Amerigo Vespucci: The Most Important Influential Explorer and Navigator - Research Paper Example

Born and raised in Florence, Amerigo Vespucci started his career as a clerk and administrative officer for various shipping companies in Italy and Spain. He spent early years of his career as a provision contractor for the various expeditions made towards the west. Vespucci is believed to have arranged twelve vessels for one of Columbus’s journeys to the New World; he also supplied various other commodities to the ships leaving for exploration in the west (Edwards et al.). His career as an explorer started when he was invited by King Manuel I of Portugal to accompany his ships to South America as an observer.

During these voyages Vespucci observed the various aspects of the new land very deeply and started recording his observations. Later when Portugese explorers discovered some parts of Brazil, the Portugese king agains sent Amerigo Vespucci, this time as captain of the fleet, to find out if the newly discovered land was an island or the part of the same continent discovered by the Spanish under Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus was the first European to set foot on the American continent however Amerigo Vespucci was the person who actually discovered America. . Amerigo Vespucci came to be known as a champion explorer after the publication of the two letters which gave accounts of his travel to the new world.

He was the one who took initiative to explore the lands other than the one explored by Columbus. He continued to discover areas south of the initially discovered islands and is believed to have gone on to discover present day Cananeia (Fernandez-Armesto). The most important influence of Amerigo Vespucci on world history is the fact that he told the world for the first time that the new piece of land discovered by Christopher Columbus is an entirely new world and not India. This was not a mere claim; Amerigo Vespucci backed it with evidences from his journeys.

He compared the things he discovered on his journey with the accounts of India and Asia written by Marco Polo and found out that there was very little or no similarity between the two thus he came to the conclusion that the land discovered by Columbus was not Indies but a new world. The publication of letters written by Amerigo Vespucci made him popular all over the Europe and these letters served as the first written pieces of knowledge about the new world. The discoveries he made during his voyages were recorded by him in the form of letters which were later published; many of his claims were deemed fraudulous but his letters were the only written information available about the new world therefore they became very popular throughout Europe.

In his letters, Vespucci has described various features of the South American continent which can be verified from the present day information (Ober). Amerigo Vespucci did not made a lot of journeys to the new world and in 1508, king Ferdinand of