By: Tlarissa&

Deveney

Mr.GautneyPeriod: A

Amerigo Vespucci was born on March 18, 1454 in Florence, Italy. When he was a boy he was interested in astronomy and the study of the universe. In 1492, he was sent to Seville, Spain to help Spanish ships get what they needed for their journeys. He supplied Columbus' ships with tools and food on his third and fourth expeditions to the New World.

Landing of Amerigo on the Continent

In 1499 he sailed from Spain with 4 ships commanded by Alonso de Ojeda who had sailed with Columbus on his second voyage. After 24 days they reached the Northern coast of South America. Ojeda and he went their separate ways. Amerigo headed south and became the first European to see Brazil and to explore the mouth of the Amazon River. During the return to Spain he stopped at the Bahamas and took 200 Native Americans back to be slaves.

Convinced there might be a passage through the New World to Asia, he sailed again in May 1501, this time in the service of Portugal. On his second trip they reached land near the eastern tip of Brazil. Amerigo and his crew went as far south as Argentina. At the time there were no accurate maps of the world so nobody knew how big around the world was, but he estimated its size within 50 miles of its actual size!

Amerigo returned to Portugal in June 1502. Although his fleet had not explored the islands off the coast of Asia, they had discovered a continent between Europe and Asia previously unknown to Europeans. His name was given to North America and South America because he was the first to recognize that it wasn't a part of Asia. Amerigo claimed to have explored these continents in 1497, and it led the mapmaker, Martin Waldseemuller, to consider him, instead of Columbus, as the man who discovered North and South America. He suggested naming these continents after him to honor Amerigo’s expeditions.

1454 Born in Ognissanti, Florence born - 9 March, 1451

1478 to 1480 He was attached to the embassy in Paris, working for his relative Guido Antonio Vespucci,ambassador of Florence to King Louis XI of France

1483 Amerigo became steward in the house of Lorenzo de Medici

1491 - 1492 He worked in Seville, Spain for the de Medici family where he learnt about the voyages of exploration and the men who were searching for a northwest passage to the Indies

1497: He was granted permission to undertake a voyage of discovery by King Ferdinand of Spain

1497 10 May The First Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci

1497 10 April He reached the mainland of Guiana

1498 15 October Amerigo Vespucci returned to Cadiz, Spain

1499 16 May The Second Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci with Alonzo de Ojeda set sail for Cape Verde. They crossed the Equator and explored the coast of Guiana and Brazil. They discovered Cape St. Augustine and the River Amazon

•1500 September Returned to Spain. He reported his findings to the de Medici family

1501 May 14 The Third Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci setting sail for Cape Verde

•1502 September 7 returned to Europe landing in Lisbon

•1503 June 10 The Fourth Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci, sailing with Gonzal Coelho when he again set sail forCape Verde and South America. On the return journey he discovered Bahia and the island of South Georgia He established a trading agency for brazil wood at Cape Frio - it was locatedexactly on the Tropic of Capricorn

•1504 18 June Amerigo Vespucci returned to Lisbon in Portugal

•1505 14 April Vespucci becomes a naturalized Spaniard

•1505 Amerigo Vespucci married Maria Cerezo

•1505 / 1507 Amerigo Vespucci made a fifth and sixth voyage with Juan de la Cosa

•1507 German mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller, printed the first map that used the name America for the New World•1508 August 6 Vespucci becomes Piloto Mayor (chief pilot) of Spain•1512 Amerigo Vespucci died at Seville, 22 February, 1512

http://library.thinkquest.org/J002678F/vespucci.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/4034/vespucci.html

http://geography.about.com/cs/historicalgeog/a/amerigo.htm

http://www.studyworld.com/Amerigo_Vespucci.htm

Created By:

Tlarissa Robinson

Deveney Ferguson

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