By Hailey Snyder Amerigo Vespucci

❖ Vespucci was born March 18, 1454 in Florence, Italy.

❖ As a young man he read widely and collected books and maps.

❖ Vespucci was well - educated by his uncle. He became involved in trading goods as a businessman. This is how he got involved with boats.

❖ On his first expedition,sailing to Spain in 1449 to 1500, Vespucci was a navigator under command of Alonso de Ojeda.

❖ After they left Spain in 1449, they discovered the mouth of the Amazon and Orinoco River in South America.

❖ Vespucci was the first explorer to figure out that North and South America weren’t a part of Asia. ❖ This is why his name was given to the Americas.

❖ In honor of Vespucci, Martin Waldseemuller, a German mapmaker, printed the first map that used the name America.

❖ In 1501, Vespucci was convinced there might be a passage through the “New World” to Asia.

❖ In 1503 or 1504, Amerigo Vespucci published a pamphlet, in Latin, under the Latinized name of Albericas Vesputius, entitled Mundus Novus. The pamphlet stated his belief in a New World.

❖ At age 58, Vespucci died from malaria on his third voyages to the “New World” in 1512.

Internet Sources ❖ ❖ ❖ m m ❖ l l ❖ tm tm