Amerigo Vespucci - Research Paper Example

This fact is proven by letters and other passages of text found attributed to Vespucci (Uzielli). He studied the sciences of physics, cosmography, astronomy, and geometry, contributing immensely to their progress (Uzielli). Therefore, it is fair to say that Vespucci was not just a gifted navigator, as is known of him more commonly, but also an eager student of science, who quickly mastered the existing sciences and was a learned man of his time. After the death of his father in 1483, Vespucci joined the household of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici as steward (Uzielli).

Due to his loyalty and his skill, he was promoted in rank and position in the household till he was made a businessman with the family. It was through this business opportunity that Vespucci was able to acquire ships and join the expeditions of Columbus into the New World (Uzielli), this being described fully in the proceeding paragraphs of this paper. In 1491, Vespucci came to Spain and settled in Seville, a place that was to serve as his hometown for the rest of his life, and from where he would launch around four voyages to the New World (Amerigo Vespucci).

At that time, it was felt in Europe, due to reasons beyond the scope of this paper, that the East and the Indies should be reached by way of the West, something that became more of a motto for the navigators of that time (Uzielli). Therefore, the voyages of Columbus and later of Vespucci were to become so significant, both economically and geographically. On the 10 of May, 1497, after acquiring three ships from the King of Castille, Vespucci set sail on his first voyage toward the West, through the Fortunate Islands towards either Guiana or Brazil (Uzielli).

It is believed that he might have made his made into the Gulf of Mexico and then sailed along a great portion of the United States as far up as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, before returning to Spain on the 15 of October, 1498 (Uzielli). Vespucci sailed on his second voyage from Spain on the 16 of May, 1499 (Uzielli). He was accompanied by Alonzo de Ojeda and Joan de la Cosa (Uzielli). It was on this second voyage that he discovered Cape St. Augustine and the Amazon River (Uzielli). He traveled through Cape Verde and Equator until he landed on the coast of Brazil (Uzielli).

Due to the exhaustion that he contracted owing to his long travels, he was taken ill when he returned to Spain in the September of 1500 (Uzielli). It was after he got well again that he wrote an account of his travels in his second voyage (Uzielli). The fourth and the fifth voyages of Vespucci commenced from Portugal instead of Spain (Uzielli). On 1 January, 1502, he named the Gulf of Bahia on his third voyage (Uzielli). In the same voyage, he discovered the Island of Georgia when he was traveling to the South America after he had discovered Bahia (Uzielli).

During his fourth voyage in 1503, having found an area rich in brazil-wood, he established an agency in the Cape Frio (Uzielli). According to some sources, Vespucci made another voyage, a fifth one, in 1505, to the West, during which he found gold and pearls in the area (Uzielli). This was followed by a sixth voyage for the same purpose (Uzielli). However, not much evidence is found of these two last voyages, not even in Vespucci’s own writings (Uzielli). In 1505, Vespucci is believed to have married a lady by the name of Maria Cerezo (Uzielli).

She bore him no children, and died either in 1523 or 1524 (Uzielli). However, Vespucci took his brother’