America
In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller, who worked in the town of Saint-Dié in Alsace, published two maps together with Cosmographiae Introductio, an introduction to cosmography. The book included the purported letters from Vespucci’s four voyages as well as sections reprinted from Ptolemy. On the maps, he referred to the newly discovered lands as “America,” in honor of Vespucci. It included an engraving of Ptolemy looking to the East and Vespucci looking to the West.
Waldseemüller also gave Columbus plenty of credit, but it was the name America that stuck in the New World.
Later Life
Vespucci only ever made two journeys to the New World. When his fame spread, he was named to a board of royal advisers in Spain along with former shipmate Juan de la Cosa, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (captain of the Niña on Columbus’ first voyage) and Juan Díaz de Solís. Vespucci was named Piloto Mayor, “Chief Pilot” of the Spanish Empire, in charge of establishing and documenting routes to the west. It was a lucrative and important position as all expeditions needed pilots and navigators, all of whom were answerable to him. Vespucci established a school of sorts, to train pilots and navigators, modernize long-distance navigation, collect charts and journals and basically collect and centralize all cartographic information. He died in 1512.
Legacy
Were it not for his famous name, immortalized on not one but two continents, Amerigo Vespucci would today no doubt be a minor figure in world history, well-known to historians but unheard of outside of certain circles. Contemporaries such as Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Juan de la Cosa were arguably more important explorers and navigators. Heard of them? Didn’t think so.
That’s not to lessen Vespucci’s accomplishments, which were considerable. He was a very talented navigator and explorer who was respected by his men. When he served as Piloto Mayor, he encouraged key advances in navigation and trained future navigators. His letters – whether he actually wrote them or not – inspired many to learn more about the New World and colonize it. He was neither the first nor the last to envision the route to the west that was eventually discovered by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano, but he was one of the best-known.
It’s even arguable that he deserves the eternal recognition of having his name on North and South America. He was one of the first to openly defy the still-influential Columbus and declare that the New World was, in fact, something new and unknown and not simply a previously-uncharted part of Asia. It took courage to contradict not only Columbus but all of the ancient writers (such as Aristotle) who had no knowledge of continents to the west.
Source:
Thomas, Hugh. Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan. New York: Random House, 2005.
