Who are the American continents named after? Why America is called "America" ​​(about Amerigo Vespucci). What is South America like?

Why is America called America? After all, whoever you ask, even the smallest child, who was the discoverer of America, he will immediately answer Christopher Columbus ....

Why is America called America? After all, whoever you ask, even the smallest child, who was the discoverer of America, he will immediately answer Christopher Columbus. So why is the name of the mainland in no way connected with its name or surname? Let's figure it out.

Columbus in American History

Christopher Columbus, during his navigation, did not have the task of discovering a new continent, his task, he believed, was to find a new shorter sea route that would be used in trade, and which would not pass through the territory of Asia. And he succeeded, having reached the Asian coast, he paved a new sea route to India. On his way, Columbus, of course, discovered America, but he assumed that this was China, and in his entire life he never knew that he had actually discovered a new land. But his name still went down in history.

Contribution of Amerigo Vespucci

In those days, there lived another man, Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci was a friend of Christopher Columbus and even helped equip his expedition. According to the people of that time, Amerigo Vespucci was a talented person, far from stupid and noble. Vespucci, like Columbus, was a navigator and he decided to follow the sea route, following his friend. Then each navigator added to the map of Magellan their notes and corrections that they noticed during the trip. And it was the maps of Amerigo Vespucci that made it possible to imagine what exactly the mainland America is, which cannot be said about the maps of Columbus. Vespucci obviously had a bit of writing talent, he very succinctly and clearly described the new lands, their flora and fauna, local residents and their customs.

In addition, Vespucci himself never claimed to be a discoverer and did not propose to name the mainland America. Amerigo Vespucci, proposed a completely different name for the discovered lands, namely "New World". But some of the largest cartographers of that time, Martin Waldseemülle declared Amerigo Vespucci the discoverer of a new continent, a new part of the world. After all, Waldseemülle, based on the material provided by Vespucci, leaving Columbus's notes without attention. And then the cartographer decided that the mainland should be named after its alleged discoverer Amerigo Vespucci, and the mainland was named America. Less than ten years later, the new name took root and became famous and recognizable all over the world. Over time, geographers, together with cartographers, nevertheless came to the general conclusion that the lands that Columbus discovered and the lands of Vespucci are one and the same continent, but it was too late. Later, this story was given different names, whether it was a "comedy of errors" or "a monument to human injustice."

But this is only one of the versions of the development of events, there are several more versions of what is happening. For example, there is a version associated with the sea expedition of John Cabot, which at the same time as Columbus and Vespucci went towards America. An Italian philanthropist sponsored Cabot, and the name of this virtue was Ricardo Americo. So Cabot, ahead of Vespucci and the first to map the American coast, and Cabot decided to give the name of the new continent in honor of his patron, who sponsored him. And if you follow this version, then Vespucci took a nickname in honor of the continent, which had already been named before. Interestingly, both versions are supported by documents, and which one is true is not completely known.

A few more versions

There are several more versions that few people support, but nevertheless, they also have a right to exist. For example, historians from Brazil are trying to prove that the very name "America" ​​is a local name derived from the word "maroca". For a long time, the inhabitants of Brazil had a deity that they worshiped and called him exactly Maroka.

A few more scientists from America argued that at the time of the description of the mainland by the navigator Vespucci, the mainland was already called America. And quite by chance, the name of the mainland is similar to the name of a navigator.

Of course, the most common and well-known is the first version of events. So, in answer to the question: “Why was America called America?”, we can safely answer that in honor of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

Geography Answers (South America is called the country of records: name them)

In one of the tasks in geography for grade 7 it is written: South America is called the country of records, name them. With a close study of this continent, you can get acquainted with many of its unique features.

What is South America like?

South America, together with the islands, occupies about 18.2 million km² in area. This continent was once settled by people who arrived south, according to the generally accepted opinion, from North America. Compared to other continents, the appearance of man here happened not so long ago - about 15-20 thousand years ago. It was then that the first inhabitant of these lands was an Indian.

Why is America called America? Everyone probably knows who discovered it. The Italian traveler Christopher Columbus planned to reach India, but sailed to her not to the East, as was usually done, but to the West in order to circumnavigate the globe. Together with his team, he reached the desired shores, confident that these were some islands of India.

But who is America named after? The idea that the discovered lands were not Indian islands at all, but a new mainland, was later expressed by Amerigo Vespucci. He took part in expeditions to these new territories and prepared their description. It was his attention to this issue that caused the continent to be called America.

There are 2 continents with this name - northern and southern. But which America is then called Latin? This name is given to the region, covering the entire South American mainland and part of the north, territorially connected with the south, including Mexico.

After the discovery of Columbus, these lands were attacked by the Spanish conquerors. Most of the native Americans were either killed or enslaved. The legacy of such invasions was the almost universal spread of the Spanish language in South America, except for Brazil. In Brazil, Portuguese has been and is being used. But both originated from ancient Latin, and this explains the fact why Latin America is called Latin. The largest countries in this region are Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. And Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are among the largest cities on the planet.

Features of the South American continent are unique. This continent gave the world tomatoes, cocoa, peppers, corn, and even potatoes, so familiar and familiar to everyone.

For a long time, the lands developed in isolation, which caused some of the specific features that South America has.

Wonders of the Continent

These territories are sometimes called the continent of miracles. Many of the natural records that South America is known for are due to its humid climate and isolation. Among the natural records are the following:

1. The wettest continent on earth. The Andes play the most important role: they form a climatic barrier. Sea air coming from the Atlantic Ocean supplies moisture to the territories, which is facilitated by their flat character. Further, faced with an obstacle in the form of the Andes, the most powerful mountain system in South America, moist air rushes up and cools, returning to the earth with heavy rainfall.
2. The driest place in the world (Akatama Desert). An amazing combination in the context of the title of the wettest continent. This feature of the desert is explained by its position and the influence of the Peruvian Current.
3. The longest mountain range on land (Andes).
4. The widest strait in the world (Drake Passage). This strait separates South America and Antarctica and connects 2 oceans: the Pacific and the Atlantic.
5. The deepest river in the world (Amazon).
6. The longest river in the world (Amazon). Despite the fact that this river of South America for a long time could not share the palm with the Nile, in the end, according to recent measurements, it was found that the latter is still inferior to it. Thus, the South American river system began to be called the longest river.
7. The highest waterfall in the world (Angel). It is located in Venezuela. The height of the water fall is more than 1000 meters.
8. The widest waterfall (Iguazu). The second unique waterfall in this area. It is far from being so large compared to the grandiose Angel, but rather, on the contrary, small, but its dimensions are extraordinary: the overflowing stream approaches 3 km in width.
9. The largest lowland of the planet (Amazonian). Located in Brazil.
10. The highest mountain capital in the world (La Paz, the capital of Bolivia). Its height above sea level is 3400 m.
11. The largest reserves of copper. The Andes region is incredibly rich in ore. The very name of the mountain system comes from the word "anta", used by the ancient inhabitants of South America, the Inca Indians, to designate copper.
12. Unique representatives of flora and fauna that are found only here. These include sloth, howler monkey, capybara.
13. Tepui is a mountain that looks like a table with a flat top and almost sheer slopes. This is a great natural site. Such mountains are found only in Venezuela.

Thus, South America is a continent with its own unique history. The story of the origin of its name is amazing, which is inextricably linked with geographical discoveries and gives an answer to the question why America is called America. But not only historical facts are unique. The natural and geographical features of this continent are widely known for their wonders and records.

Every student will answer this question quickly, without hesitation: in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.
But already the second question will cause doubts and hesitations even among adults: why, in fact, this part of the world was named after Amerigo Vespucci? Because Vespucci discovered America?
He never opened it!
... In 1503, in various cities: in Paris, in Florence, it is not known where earlier, but almost everywhere, five or six printed sheets entitled "Mundus Novus" (New World) flashed simultaneously. The author of this treatise, written in Latin, is called a certain Alberic Vesputius, or Vesputius, who, in the form of a letter to Laurentius Peter Francis de Medici, reports a journey that he undertook on behalf of the king of Portugal in hitherto unknown countries. The little book is being snapped up. It is repeatedly reprinted in the most remote cities, translated into German, Dutch, French, Italian, and immediately included in collections of travel reports, now published in all languages; it becomes a boundary, perhaps even the cornerstone of a new geography, about which the world still knows nothing.
The great success of the little book is understandable. After all, the unknown Vesputius, the first of all these navigators, knows how to tell so well and fascinatingly. Usually, illiterate sea vagrants, soldiers and sailors who do not even know how to put their own signatures gather on the ships of adventurers, and only occasionally comes across an "escrivano" - a dry lawyer, literate, indifferently stringing facts, or a pilot marking degrees of latitude and longitude. But then a trustworthy and even learned man appears who does not exaggerate, does not compose, but honestly tells how on May 14, 1501, on behalf of the Portuguese king, he crossed the ocean and for two months and two days was under a sky so black and stormy that he did not neither the sun nor the moon could be seen. On August 7, 1501, they finally saw land, and what a blessed land it was! Hard work is unknown to the locals. Trees do not require maintenance and bear abundant fruits, rivers and springs are full of clear tasty water; the sea is rich in fish, exceptionally
o fertile earth will give birth to juicy, completely unknown fruits; cool breezes blow over this generous land, and dense forests make even the hottest days pleasant. There are thousands of different animals and birds here. People live in primeval innocence; they have a reddish skin color ... In short: "If there is an earthly paradise anywhere, then, apparently, not far from here."

According to Amerigo Vespucci himself, he made four voyages to the New World. However, the most reliable and important were the second and third voyages. The map shows their routes (I. P. Magidovich).

The world-historical role of these little sheets is not based on their content, not on the inspiration they aroused among contemporaries. The main event, oddly enough, was not even the letter itself, but its headline, two words, four syllables: "Mundus Novus", which made an incomparable revolution in man's idea of ​​the Earth. Until this hour, Europe considered the greatest geographical event of the era that India, the land of treasures and spices, reached in one decade, following various routes: Vasco da Gama - moving east, around Africa, and Christopher Columbus - moving west, through no one has hitherto crossed the ocean.
But then another navigator appears, some amazing Alberic, and reports something even more amazing. It turns out that the land he reached on his way to the west is not India at all, but a completely unknown country between Asia and Europe and, therefore, a new part of the world. "My voyage proved that south of the equator I found a mainland, where some valleys are much more densely populated by people and animals than in our Europe, Asia and Africa; moreover, there is a more pleasant and mild climate than in other parts of the world familiar to us" , he wrote. These lines, tight but full of confidence, make Mundus Novus a memorable document of mankind. Vespucci removes the veil that obscured from the gaze of its great discoverer Columbus the whole significance of his own feat, and although Vespucci himself did not even remotely suspect what the actual size of this continent was, he at least understood the independent significance of its southern part. In this sense, Vespucci really completed the discovery of America, for each discovery, each invention becomes valuable not only thanks to the one who made it, but even more thanks to the one who revealed its true meaning and effective power; if Columbus deserves the merit of a feat, then Vespucci, thanks to this statement of his, belongs to the historical merit of understanding the feat.

Two or three years later, a Florentine printer published a thin pamphlet of sixteen pages in Italian. It is entitled: "A letter from Amerigo Vespucci about the islands discovered by him during his four travels." Geographers, astronomers, merchants find valuable information in the book, scientists - a number of theses that they can discuss and interpret do not go to waste, and a wide mass of simply curious ones. In conclusion, Vespucci promises that when he lives in peace in his hometown, he will finish a large and actually his main work on new parts of the world.
But Vespucci never got down to this great work, or perhaps it has not come down to us, just like his diaries. Thus, thirty-two pages (of which the description of the third journey is only a variant of "Mundus Novus") - that's the entire literary heritage of Amerigo Vespucci, tiny and not very valuable luggage for the road to immortality. It can be said without exaggeration: never before has a man who wrote so little become so famous; it was necessary to pile up chance upon chance, error upon error, in order to raise this work so high above its era that our century would retain this name.

Based on the book "Amerigo" by Stefan Zweig.

The biggest historical injustice is that Columbus discovered America. That is, it is not injustice that he discovered a new continent, but that we call this continent the name of a completely different person.

The most common opinion is that this person was called Amerigo Vespucci (1454 - 1512)

Amerigo is a native of Florence, and his native city is rightfully proud of him. The statue of Amerigo, among other world-famous Florentines, is installed in front of the famous Uffizi art gallery. (Which translated from Italian means just “offices”. There was once a city office here)

Amerigo was born into a family of a notary and after his studies began to work in the banking house of the Medici. At a very mature age for those times, at the age of 36, Vespucci received a promotion and became the representative of the Medici bankers in Seville. Seville was the center of Spanish navigation, although the ocean is 87 kilometers from here. From a long voyage, the Spanish ships returned to the port of Cadiz, and from there they went up the Guadalquivir River to Seville. Here the ships were assembled on an overseas trip.

At this time, the Portuguese tried to circumnavigate Africa by sea and reach India, which was reputed to be a country of fabulous wealth. They methodically captured the islands and coasts on their way, creating bases and ports in the most convenient places. This was also done in order to prevent competitors from following the already open path.

Then they saw only one competitor - the growing strength of Spain. As a result of the marriage of the Aragonese king Ferdinand to the Castilian princess Isabella, most of the Christian lands of Spain were united under a single royal authority.

The kingdom turned out to be not weak - it occupied almost the entire Iberian Peninsula. Strictly speaking, the royal power in what was then Spain was not single, but dual. Ferdinand and Isabella ruled jointly, they even had a combined throne.

The third ruler of the country was the Catholic Church. And a ruler no less powerful, although he did not sit on the throne. The support of the Catholic Church provided funding for the centuries-old Reconquista - the reconquest of the peninsula from the Muslims. But, more importantly, only faith rallied the numerous people subject to Ferdinand and Isabella into something united, united by a common goal. The king and queen simply could not neglect such power. That is why, after the victory over the Muslims in 1492, they gave in to the fundamental demands of the church, and took a step that, from the point of view of any other ruler, is crazy - they expelled the Moors and Jews from Spain. That is, farmers, merchants and artisans, thereby economically castrating the newly conquered country.

But there was an overabundance of warriors in the Spanish kingdom. Even in more than a hundred years later, written "", the author's cry is clearly heard: "Guys, that's enough! There is no one to fight anymore! Get down to business!"

Good to say, get to work! It was not arable farming that was to be done by a noble hidalgo, and not despicable trade! Only new conquests! So Columbus, with his discovery of the sea route to India, came in very handy. Thanks to him, in 1492, overseas lands were also added to the possessions of the Spanish crown, where the country successfully and with great benefit for itself "merged" all its passionate warriors.

Amerigo Vespucci was in charge of equipping the Spanish Royal Navy. He was friends with the navigator Christopher Columbus and helped equip his second and third expeditions to India (as he sincerely believed).

Amerigo Vespucci was not only a successful businessman. Being engaged in the supply of ships, he acquired a lot of knowledge that seemed superfluous for a merchant: he thoroughly studied the structure of ships, navigation, astronomy and cartography. But this knowledge turned out to be not at all superfluous when, in 1499-1500, Amerigo made his first trip to the shores of the continent, which would later be named after him. On the expedition of Alonso Ojeda, he acted as navigator and commanded two of the three ships. These two ships, by the way, were equipped at the expense of Vespucci.

The Ojeda expedition explored the coast of South America, where Brazil, Guiana and Venezuela are now located. Amerigo Vespucci discovered the Amazon Delta and climbed a hundred kilometers up it.

A year later, in 1501-1502, Amerigo, as part of a Portuguese expedition, again explored the Brazilian coast. Among the discoveries of this expedition is the bay of Rio de Janeiro.

"Rio de Janeiro" ("January River") is evidence of the mistake of the discoverers. On January 1, 1502, they entered the bay, which they took for the mouth of a full-flowing, like the Amazon, river. And, without further ado, they called this river "January". Later it turned out - there is no river, but the name on the map has already remained.

In 1503 - 1504, as part of the second Portuguese expedition, Vespucci once again visited Brazil. In 1505 he returned to Spain. When the position of chief pilot (navigator) of Spain was established in 1508, Amerigo was rightfully appointed to this position. He occupied it for four years, until his death.

As a result of his travels, Vespucci came to the conclusion that a new continent had been discovered by Columbus. He proposed to call this continent the New World. The cartographer of the Duke of Lorraine, Martin Waldseemüller, first named the new continent America on his maps. The new name was assigned to the entire continent after the release of the map in 1538.

The Anglo-Saxons are closer to another version: the new continent was named after a Bristol merchant of Welsh origin Richard Amerike (c. 1445 - 1503).

After the successful return of Columbus from his first voyage, there were many sailors who were ready to risk their heads on a long voyage to the west. One of them was John Cabot (c. 1450 - 1498).

Cabot's real name is Giovanni Caboto. He was quite a successful Venetian merchant. As befits a Venetian merchant, Caboto traded with Egypt and Turkey. The fact that he was not a timid ten is evidenced by his trip to Mecca, a city closed to Christians. Cabot risked not for the love of adventure. He tried to find out from Arab merchants where they brought spices and silk, which were so highly valued in Europe. It turned out that from some countries lying much east of India, at the very far eastern end of Asia. Maybe even from mysterious China.

The fact that the Earth is round in those days was no longer a secret or heresy. Caboto quite reasonably decided that the far east could be the near west. It is enough just to swim in the other direction.

When Caboto went bankrupt, he had to leave Venice. For some time he lived in Valencia, offering his services for the arrangement of the port there. Then he “surfaced” in Seville, also as an engineer on the construction of a stone bridge across the Guadalquivir River. He offered his services as a navigator successively to the Spanish, Portuguese and, finally, the English king. In 1484, Caboto received a license from Henry VII to sail and search for new lands for the English crown in the west. Now, under the name of Cabot, he moves to Bristol.

Bristol is the sea gate of England, traditionally open to the west. No wonder it was from here (but much later) that Stevenson's heroes went in search of treasure island. There were enough among the merchants of Bristol who believed the tales of distant lands to the west, where Irish monks were said to have sailed under the guidance of St. Brendan himself. And after the successful return from the voyage of H. Columbus, the number of people willing to risk capital by financing promising expeditions increased.

Richard America was not the last person in Bristol. In 1497, he served as sheriff of the city, and after that he was the chief customs officer of the port. He not only financed Cobot's expedition, but even supplied the shipyard with the timber necessary for the construction of the ship: oak trees cut down on his estate. The ship turned out to be small, they called it "Matthew". Either in honor of the Evangelist Matthew, or in honor of Cabot's wife, whose name was Mattea.

On May 20, 1497, Cabot set sail from Bristol in a ship with a crew of 18. Unlike Columbus, his path turned out to be shorter, since he sailed in northern latitudes. On the morning of June 24, Cabot's ship reached the northern tip of Newfoundland. It was difficult to mistake this land for hot India. Cobot believed he had reached China. The captain declared the open country the possession of the English king. The sailors covered the return trip in just two weeks. In the annals of Bristol we read an entry for 1497:

"... on the day of St. John the Baptist was found in the land of America by merchants from Bristol who arrived on a ship from Bristol named "Matthew".

Cabot mapped the coast of North America from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. In addition, English sailors brought American "souvenirs" to Bristol: a needle with which the natives made nets, snares with which they caught animals, a whale's jaw. Three days after the return, these items were handed over to the king.

On the way back, the sailors of J. Cabot found large shoals of herring and cod in the sea. So the Great Newfoundland Bank was opened - one of the richest fishing areas in the world. Cabot considered this find the most valuable result of his expedition. He announced to the Bristolians that now the British need not go to Iceland for fish. They have their own fishing grounds.

The discovery of Cabot marked the beginning of the British colonial empire. John Cabot was also the first officially registered European to set foot on the American continent. This happened two years before the landing of Vespucci in Brazil.

Useful links:

Not at all NOT in honor of the Italian merchant, navigator and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. America is named for Richard America, a Welsh merchant from Bristol.

Americus financed the second transatlantic expedition of John Cabot - the English name for the Italian navigator Giovanni Caboto - whose voyages in 1497 and 1498 provided the groundwork for subsequent British claims to Canada. In 1484, Cabot moved from Genoa to London and received permission from Henry VII himself to search for unexplored lands of the West.

In May 1497, on his small ship "Matthew" Cabot reached the shores of Labrador, becoming the first officially registered European to set foot on American soil - two years earlier than Vespucci.

Cabot mapped the coast of North America from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland.

Being the main sponsor of the expedition, Richard America, of course, expected that the newly discovered lands would be named after him. In the Bristol calendar we read the entry for that year:

"... on the day of St. John the Baptist was found in the land of America by merchants from Bristol who arrived on a ship from Bristol named "Matthew".

It seems to us that the record makes it clear how everything really happened.

And although the author's manuscript of the calendar has not been preserved, there are a number of other documents of that time, where it is mentioned more than once. This is the first time in history that the word "America" ​​has been used as the name of a new continent.

The earliest extant map using the same name is Martin Waldsmuller's 1507 large world map. However, it only applies to South America. In his notes, Waldsmuller suggests that "America" ​​most likely comes from the Latin version of the name Amerigo Vespucci. It was Vespucci who discovered South America and mapped its coastline in 1500-1502.

It turns out that Waldsmuller did not know for sure and was simply trying to somehow explain the word that he met on other maps - including on the Cabot map. The only place where the term "America" ​​was known and actively used was Bristol, a city that Waldsmuller, who lived in France, hardly ever visited. Moreover, in his world map of 1513, he already replaces the word "America" ​​with " Terra Incognita"(Unknown country (lat.)).

Amerigo Vespucci has never been to North America. All early maps of this country and trade with it were English. Moreover, Vespucci himself never used the name "America" ​​for his discovery.

By the way, there are good reasons for this. New countries and continents have never been named after someone by the name of a person - only by his last name (Tasmania, Van Diemen's Land or the Cook Islands).

If an Italian explorer had consciously chosen to name America after himself, it would have become the "Land of Vespucci" (or "Vespuccia").

Why is America called America? Don't rush to answer. There are several versions. It is possible that the one you know is not the most truthful. Consider all available today.

America was named after Amerigo Vespucci?

Truly life is not fair. America was discovered by Christopher Columbus, but not named Columbia, but America in honor of the man who made no effort to discover it. But this is only if the most popular version that America got its name in honor of Amerigo Vespucci is correct.
Who is this Amerigo Vespucci? He was born on March 9, 1454 in Florence, perhaps the most advanced city in Italy at that time. Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance, the center of science and creativity. Florentine banks and trading houses created a network of commercial institutions throughout Europe. Amerigo was the third son of wealthy entrepreneur Sir Nastagio Vespucci. He received his name in honor of his grandfather. In general, the name Amerigo is of ancient Germanic origin. It came to Italy in the early Middle Ages and originally sounded like Emmerich, literally "ruling over the world." The best Slavic analogue of Emmerich is the name Miroslav.
Amerigo was brought up at the Dominican monastery of San Marco, but, as an adult, he decided not to bother himself with a university education, as his older brothers did, but went to work in the trading house of the Medici family. One of the branches of the Medici house was in Cadiz, the Spanish city from where Christopher Columbus set off on his famous voyage. The management of the branch was under suspicion of theft, so that in 1492, at the same time that the small flotilla of Columbus set off to meet the discoveries of new lands, Amerigo arrived in Cadiz as an inspector. In 1495, he was entrusted with the business of his compatriot Gianotto Berardi, who had entered into an agreement with the Castilian crown to sell 12 ships to sail across the ocean.

The Florentines were not just suppliers. They invested their own funds in overseas voyages. Naturally they wanted to be sure that the Spaniards were not hiding anything from them. Therefore, it is not surprising that in 1499 Amerigo, who had hitherto had no experience in managing ships, was appointed navigator on the expedition of Admiral Alonso de Ojeda. So to speak, the navigator-spy. But not only Florentine. Documents found later indicate that Vespucci also worked for the Portuguese king Manuel I, the main rival of Castile.
The expedition explored the northern coast of South America, discovered several islands and Lake Maracaibo. In general, not bad results for studying geography, but from a commercial point of view - a complete failure. They got some pearls, some gold, and to patch up the holes in the budget, they busied themselves with capturing Indians to sell them into slavery. The matter was complicated by a conflict with Christopher Columbus, who met the Ojeda expedition with obvious hostility.
Participation in the voyage of Ojeda is only the most famous episode in the research biography of the Florentine. Judging by his own letters, he took part in four overseas travels. A total of six such letters have survived. Four of them were published in 1507 in Latin as an appendix to the world map of the German geographer Martin Waldseemüller. They told in detail about the discoveries, but, most importantly, they reported that the discovered lands were not Asia, but the hitherto unknown New World.
Later researchers were usually jealous of the fact that the name Amerigo was extended to the discoveries made by Columbus, therefore they argued that Vespucci exaggerated his role in the letters, that the first two letters were not written by him at all, but were compiled on the basis of spy reports houses of the Medici, or that they contained information stolen from the Spanish pilot Juan de la Cosa, a member of the same Ojeda expedition. Maybe the researchers are right about something. But let's look at why the published letters played such an outstanding role.
Did Christopher Columbus know that he was not in Asia? Probably yes! In his epistolaries, he refrained from mentioning the Asian shores and called the lands he had discovered simply new discovered lands. But Columbus' messages were not for the general public. In Spain, they were not going to hide the fact that discoveries were made. But they were in no hurry to talk about them in detail. After all, this information was part of commercial and government interests. 16 years after the discoveries of Columbus, in Europe there was a clear lack of information about the lands in the west.
The letters of Amerigo Vespucci for the first time vividly described the New World and were accepted by many as a revelation. Among the admirers of the Florentine was the professional geographer Waldseemüller. There is nothing strange in this. Moreover, after the publication of the letter, they were highly appreciated by the Spanish king Ferdinand. In 1508, he appointed Vespucci as the chief navigator of Spain with a good salary, and he even poured out an order of coins to open a nautical school.
It is believed that the name America appears on the Waldseemüller map for the first time. “Another fourth of the world was discovered by Americus Vesputius,” wrote Waldseemüller. “And I don’t understand why anyone should justifiably forbid it to be called American, sort of like Americus Land or America, from its discoverer Americus, a man of insight.” Well, Waldseemuller obviously got excited, calling Vespucci the discoverer. But, in any case, it becomes clear where the legs grow from. Amerigo Vespucci made the first detailed description, came to the conclusion that the new continent was not Asia, and as a result got his name on the map.
Everything seems simple and clear, if not for skeptics. They argue that Waldseemüller's words are misunderstood. He did not name America after Amerigo at all, but made an attempt to explain why it is called that. The name America, they say, predates Waldseemüller's map. Is that really true? Let's look at their versions of the appearance of this name.

How did an Italian give the Welsh name to America?

John Cabot in America. Picture from a century old book

Many British and Canadians believe that the name America comes from the name of Richard America, sheriff of the English city of Bristol. This version appeared in 1911 thanks to the Bristol local historian Alfred Hadd. He found in the Bristol Chronicle a curious entry under the year 1497: "On the day of Saint John the Baptist the land of America was found."
At the end of the 15th century, Bristol was one of the most commercially active ports in the northern seas of Europe. Bristol merchants, fishermen and pirates sailed to the Baltic Sea, to the shores of Norway and Iceland. In 1496, the fifty-ton ship Matthew left Bristol Harbor to the west. His targets were Japan and China. The ship was caught in a storm and was forced to return. The next year, the Matthew sailed west again. This time successfully. On June 24, 1497, the team landed on the opposite coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is believed that this was the coast of the Canadian peninsula of Nova Scotia or the island of Newfoundland. The English expedition was led by the Italian Giovanni Cabotto, or John Cabot.
About the date and place of birth of John Cabot is known about as much as about his compatriot Christopher Columbus. That is almost nothing. The conditional year of birth is 1450. Some researchers believe that Cabot saw the light in Venice, others - that in Genoa, others - that in the Kingdom of Naples. Cabot himself considered himself a citizen of the Republic of Genoa. In 1490, he went bankrupt and fled from Genoa to Spanish Valencia, where he contracted to build a port. Apparently, he was still the same builder, because the port was never built.
John was greatly impressed by the news that Columbus's 1492 expedition had reached unknown lands in the west. However, why unknown? Cabot, like most of his contemporaries, believed that Columbus had reached Asia. He immediately drew up his own project for sailing through the northern seas. The meaning of Cabot's idea was that the farther north, the parallels are shorter. Consequently, the northern route to the west was shorter and more economical than the southern one. In theory, the Genoese was supposed to submit his project for consideration to the monarchs of Spain and Portugal. Alfred Hudd writes about this, but there is no clear information about Cabot's requests.
In 1495, John Cabot and his family moved to London, where, with the support of the bankers of Florence, he received a royal patent allowing navigation across the Atlantic Ocean. The expedition was financed by private entrepreneurs - Italian and Bristol merchants. This is where Cabot was supposed to meet Sheriff Richard America. Americ came from Wales and belonged to the Welsh aristocratic family of Ap-Merayk. Actually, America is an English-language distortion of a Welsh surname. In our country, the position of sheriff is usually associated with American films, where the sheriff is a local police officer. In England, the sheriff was the representative of the king, who was responsible for finances and was in charge of collecting taxes. As a rule, he did not disdain his own entrepreneurial career, since working under the royal roof is always more pleasant than on his own. Some researchers report that Richard America was the owner of "Matthew". They have no evidence, but such a turn of affairs is quite possible. In any case, the sheriff had to take part in the preparation of the expedition.
I must say that, like all Italians of the Renaissance, John Cabot was a vain and extravagant man. As a doctor, he invited a barber to the ship, to whom he promised that he would name some island after him. It seems that he made such promises not only to him. It is not surprising if the land he discovered on June 24, 1497, as a result, received the name of the Bristol sheriff.
Unfortunately, there is not much information about the voyage of John Cabot across the ocean. It appears to have been a commercial failure. However, upon his return, Cabot received a warm welcome from the king. As a reward, he was given a lump sum of £10 and another £20 as an annual pension. To be clear, £5 at the time was considered a normal yearly wage for a laborer. Just ridiculous money when compared to how much Christopher Columbus and his descendants received. In 1498, Cabot again applied for a sailing patent and received it again. But the expedition of 1498 ended tragically for him. Neither he nor his companions returned.
The Bristol Chronicle was completed in 1506, and even if the entry under 1497 was made at the close of writing, it is older than Waldseemüller's map by about a year. Therefore, the version of the local historian Alfred Hadd looks like a solid objection to the supporters of the traditional version of Amerigo Vespucci.
By the way, another curious fact is connected with the swimming of John Cabot. From the end of the 16th century, in European literature, the Indians of North America began to be called redskins. This may seem strange, given that the skin of the Indians is not at all red, neither Christopher Columbus nor Amerigo Vespucci reported anything about this. The reason was the work of the English travel historian Richard Haklat. He used information from the expedition of Cabot, who visited Newfoundland, inhabited by Indians from the Beothuk tribe. It was the custom of the Beothuk to paint their skin with ocher, so that they appeared red-skinned. So the British created a nickname for all Indians. Probably the same thing could happen with the name America.

Scandinavian roots of the name America?
Christopher Columbus and his companions were not the first Europeans to enter the Americas. Thanks to the records of Scandinavian folklore and archeological finds of the last century, we know that the first Europeans in America were the Scandinavian Vikings. In 982, an Icelander of Norwegian origin, Erik Raudi, discovered Greenland, where two Scandinavian colonies appeared. Around the year 1000, his son Leif reached neighboring America. The Greenlanders twice made attempts to colonize the North American coast, but did not succeed in this due to clashes with the locals.
In the 15th century, the Greenlandic settlement was finally abandoned. About the mysterious disappearance of the Greenland Vikings. For some time, the memory of the Vikings in America was erased. However, we have preserved the names that the Vikings gave to the American shores they discovered - Vinland, Helluland and Markland. In the thirties of the XX century, Scandinavian scientists tried to attribute the name America to their ancestors. They argued that in the translation from the ancient Scandinavian languages, Omerike means something like "far beyond" or "Eric's property." And of course they found explanations for how this name could get on the Waldseemüller map and in the Bristol Chronicle. The Scandinavian peoples had strong ties with Germany and England.
The Scandinavian hypothesis is good in that it reconciles the first two versions to some extent, but it is bad because the word "Omerike" is first found in the texts of those who put it forward, that is, in the 20th century.

Did Columbus really give the name to America?
In Latin America, a popular version is that the name America came to Europe from Indian languages. It was first expressed by the French geologist Jules Marcoux, who lived in the 19th century. He discovered on the territory of modern Nicaragua a mountain called America. The Mesquito Indians reported that this was the name of one of the tribes that previously lived near the mountain. Marco decided that while exploring the Caribbean, Christopher Columbus might have heard the name and given it to the Central American mainland.
The version is interesting, because it recognizes the primacy of Christopher over Amerigo. Christopher discovered and Christopher gave the name. Let not in honor of himself, but he used a local word. The problem with this version is that in none of the sources we have Columbus ever used the name America.

Text: Dmitry Samokhvalov
Illustrations courtesy of wikimedia

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