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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XXIII. GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Medieval Geography   * Aids to Exploration   * To the Indies Eastward—Prince Henry and Da Gama   * The Portuguese Colonial Empire   * To the Indies Westward: Columbus and Magellan   * The Indians   * Spanish Explorations and Conquests in America   * The Spanish Colonial Empire   * French and English Explorations in America   * The Old World and the New

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SUBSEQUENT VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS

Columbus made three other voyages to the New World, in the course of which he explored the Caribbean Sea, the mouth of the Orinoco River, and the eastern coast of Central America. He lived and died in the belief that he had actually reached the mainland of Asia and the realms of the Great Khan of Cathay. The name West Indies still remains as a testimony to this error.

NAMING OF AMERICA

The New World was named for a Florentine navigator, Amerigo Vespucci. [22] While in the Spanish service he made several western voyages and printed an account of his discovery of the mainland of America in 1497 A.D. Scholars now generally reject his statements, but they found acceptance at the time, and it was soon suggested that the new continent should be called America, "because Americus discovered it." The name applied at first only to South America. After it became certain that South America joined another continent to the north, the name spread over the whole New World.

[22] In Latin, Americus Vespucius.

 

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy