amerigo+vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian man. Amerigo was working in spain when king Manuel 1 of Portugal invited him to go on voyages to South America as an observer. On a trip planned to sail around africa under his commander Pedro Alvarez Cabral the ships were blown off course and Brazil was discovered. The king wanted to know if this new land was just an island or connected to the land found by spain, so he sent out an expedition to figure it out. Amerigo Vespucci was sent as an observer on this voyage because of his previous visit to Brazil.

On these expeditions it was discovered that south america extends much further than they though. These journeys became widely known in Europe after there were publishings on Vespucci. In one account by Martin Waldseemuller there was a world map with the new continent named America after Amerigo.