Amerigo Vespucci: The Explorer
Amerigo Vespucci was born in what country and city in 1454?
Florence, Italy
After Amerigo Vespucci died in 1512, with whom did a controversy begin regarding his voyages?
Someone who was familiar with Vespucci's letters
Amerigo Vespucci did not find the fixed star, did not make advances on measuring longitude, or find the straight, but he sailed for so long without a break in land he ended up in territory belonging to what country?
Spain
In what year did the German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemüller, make a world map where he named the area of Brazil America?
1507
King Manuel, from Portugal gave Vespucci ships to make discoveries and check in about stories on what?
Brazil
In 1499, Vespucci went on an expedition commanded by what Spanish governor?
Alonso de Ojeda
What is the one major issue historians argue about when it comes to Amerigo Vespucci?
Some give him credit for recognizing a continent when he saw one.
Others call Amerigo Vespucci an out-and-out faker
When Vespucci traveled south, he reached the area that Columbus had called what?
The Garden of Eden
Martin Waldseemüller decided to give the southern continent a name that sounded like what two other continents?
Africa and Asia
Vespucci noted that the indigenous peoples lived, ate, loved, played, and made war with what other groups?
Other tribes
Vespucci traveled south for nine months and spent twenty-seven days doing what two activities?
Making maps and adding to his maps
Some historians believe the published accounts that came out in 1504 of Vespucci reaching the new continent before Columbus were forgeries, some believe they were written by Vespucci. Who was the German Map Maker who believed them?
Martin Waldseemuller
Who invented the chronometer, the first instrument that could measure time correctly on a rolling ship?
John Harrison
Waldseemüller created a map that showed a new narrow continent, which blocked the way to what other continent?
Asia
In the indigenous societies, Vespucci observed that there was no king, no laws, and no what?
Religion
After realizing his voyage was taking him across a continent previously unknown to Europeans, to whom did Vespucci write about his conclusion?
Lorenzo Pierro Medicic, friend and ruler of France
Vespucci's critics claimed the letters that were released used "careless language" that Vespucci would have never used, and they also said the descriptions and geographical data were what?
Exaggerated Vespucci’s descriptions, and changed the geographical data so that it was false and contradictory
In what year was Amerigo Vespucci's letter about the mainland published?
1504
According to the text, why did Martin Waldseemüller remove the name America on a later version of his map?
Perhaps thinking he had not been fair to Columbus
The people seemed to live at peace among themselves, but Vespucci was lost in wonder at the multitude of what?
Brilliantly colored birds, multitude of animals and languages
What was one key subject of study that Amerigo Vespucci followed, along with explorations, in maps and astronomy?
Astrology
What was the "most dramatic thing" that Vespucci's editors did, which was to change the date of his voyage to the new continent to 1497, one year before Columbus actually had been there?
They changed the date of his voyage to the new continent to 1497, one year before Columbus had actually been there.
Why might editors have changed the information in Vespucci's letters?
Readers were hungry for juicy news of the strange new world across the sea.
When Martin Waldseemüller's map came out, the man for whom originally claimed to discover the new land had already died the year before. Who was he?
Columbus
Scholars generally agreed that there were seventy-seven languages but after visiting Brazil how many languages did Vespucci think there must have been?
At least 1000