How America Got Its Name

How America Got Its Name - Another insightful video clip from the Drive Thru History series and my buddies at http://www.ColdWaterMedia.com

While great works of art and science were being produced in Florence, Italy, its most famous explorer and mapmaker, Amerigo Vespucci, was commissioned by the king and queen of Spain to further investigate the new lands discovered by Christopher Columbus.

Between 1499 and 1502, Vespucci discovered the land mass we now call South America. He was convinced this land was part of a new continent, a bold contention at a time when other European explorers crossing the Atlantic Ocean thought they were reaching Asia. So it is Amerigo Vespucci that is generally given the credit for figuring out Columbus had found a whole new world and not India and China.

In 1507, Martin Waldseemuller produced a world map on which he named the new continent "America." But why America? Well, Waldseemuller took Amerigo Vespucci's first name and Latinized it to "Americus" because at the time Latin was the universal language for European maps. But Americus is a man's name, and Mr. Waldseemuller as a highly-trained map-making professional knew that continents, like ships, are always female. So Waldseemuller took it upon himself to feminize "Americus" to "America," and the rest is history.

To read more about how America got its name and other insights about American History, please visit http://www.allabouthistory.org/christopher-columbus-and-how-america-got-its-n...

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Education

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• How America Got Its Name
• Vespucci
• Columbus
• Waldseemuller
• You Tube
• Video
• Coldwater
• Randall Niles

[shawnzi24]

@Sonofanoob thats a lie.

[Angelobrook]

America= continent

US= country

America is not US



[Sonofanoob]

It's not named after Amerigo. It's named after Richard Ameryk.

[LLOYD19851012]

America was found by an Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci in the 1500. So you could say America is part of Italy.

[Schubs95]

Video didn't mention that Columbus didn't set foot on the American Continent(s) until 1498 on his third voyage, when we landed in norther Venezuela. Amerigo Vespucci actually stepped on the American Continent (modern Brazil) in 1497. And that's the entire reason the map is so famous, was because it not only named America, but also helped justify Waldseemuller's naming of the "terra nova" in honor of Vespucci.

[mrmattusftw]

arnt new lands/territories names after the discoverer's sirname not christian name (unless the namers royalty)?

[emzademon]

He forgot to mention America was the name given only to South America so the first Americans were South Americans LOL=}

[MrHiberto]

why did that lion at the end look so scared?

[shotsxxx]

Hey that was awesome and comprehends well even to younger folks.