Biography of Américo Vespucio

Americo Vespucci was an Italian navigator and merchant to whom It is owed the name of the American continent. However, we all know that the true discoverer of America was nothing more and nothing less than Christopher Columbus, only that he died believing that what he had really discovered was the Indies. Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a brief biography of Americo Vespucci, a man who was well known in world history.

Index

1. Americo Vespucci (1454 - 1512)
2. The expeditions of Américo Vespucio
3. The denomination of America

We started this brief biography of Americo Vespucci talking about the early years of him. He was born in the city of Florence into a wealthy family closely linked to the Medici circle (one of the most powerful lineages in Italy. who at that time dominated Florence politically and did business with all of Europe) which allowed him to have a great training humanistic.

In 1478 he traveled to Paris as his uncle Guido Antonio Vespucci was appointed ambassador of Lorenzo de Medici, at the court of Louis XI and Américo Vespucio took charge of the administrative functions. With the death of his father, he returns to Florence entering the service of the Medici in the branch of commerce.

In 1491 he was sent to the city of Seville by the Medici family to work in a commercial house that they had there together with Giannotto Berardi. In 1492 Columbus made his first voyage and they were in charge of supplying the three ships that set sail for the "Indies". In addition, Vespucio took advantage of this situation to locate himself as close to the Spanish court as possible and thus establish very important contacts and businesses for his later work as a navigator.

When Christopher Columbus returns from his first trip he recounts everything he had seen, Vespucci passed on this information as a letter to the Medici who, as good merchants, saw a possibility to create new routes in search of the species so highly valued at that time.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we will discover the causes and consequences of the discovery of America.

Image: Cúcuta 7 Days

It was after the death of Berardi that Américo Vespucio decided to dedicate himself fully to the subject of navigation initiating his goal of himself undertaking the journey to the Indies.

Between 1497 and 1502 he made various trips to America, which he wrote in five letters sent to different recipients. The first expedition was carried out in 1497, of which there is hardly any information, however, of the second one. This was carried out and sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs in 1499, it is known that it was directed by Alonso de Ojeda and that he set sail from Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz) following the route of the third trip that he made Colon.

After 24 days in the open sea they reached the mouth of the Orinoco river (which had already been discovered by Columbus on his previous trips) and they began their expedition along the coast in heading north, crossing the islands of Margarita and Trinidad, even reaching the estuary of the Amazon River. The geographical peculiarity as they advanced along the low and flooded coast reminded him of Venice, hence the name of those lands Venezuela.

Ojeda's route continued with his exploration until he reached Cape Vela (present-day Colombia) where cartographers for the first time fixed the outline of these new lands that had been discovered. Upon returning to Spanish lands, he informed the Medici of his exploration and continued to undertake his travels.

To this day there are many historians who question the number of trips that he could make to lands However, some letters from Vespucci want to corroborate that there were two other expeditions more. Both the third (1502) and the fourth (1503) of his travels were at service of the king of Portugal where he claims to have traveled the Brazilian coasts, doubting that it was not an extension of Asia but rather a new continent.

In this other lesson you will find a short biography of Christopher Columbus.

It is known about this trip, as we have already said previously, because it was narrated by Vespucci in letters written to Lorenzo di Piero de 'Medici, also known as Lorenzo II de Medici, as well as some of his friends. One of these letters was published in 1504 in Augsburg under the title of Mundus Novus (New world).

There were many revelations about this exploration that amazed many people, including the German cosmographer Martin Waldseemüller, because according to him Américo Vespucio was the true discoverer of the Continent, and thanks to this man it was possible to say whate America is named in honor of Américo Vespucio, dispossessing Christopher Columbus of the glory of having his name. To remedy a little this injustice that Francisco de Miranda had committed himself, he thought of designating a part of those lands Colombia in his honor to Christopher Columbus.

In 1505 he was granted Castilian citizenship by Ferdinand the Catholic, and was renamed Américo Vespucio because his name in Italian was Amerigo Vespucci.. He married the Sevillian María Cerezo and these were some years in which his fame as a sailor and merchant was such that he was invited to participate in the Board of Burgos alongside cartographers and illustrious people such as Juan Díaz de Solís or Yáñez Pinzón until he was even appointed in 1508 as major pilot of the Casa de la Contratación in Seville, the city where he died on the 22nd of February 1512.

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