Amerigo Vespucci Essay, Research Paper

Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer was born in Florence, Italy in the

year of 1454. Florence was a good city to grow up in for young Amerigo, because

of the growing interest in the field of exploration. Some of the adults told

young Amerigo about the wonders and riches of the Indies. Like the other Italian

boys in his village, undoubtedly Amerigo was fascinated with by those tales.

Amerigo lived in the Ognissanti section of Florence with a lot of the

Vespucci family. The Vespucci family was pretty well off, so Amerigo thought

that he was in line for a lot of money after his father’s passing, but his

brother Antonio was highly favored over the rest of the children. Most of the

Vespuccis living with Amerigo were merchants dealing in wine, olive oil, or wool.

Not all of the Vespuccis were merchants, a small percentage of the Vespuccis

were bankers. All of the family liked art and learning, poetry and music just

like the rest of the Florentines. The ruler of these interesting Florentines was

Lorenzo de’ Medicior, who was also know as Lorenzo the Magnificant.

When Amerigo was older, but still a young man, his father Antastagio

Vespucci sent him to the Monestary of San Marco to study with his uncle Giorgio.

In his new school, Amerigo along with the other European boys learned Latin,

math, grammar, history, Italian and Greek Literature, geography and astronomy.

Amerigo learned to love astronomy, because he was fascinated about all of the

shapes the stars made, that his uncle called constellations. Amerigo thought

about traveling about the Earth, but he thought it to be impossible, because he

was tought in school that the equator was a ring of fire that made the waters

boil there.

Amerigo’s hopes of traveling the world were become more realistic over

time. The first thing that sparked this was the invention of the caravel, a

light, narrow, 60 to 70 foot boat. The Portugese, that started making this boat

had learned to rig the caravels to sail well against the winds and currents of

the rough oceans. Another reality check occured when Amerigo was 19. What

happend was the Portugese finally sailed to the equator and found no boiling

seas, which proved the Roman theory that young Amerigo was taught in school

wrong. But then came a period in his life that Amerigo realized he would never

see the world, for Florence, unlike the nation of Portugal, which had humongus

navies, where Florence had just tiny merchant ships.

Later on in Amerigos life, Christoper Columbus went on a great journey

to the Indies. People had thought that he and crew were swallowed up by a sea of

mud. Just about 7 months later, though Columbus came back with gold, tropical

animals, and copper-skinned people he named “Indians”. When all the excitement

was over, Columbus spoke to Vespucci and Gionatti Bernardi a friend of Amerigos

about a voyage back to the island Columbus found called Hispaniola.