Even though he was born in Florence, Italy, in the middle of the 15th century,
Vespucio spent most of his life living under the Spanish Crown.
As a cartographer, he began his travels with the early Spanish explorers,
and in 1499 found what is know called Venezuela, which he named after Venezia.*
By 1905, he had been on 4 different voyages to the New World.
Vespucio
was the first to realize that the lands they were exploring were indeed a New World,
and that said world was a single land mass. In 1507,
Martin Waldseemüller proposed that the New world be named after him, thus America.
Vespucio died in 1512, in Sevilla, Spain.
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*When the explorers first
found the Maracaibo River, they found it populated. Villages were found
all about it. More interestingly, the villages were built inside the water,
as far in as chest level. Since Venezia was built in a similar manner,
then explorers were reminded of it, and gave her a namesake.
Thanks for the information about Américo Vespucio.
I easily found info on him on the Internet.
I don’t know why I thought that he never came here.
Maybe I remember someone saying that he never came to NORTH America but big deal, if he was in South America, he was here.