Vespucci.
And you guessed it, they met.
And here is the map of Amerigo's trips:
ROUTES OF VESPUCCI
Click map to enlarge
Amerigo's famous voyage in 1501 / 1502 became quite the eye-opener
for the map industry. Just imagine, the newly discovered lands were not a part of Asia or anything ever
known before, but an entirely
new continent, a "New World!"
Big eyes there.
In 1507, Martin
Waldseemüller put a map together and suggested the name America
for today's South America. That map, by the way, was
recently purchased by the US Library of Congress for the round
sum of $10 million.
Just FYI: The same sum was
paid for Southern Arizona and New Mexico. Talk about inflation.
For the Discovery of North America, check this map
985 -
1794 Discovery of North America
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