1 Jan 1502 Jahr - Amerigo Vespucci 1502

Beschreibung:

Although Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the Americas, it is Amerigo Vespucci that the continents are named after. This is because Columbus had thought that he had arrived in Asia, and Amerigo Vespucci had his doubts about that. Vespucci began his journey to the Americas in 1499 and explored the coasts of South America, figuring out that it was not Asia that Columbus had reached, and it was no Island that they had both encountered, but rather it was a continent. Vespucci made his speculations known to the Medici’s in 1502 through a letter, and word of the “new world” spread.