Vespucci's Exploration of South America

Timeline

1. 1499Lisbon · PortugalAfter taking part in the earlier stages of the Ojeda voyage, Vespucci joined an expedition sponsored by Portugal's Manuel I, sailing south from Lisbon with three ships under Gonçalo Coelho, aiming to continue exploring the South American coast east of the Treaty of Tordesillas line.
2. 1499–1500Brazilian east coast (Pernambuco to south of Rio) · BrazilAfter reaching the Brazilian coast, the fleet repeatedly went ashore; Vespucci recorded the Southern Cross, indigenous customs, rivers, and forest products in detail, and argued that the lands he traversed were a separate continent rather than an extension of Asia. His observations provided the core argument for the later naming of the "New World."
3. 1500Lisbon · PortugalThe expedition returned to Lisbon in July 1500; Vespucci subsequently circulated accounts of the voyage in letters to Florence and European scholarly circles. In 1507 Martin Waldseemüller's world map labeled the New World "America," closely tied to the records of this and subsequent voyages.