AMERIGO VESPUCCI  Italian explorer financier navigator  cartographer

MADE BY:VIREN BHALE

G1 - 16

GETTING TO KNOW AMERIGOExplorer Amerigo Vespucci was born March 9, 1451, in Florence, Italy. On May 10, 1497, 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 1507, America was named after him. He died of malaria in Seville, Spain, on February 22, 1512. He was the first who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus’ voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to Afro-Eurasians.

Birth Place of Amerigo Vespucci

EXPEDITIONSWhile in Spain, Amerigo Vespucci began working on ships and ultimately went on his first expedition as a navigator in 1499. This expedition reached the mouth of the Amazon River and explored the coast of South America. Vespucci was able to calculate how far west he had traveled by observing the conjunction of Mars and the Moon.On his second voyage in 1501, Amerigo Vespucci sailed under the Portuguese flag. After leaving Lisbon, it took Vespucci 64 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean due to light winds. His ships followed the South American coast to within 400 miles of the southern tip, Tierra del Fuego.

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.

SAILING TO SPAIN

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!

SAILING TO PORTUGAL

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.

NAMING THE NEW WORLD

BOOKS ON AMERIGO VESPUCCI

HIS VOYAGES

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

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

AMERIGO’S TIMELINE

• 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 for Cape 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

AMERIGO’S TIMELINE (CONTD.)

THANK YOU!