Amerigo Vespucci
"America's Namesake"
Amerigo Vespucci
Place of Birth and Early Life
In 1451, Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy, as the third son of a cultured family. Although he would later become an explorer, he lived his early years in life as a business man, having been strongly encouraged by his father.
Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo embarked on a total of four known voyages in his lifetime, with minor speculation of additional voyages. In his voyages, he discovered the Amazon River, Cape St. Augustine, present-day Rio de Janeiro, present-day Rio de la Plata, Bahia, island of South Georgia, and may have even discovered Venezuela a year before Christopher Columbus had.
Inspiration
Before his life as a explorer, Amerigo Vespucci worked as a businessman. In his later years of work he interacted with the merchants who supplied Christopher Columbus' voyages, and eventually was able to meet Columbus himself. His conversations with Columbus inspired him to see the world with his own eyes, and he soon left his struggling business in the pursuit of fame, profit, and exploration.
Final Years
Amerigo Vespucci spent the last of his years as a naturalized citizen of Spain, recruiting and training future navigators of the New World.