1454-1512
Merchant, Explorer, And Navigator

Early Wealth. A native of Florence, Amerigo Vespucci was a wealthy businessman who traveled extensively. He was in Spain as a representative of the Medici family when Columbus sailed in 1492. While in Seville, Vespucci turned his hobby of geography and navigation into a new midlife career as an explorer. He made the first of at least two voyages to the Americas in 1499-1500. The first voyage was to Venezuela aboard a Spanish ship. Vespucci calculated longitude on the voyage by mapping the planets and the moon, a method so complicated that it was rarely used, despite remaining in navigation manuals for hundreds of years. After his second voyage he returned to Spain and was promoted to Chief Pilot of Spain, the first person to hold the office.

Brazil. Vespucci's second voyage was a direct result of Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral's...