Who Named the Americas?

dollars in two thousand and three. For the article this episode is based on How Stuffworks, spoke with Chet Van Duzer, a map making historian. He said, it's the birth certificate of America. But equally as fascinating as the fifteen oh seven map is a world map from just nine years later, the Carda Marina of fifteen sixteen. This map was published by the very same man, Martin Valdsmuller, but the word America is nowhere to be found. In its place is

the name Terra Nova, meaning new World. Van Duser said, the most amazing thing about the name America is that the guy who invented it decided it wasn't the right name, and despite a number of Norse expeditions as early as the nine hundred CE, Europe as a whole did not know that what we now call the Americas existed until Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean in fourteen ninety two. He brought back word the next year, and the news

kicked off an age of European exploration and colonization. By fifteen oh four, he had completed four voyages and made land on parts of what's now Central and South America. And sure Columbus never set foot in North America and died insisting that he had found a western route to Asia.

But nonetheless, why didn't Valdsmuller called the lad Lands say Columbia on his map in fifteen oh seven, Probably because Columbus didn't write a best selling pamphlet about his travels that was redolent with sex, violence and cannibalism, which is what his fellow Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci did. A Vespucci set sale in fourteen ninety nine and published two wildly

popular accounts of his voyages. A Van Duser said Vespucci was a better self promoter than Columbus, and his accounts are more lurid, shall we say, than Columbuses, so they were reprinted more often. Vespucci's first pamphlet, written in fifteen oh four, was called Mandas Novis. In it, Vespucci claimed that the lands across the Atlantic were indeed a new continent, not an extension of Asia or just some big island.

His expedition landed somewhere in what's now known as the Guianas at the northern edge of South America, and then headed south, following the coast along what's now Brazil and Uruguay and Argentina all the way to just some four hundred miles north of the tip of the continent, before heading back. That's about six hundred and fifty kilometers north

of the south end of the continent. Vespucci wrote, this transcends the view held by our ancients that there is no continent to the south beyond the equator, but only the sea, which they named the Atlantic. But this their opinion is false and utterly opposed to the truth. This my last voyage, has made manifest, for in those southern parts I have found a continent more densely peopled at abounding in animals than our Europe, or Asia or Africa.

The pamphlet also included plenty of colorful details about the quote unquote curious natives, whom Daspucci depicted as gentle overall but decidedly un Christian in their customs, which he said included facial piercings, cannibalism, and sexual promiscuity. A second pamphlet, known as the Soderini Letter, which may not have been written entirely by Vespucci, made the Rounds in fifteen oh five.

This one involved more nudity and provided play by play accounts of a few instants between the Europeans and the indigenous peoples, some humorous, some violent. The Spucci's accounts were widely read throughout Europe, including the small village in France where mapmaker Martin Valdsmuller and his collaborator Mattheus Ringman were compiling an ambitious new map of the world. They had

undoubtedly heard of Columbus, but were seemingly unimpressed. Their map, published in fifteen oh seven, was a giant twelve panels that, when composited, measure four point two feet long by seven point six feet wide that's one point three by two point three meters, and at the top they engraved portraits of the two men they leaved to be the two greatest geographers of the ancient and modern world, the Greek

mathematician Ptolemy and Amerigo Vespucci. In the lengthy text that accompanied the map, the two men explained, quote, the fourth part of the Earth, which because Amerigo discovered it, we may call Amerigie the land of Amerigo, so to speak, or America so yep. They named the continent America quote

because Amerigo discovered it. It didn't take long for Valdzimuler and Ringman to realize their mistake, but because sixteenth century map making and printmaking was a painstakingly slow process, it took a full nine years downright speedy in those days, for the men to publish a corrected map, the Cardamrina of fifteen sixteen, along with a wordy mia culpa. They wrote, we will seem to you reader, previously to have diligently presented in shown a representation of the world that was

filled with error, wonder, and confusion. As we have lately come to understand, our previous representation pleased very few people. Therefore, since true seekers of knowledge rarely color their words in confusing rhetoric, and do not embellish facts charm, but instead with a venerable abundance of simplicity, we must say that we cover our heads with a humble hood. In their cardam Marina of fifteen sixteen, the name America is gone,

substituted with Terra nova. Presumably the men had figured out that Columbus and a few other sailors before Vespucci had gotten there first and had a better idea of what they were looking at than Columbus. But by fifteen sixteen, at least six other world maps had been published using the name America, and despite Waltz, Muller and Ringman's belated retraction, the original name stuff America was America from then on,

thanks to some good storytelling and lucky timing. Today's episode is based on the article Amerigo Vespucci, a lurid pamphlet and the Naming of America on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Dave Bruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com. It is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.