Essay/Term paper: Amerigo vespucci

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Society Term Papers

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.