Amerigo vespucci facts and information

Amerigo Vespucci , born ? The name for the Americas is derived from his given name. Vespucci was the son of Nastagio, a notary. As a boy Vespucci was given a humanistic education by his uncle Giorgio Antonio. In he accompanied another relation, sent by the famous Italian Medici family to be their spokesman to the king of France. At the end of their agent, Giannotto Berardi, appears to have been engaged partly in fitting out ships; and Vespucci was probably present when Christopher Columbus returned from his first expedition, which Berardi had assisted. When Berardi died, either at the end of or at the beginning of , Vespucci became manager of the Sevilla agency.

Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci is best known for his namesake: the continents of North and South America. But why were these continents named after him, especially since his voyages happened after Christopher Columbus' famed sail on the ocean blue? Vespucci was the first person to recognize North and South America as distinct continents that were previously unknown to Europeans, Asians and Africans. Prior to Vespucci's discovery, explorers, including Columbus, had assumed that the New World was part of Asia. Vespucci made his discovery while sailing near the tip of South America in

On May 10, , he embarked on his first voyage. On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In , America was named after him. He died of malaria in Seville, Spain, on February 22,