WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.980 Imagine for a second that you are looking at 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:04.980 a map of the world, a big, beautiful wall map. 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:07.919 You scan the Western Hemisphere and you see two 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:11.880 massive landmasses. They stretch from the frozen 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:14.859 Arctic tundra in the north all the way down to 00:00:14.859 --> 00:00:17.760 the icy sub -Antarctic waters of Tierra del Fuego 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:20.699 in the south. These continents dominate the globe, 00:00:20.859 --> 00:00:23.300 and they are both branded with the name of a 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:26.059 single man. It's a name we say every single day, 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:29.769 the United States of America, South. America, 00:00:29.910 --> 00:00:32.810 it's, I mean, it's completely omnipresent. Exactly. 00:00:33.090 --> 00:00:36.490 And here is the massive, just colossal irony 00:00:36.490 --> 00:00:38.670 at the heart of this subject. These continents 00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:41.250 are named after a man who for centuries was dragged 00:00:41.250 --> 00:00:43.469 through the mud by historians. He was called 00:00:43.469 --> 00:00:47.210 a liar, a thief, a fraud, and my absolute favorite 00:00:47.210 --> 00:00:50.299 historical insult. A pickle dealer. It really 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:52.539 is one of the strangest twists of fate in the 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:54.579 historical record. I mean, you have Christopher 00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:56.340 Columbus who gets the holiday, the nursery rhymes 00:00:56.340 --> 00:00:58.179 and, you know, all the credit in primary school 00:00:58.179 --> 00:01:00.259 for the discovery. Right. He's the main character. 00:01:00.380 --> 00:01:02.200 He's the main character. But Amerigo Viscucci, 00:01:02.380 --> 00:01:04.680 he got the branding rights. He got the name on 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:07.260 the birth certificate of the new world. And that's 00:01:07.260 --> 00:01:09.659 the mission for this deep dive. We are going 00:01:09.659 --> 00:01:12.120 to try to disentangle the man from the myth because 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:15.260 for hundreds of years there has been this this 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:18.560 vicious academic brawl. Was Amerigo Vespucci 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:21.620 a master navigator who intellectually grasped 00:01:21.620 --> 00:01:24.120 what Columbus couldn't, that this was a new world? 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:26.340 Or was he just a self -promoting opportunist 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:29.959 whose letters were maybe forged by publishers 00:01:29.959 --> 00:01:32.260 just to sell books? It's the ultimate question 00:01:32.260 --> 00:01:35.260 of man versus legend. And we have a stack of 00:01:35.260 --> 00:01:36.900 sources here to help us figure it out. We've 00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:39.560 got historical records from Florence and Seville, 00:01:39.700 --> 00:01:42.340 some very, very controversial letters that may 00:01:42.340 --> 00:01:44.540 or may not be fake, and the cartographic history 00:01:44.540 --> 00:01:47.060 of how the name America actually ended up on 00:01:47.060 --> 00:01:49.180 the map. It's a real detective story. It is. 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:52.359 So let's unpack this. To understand how a so 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.980 -called pickle dealer gets two continents named 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:56.739 after him, we have to start at the beginning. 00:01:56.900 --> 00:01:59.120 And surprisingly, the story doesn't start on 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:01.180 a ship. No, it doesn't. And that's really the 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:03.060 first misconception we need to clear up right 00:02:03.060 --> 00:02:04.920 away. When we think of the Age of Discovery, 00:02:05.079 --> 00:02:07.920 we picture these rugged sea captains like Magellan 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:10.780 or da Gama. Right, men born on the waves, smelling 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:14.139 like salt and tar. Exactly. Men who could navigate 00:02:14.139 --> 00:02:17.120 by instinct. The Scucci was not that guy. He 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.300 was what you'd call a late bloomer. A very late 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:23.680 bloomer. He was born in 1454 in Florence, Italy. 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:26.280 And looking at his background, he was essentially 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:29.419 a suit. He was a corporate guy. He was a creature 00:02:29.419 --> 00:02:31.039 of the Renaissance. And you have to remember, 00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:34.479 Florence in the mid -15th century wasn't just 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:37.659 a city. It was, you know, the intellectual and 00:02:37.659 --> 00:02:39.639 financial capital of the Western world. It was 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:42.379 kind of the Silicon Valley of the 1400s. And 00:02:42.379 --> 00:02:44.539 the Vespucci family, where did they fit in? They 00:02:44.539 --> 00:02:47.289 were plugged right into the mainframe. They weren't 00:02:47.289 --> 00:02:49.710 the ultra -rich tycoons, the billionaires, so 00:02:49.710 --> 00:02:52.009 to speak. Not the top tier. No, not the absolute 00:02:52.009 --> 00:02:54.789 top. Think of them as the high -level functionaries, 00:02:54.889 --> 00:02:57.990 the operators who made the city run. His grandfather 00:02:57.990 --> 00:02:59.870 was the chancellor of the Florentine government 00:02:59.870 --> 00:03:03.069 for 36 years. His father was a notary for the 00:03:03.069 --> 00:03:05.669 Money Changers Guild. But the real currency in 00:03:05.669 --> 00:03:07.569 Florence wasn't just money. It was who you knew. 00:03:07.889 --> 00:03:10.490 Connections. Connections. And the Viscucci's 00:03:10.490 --> 00:03:12.469 were tight with the Medici family. And the Medici's, 00:03:12.569 --> 00:03:15.090 the godfathers of the Renaissance. Precisely. 00:03:15.389 --> 00:03:18.810 They were close allies of Lorenzo de' Medici, 00:03:18.949 --> 00:03:21.629 the Magnificent. So Amerigo grows up in this 00:03:21.629 --> 00:03:24.710 orbit of immense power, art, and money. But the 00:03:24.710 --> 00:03:26.490 thing that really separates him from someone 00:03:26.490 --> 00:03:29.590 like Columbus is his education. I noticed this 00:03:29.590 --> 00:03:32.009 in the notes and it's fascinating. His brothers 00:03:32.009 --> 00:03:34.490 went off to the University of Pisa, which seems 00:03:34.490 --> 00:03:37.669 like the standard successful kid path. But Amerigo 00:03:37.669 --> 00:03:40.509 stays home. Was that like a bad sign? Oh, not 00:03:40.509 --> 00:03:42.090 at all. Yeah, you could argue he got something 00:03:42.090 --> 00:03:46.030 even better, a more... bespoke education. He 00:03:46.030 --> 00:03:49.030 is tutored privately by his uncle, Giorgio Antonio 00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:51.509 Vespucci. And this uncle wasn't just some random 00:03:51.509 --> 00:03:53.870 relative teaching him his sums. No, no. Giorgio 00:03:53.870 --> 00:03:56.250 was a major figure, a Dominican friar, and a 00:03:56.250 --> 00:03:58.810 celebrated humanist scholar. He ran a school 00:03:58.810 --> 00:04:01.530 for the sons of Florentine nobles. So he gave 00:04:01.530 --> 00:04:03.629 Amerigo this incredible one -on -one education 00:04:03.629 --> 00:04:06.639 in literature, philosophy, and rhetoric. He was 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:09.439 being groomed to think. And crucially. And crucially. 00:04:09.460 --> 00:04:11.259 His uncle taught him geography and astronomy. 00:04:11.539 --> 00:04:13.840 He studied the ancient Greek cosmographers like 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:16.339 Ptolemy and Strabo. So while Columbus was out 00:04:16.339 --> 00:04:18.100 there learning how to tie knots and read the 00:04:18.100 --> 00:04:21.040 wind on a practical level, Fispucci was learning 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:23.579 the theoretical geometry of the universe. That 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:26.600 is a critical distinction. It is. He learned 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:28.920 the framework of the world long before he ever 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:31.959 set foot on a deck. This academic background 00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:35.069 means that later, when he's at sea, He isn't 00:04:35.069 --> 00:04:37.589 just looking at the waves, he's analyzing the 00:04:37.589 --> 00:04:40.170 data against the classical theories he spent 00:04:40.170 --> 00:04:43.290 his youth studying. He has a mental model to 00:04:43.290 --> 00:04:46.509 test against reality. Before we move on, we have 00:04:46.509 --> 00:04:49.689 to mention the cool factor of his family. I was 00:04:49.689 --> 00:04:52.250 reading that his cousin, Marco, married a woman 00:04:52.250 --> 00:04:56.069 named Simonetta Vespucci. Ah, yes, La Bella Simonetta. 00:04:56.439 --> 00:04:58.120 the beautiful Simonetta. For those who don't 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:00.480 know art history, just explain who she was. She 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:02.339 was considered the most beautiful woman in Florence, 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:05.620 an absolute icon. She was the model for Botticelli's 00:05:05.620 --> 00:05:07.560 The Birth of Venus and several other of his major 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:10.519 paintings. So Amerigo isn't just reading dusty 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:12.879 books in a study. He's probably hanging out at 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:15.300 family dinners with the literal face of the Renaissance. 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:17.939 It paints a picture, doesn't it? A man deeply 00:05:17.939 --> 00:05:21.240 embedded in high culture. He's a socialite, an 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:25.300 intellectual, a man of the court. But, and here's 00:05:25.300 --> 00:05:27.459 the twist, Despite all these advantages, all 00:05:27.459 --> 00:05:29.720 this culture and connection, his early career 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:31.939 was kind of a flop. Yeah, he seems to really 00:05:31.939 --> 00:05:34.579 struggle to find his footing. In 1478, when he's 00:05:34.579 --> 00:05:36.860 in his mid -20s, he goes on a diplomatic mission 00:05:36.860 --> 00:05:40.240 to Paris with another uncle, Guido Antonio. Right, 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:42.319 they're trying to get French support for Florence's 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:45.600 war with... Naples, and the Pope, a high -stakes 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:47.980 mission. And it was largely a failure. King Louis 00:05:47.980 --> 00:05:50.860 XI was noncommittal, cagey. They came back with 00:05:50.860 --> 00:05:52.920 basically nothing. But for Amerigo, it was a 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:55.259 lesson. It gave him a taste of the wider world 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:57.860 of international politics. So after that, what 00:05:57.860 --> 00:06:00.399 does he do? He settles into a role working for 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:02.899 a junior branch of the Medici family, the one 00:06:02.899 --> 00:06:06.079 run by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. He's 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:08.160 basically a household manager, a business agent. 00:06:08.509 --> 00:06:10.810 So he's a mid -level manager. He's pushing papers. 00:06:10.910 --> 00:06:14.129 He's nearing 40 years old. Frankly, if he had 00:06:14.129 --> 00:06:16.170 died at age 38, history would have forgotten 00:06:16.170 --> 00:06:18.730 him completely. He would just be a name on a 00:06:18.730 --> 00:06:22.209 dusty Florentine genealogy chart. Precisely. 00:06:22.610 --> 00:06:25.410 But then comes the pivot, the midlife crisis 00:06:25.410 --> 00:06:29.009 that changed the world. It's around 1492, the 00:06:29.009 --> 00:06:31.470 same year Columbus is sailing on his first voyage. 00:06:32.029 --> 00:06:35.430 The Medici send Amerigo to Seville, Spain. Why 00:06:35.430 --> 00:06:37.800 Seville? That seems like a bit of a demotion 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:40.000 from the glitz and glamour of Florence. Well, 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:41.939 Seville was the new boomtown. It was the gateway 00:06:41.939 --> 00:06:43.759 to the Atlantic. All the action was shifting 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:46.399 there. But the Medici's had a specific problem. 00:06:46.620 --> 00:06:48.939 They had a business agent there named Tommaso 00:06:48.939 --> 00:06:52.459 Caponi, who was acting, let's say, suspiciously. 00:06:52.459 --> 00:06:54.860 Cooking the books. That was the fear. So Amerigo 00:06:54.860 --> 00:06:57.639 was sent as the auditor, the fixer. He goes down 00:06:57.639 --> 00:06:59.459 there, looks at the ledgers, realizes Caponi 00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:01.660 is sketchy, and ends up taking over the job himself. 00:07:01.939 --> 00:07:03.779 And this is where the story gets gritty. This 00:07:03.779 --> 00:07:05.860 isn't art and philosophy anymore, is it? No. 00:07:05.980 --> 00:07:09.480 This is the nuts and bolts of commerce. He winds 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:11.439 up working with another Florentine merchant in 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.420 Seville named Ginotto Berardi. And Berardi's 00:07:14.420 --> 00:07:16.779 business was involved in two main things. The 00:07:16.779 --> 00:07:20.339 African slave trade and ship chandlery. Chandlery. 00:07:20.339 --> 00:07:22.180 That's the fancy word for a ship grocery store, 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:24.560 right? Effectively, yes. A much grittier one. 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:26.939 Yeah. There's supply of the expeditions, hardtack 00:07:26.939 --> 00:07:30.199 biscuits, salted meat, rope, tackle, cannons, 00:07:30.420 --> 00:07:33.560 wine. Everything you need to keep a crew alive 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:37.300 or not. For months at sea. And their biggest 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:41.620 client. Let me guess. Christopher Columbus. Christopher 00:07:41.620 --> 00:07:43.860 Columbus. This connection just blows my mind. 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:46.740 Vespucci didn't just know of Columbus. He was 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:49.459 the guy organizing the biscuits. He was the quartermaster. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.120 He was intimately involved. Berardi had invested 00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:55.279 heavily in Columbus's second voyage. When Berardi 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:58.480 died in 1495, Vespucci was the executor of his 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:01.199 will. He was left holding the bag, scrubbing 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:03.259 the ledgers for these expeditions that... frankly, 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:05.139 weren't paying off. That's a really important 00:08:05.139 --> 00:08:07.120 piece of context. We look back now and think 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:09.079 Columbus discovered America. He must have been 00:08:09.079 --> 00:08:11.519 rich immediately. But in the late 1490s, the 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:13.540 whole Indies business was struggling, wasn't 00:08:13.540 --> 00:08:15.720 it? It was a financial disaster. Columbus had 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:17.740 promised mountains of gold, a direct route to 00:08:17.740 --> 00:08:20.379 the spices of the East, quick profits. Instead, 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:22.480 he was sending back some slaves and a little 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:24.800 bit of gold dust, but nowhere near enough to 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:26.959 cover the massive costs of outfitting these fleets. 00:08:27.230 --> 00:08:30.290 So Vespucci is sitting in his office in Seville 00:08:30.290 --> 00:08:32.929 looking at the red ink. He's seeing the diminishing 00:08:32.929 --> 00:08:35.809 returns of the merchant life firsthand. He's 00:08:35.809 --> 00:08:38.289 almost 50 years old. His business partner is 00:08:38.289 --> 00:08:40.730 dead. The Medici's are starting to use other 00:08:40.730 --> 00:08:43.529 agents. He's watching his career hit a dead end. 00:08:43.629 --> 00:08:46.169 And he sees these ships leaving the harbor every 00:08:46.169 --> 00:08:48.870 few months, going off to this mysterious new 00:08:48.870 --> 00:08:51.409 land. So he decides to stop funding the ships 00:08:51.409 --> 00:08:53.759 and start riding on them. He trades the ledger 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.299 for the astrolabe. He decides to see this new 00:08:56.299 --> 00:08:59.259 world for himself, maybe to figure out if there's 00:08:59.259 --> 00:09:01.299 actually a way to make it profitable. This brings 00:09:01.299 --> 00:09:03.620 us to the section historians call the Vespucci 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:06.340 question. Because depending on who you ask or 00:09:06.340 --> 00:09:08.919 which document you read, Vespucci either went 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:11.960 on two voyages, three voyages, or four voyages. 00:09:12.019 --> 00:09:14.299 It's a total mess. It's the headache that has 00:09:14.299 --> 00:09:17.360 plagued historians for 500 years. The entire 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.840 evidence for Vespucci's travels relies almost 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:22.440 entirely on a handful of letters. And they don't 00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:24.580 match up. So we have two main sources, right? 00:09:24.659 --> 00:09:26.679 The Sotirini letter and then the private letters. 00:09:26.779 --> 00:09:29.279 What's the difference? Okay. So the letters published 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:31.740 during his lifetime, like the one addressed to 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:34.500 a Florentine official named Piero Sotirini, were 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:37.179 the blockbusters. They were sensational, exciting, 00:09:37.460 --> 00:09:40.200 action -packed. And they claimed four voyages. 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:43.019 The ones for public consumption. Exactly. Then 00:09:43.019 --> 00:09:45.240 there are the private, more sober letters he 00:09:45.240 --> 00:09:47.740 wrote to his patrons, the Medici family. These 00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:50.159 weren't published until centuries later. And 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:52.600 most experts today believe the private letters 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:55.320 are the real deal and that the published Sodorini 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:58.259 letter was likely spiced up or even partially 00:09:58.259 --> 00:10:01.679 forged by publishers trying to sell books. It 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:03.299 was a commercial product. So let's look at the 00:10:03.299 --> 00:10:06.220 controversial one first. Voyage number one, allegedly 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:10.240 in 1497. Right. The Sodorini letter claims Vespucci 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:14.840 left Spain in May 1497. Now, if this were true, 00:10:14.940 --> 00:10:17.460 and if he hit the mainland of South America as 00:10:17.460 --> 00:10:19.740 described, he would have beaten Columbus to the 00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:22.779 mainland by a full year. Columbus didn't reach 00:10:22.779 --> 00:10:25.039 the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. 00:10:25.259 --> 00:10:27.360 That would be a massive historical upset. The 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:29.600 whole Columbus discovered America narrative goes 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:31.539 out the window. But you're saying the math doesn't 00:10:31.539 --> 00:10:33.769 work. The geography described is completely absurd. 00:10:33.950 --> 00:10:36.549 The route in that letter has them landing somewhere 00:10:36.549 --> 00:10:38.889 near Honduras and then sailing northwest for 00:10:38.889 --> 00:10:41.789 870 leagues. If you plot that on a map, they 00:10:41.789 --> 00:10:43.029 would have sailed straight through the mountains 00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:45.549 of Mexico across the desert and popped out in 00:10:45.549 --> 00:10:47.950 the Pacific Ocean. Unless he invented an overland 00:10:47.950 --> 00:10:50.250 hovercraft, that didn't happen. Exactly. It's 00:10:50.250 --> 00:10:53.509 geographically impossible. Yeah. Later, the historian 00:10:53.509 --> 00:10:56.250 Bartolome de las Casas who's a huge defender 00:10:56.250 --> 00:10:59.269 of Columbus, accused Spucci of inventing this 00:10:59.269 --> 00:11:04.149 1497 voyage specifically to steal primacy. This 00:11:04.149 --> 00:11:05.889 is the source of the reputation of him being 00:11:05.889 --> 00:11:08.870 a liar and thief. So let's discard the fake voyage 00:11:08.870 --> 00:11:11.190 for now. Let's look at what we know he actually 00:11:11.190 --> 00:11:14.429 did. Voyage number two, the real deal in 1499. 00:11:14.549 --> 00:11:17.129 This one is well documented. He sails for Spain, 00:11:17.269 --> 00:11:20.000 but he's not the captain. The expedition was 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.919 led by a tough, experienced captain named Alonzo 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:25.679 de Ojeda, who had sailed with Columbus. And Vespucci's 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:28.740 role was? He was likely aboard his pilot because 00:11:28.740 --> 00:11:31.320 of his astronomical knowledge, or perhaps as 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:33.059 a commercial representative for the Florentine 00:11:33.059 --> 00:11:35.639 investors who backed the trip. He was there to 00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:38.039 protect the money. But on this trip, they make 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:41.240 a massive, game -changing discovery. They find 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:43.879 the mouth of the Amazon River. It must have been 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:46.799 an absolutely incredible sight. Vespucci describes 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:49.860 sailing into a region where this massive volume 00:11:49.860 --> 00:11:52.799 of freshwater was pouring into the ocean so powerfully 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:56.340 that they could drink the seawater 25 miles away 00:11:56.340 --> 00:11:59.259 from the coast. That is a crucial data point 00:11:59.259 --> 00:12:02.679 for a geography nerd like Vespucci. It is. A 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:05.980 small island, even a big island like Cuba, doesn't 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:08.000 have a watershed large enough to turn the Atlantic 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.539 Ocean fresh for 25 miles. You need a massive 00:12:11.539 --> 00:12:14.340 continent to support a river that big. The penny 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:16.480 must have started to drop. But did he realize 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:19.320 it was a new continent then, on that trip? Not 00:12:19.320 --> 00:12:23.159 quite yet. On this 1499 voyage, he's still trapped 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:25.980 in the Columbus mindset. In his letters, he writes 00:12:25.980 --> 00:12:28.460 about looking for the Cape of Catagara, which 00:12:28.460 --> 00:12:31.240 was a landmark in Southeast Asia described by 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:33.820 the ancient geographer Ptolemy. He still thinks 00:12:33.820 --> 00:12:35.480 he's maneuvering around the tail end of Asia 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:37.460 to get to India. So he knows it's big, but he 00:12:37.460 --> 00:12:40.759 thinks it's Big Asia. Correct. He's trying to 00:12:40.759 --> 00:12:43.740 make the new data fit the old map. And we shouldn't 00:12:43.740 --> 00:12:46.080 gloss over the darker aspects of this voyage 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.659 because they're really important. What happened 00:12:48.659 --> 00:12:51.240 on the way back? On the way back to Spain, after 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:53.879 failing to find the passage to India or any great 00:12:53.879 --> 00:12:56.860 riches, they stopped in the Bahamas. They raided 00:12:56.860 --> 00:13:00.299 the islands, captured 232 natives, packed them 00:13:00.299 --> 00:13:02.340 into the hold of the ships, and took them back 00:13:02.340 --> 00:13:05.559 to Cadiz to sell as slaves. It's just a grim 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:07.659 reminder that these weren't purely scientific 00:13:07.659 --> 00:13:10.460 expeditions. They were commercial ventures driven 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:14.259 by profit, often in the most brutal ways. The 00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:16.799 Spuci was a man of his time, and that time was 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.379 brutal. So he gets back to Spain in 1500. The 00:13:20.379 --> 00:13:23.220 profits from the slaves are mediocre. Stain isn't 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:25.019 exactly throwing money at him for another trip. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:28.200 So being the adaptable businessman he is, he 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:30.440 switches teams. He goes to the competition. He 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:33.360 goes to Portugal. He does. King Manuel I of Portugal 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:35.460 commissions an expedition to investigate Brazil. 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:38.139 Now, you have to remember, the Portuguese explorer 00:13:38.139 --> 00:13:40.639 Pedro Alvarez Cabral had accidentally bumped 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.259 into the coast of Brazil the year before in 1500 00:13:43.259 --> 00:13:45.679 while trying to sail around Africa to India. 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:49.129 The famous story of being blown off course. Right. 00:13:49.210 --> 00:13:51.590 So the king of Portugal wants to know what he 00:13:51.590 --> 00:13:55.830 actually owns. Is this landmass just a big island? 00:13:55.950 --> 00:13:59.169 Is it a continent? And most importantly, is it 00:13:59.169 --> 00:14:01.669 on the Portuguese side of the line drawn by the 00:14:01.669 --> 00:14:03.909 Treaty of Tordesillas? The treaty that divided 00:14:03.909 --> 00:14:06.389 the unknown world between Spain and Portugal. 00:14:06.669 --> 00:14:09.289 Exactly. So he hires the Italian guy who just 00:14:09.289 --> 00:14:12.009 got back from that neighborhood. Vespucci joins 00:14:12.009 --> 00:14:14.429 as a pilot under the command of Gonzalo Coelho. 00:14:14.909 --> 00:14:18.779 They leave Lisbon in May 1501. And at their first 00:14:18.779 --> 00:14:21.120 stopover in Cape Verde, something incredible 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:24.539 happens. One of those small world moments that 00:14:24.539 --> 00:14:26.419 changes the course of history. They run into 00:14:26.419 --> 00:14:28.559 traffic. They literally bump into Cabral's fleet. 00:14:28.830 --> 00:14:31.149 Coming back from India, the actual India. Okay, 00:14:31.190 --> 00:14:33.110 this is a critical juncture. You have Cabral 00:14:33.110 --> 00:14:36.149 with ships full of pepper, cloves, spices, silks, 00:14:36.149 --> 00:14:38.230 porcelain, and stories about Calicut and highly 00:14:38.230 --> 00:14:40.750 civilized Asian cities. And then you have Vespucci 00:14:40.750 --> 00:14:43.809 heading to this wild, unknown new world. Think 00:14:43.809 --> 00:14:45.950 about the data comparison happening on that beach 00:14:45.950 --> 00:14:48.889 in Cape Verde. Vespucci gets to sit down and 00:14:48.889 --> 00:14:51.769 interview Cabral's crew. He gets hard, verifiable 00:14:51.769 --> 00:14:54.529 facts. He knows exactly what the flora, fauna, 00:14:54.570 --> 00:14:57.009 people, and products of India look like. He has 00:14:57.009 --> 00:14:59.860 his control group. Now he is going to the test 00:14:59.860 --> 00:15:02.600 group. So they sail on to Brazil. They hit the 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:07.259 coast in August 1501. And this trip, this was 00:15:07.259 --> 00:15:09.279 not a pleasure cruise. No, it was terrifying. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:12.200 They landed on the coast and encountered a hostile 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:16.230 band of natives from the Tupinamba tribe. The 00:15:16.230 --> 00:15:18.070 Spucci describes this horrific scene in one of 00:15:18.070 --> 00:15:20.330 his letters where a crewman, a young Portuguese 00:15:20.330 --> 00:15:23.750 man, was lured inland and then ambushed and killed. 00:15:23.929 --> 00:15:26.149 And the crew saw this happen. They watched from 00:15:26.149 --> 00:15:27.870 the ships as the natives butchered, roasted, 00:15:27.970 --> 00:15:30.049 and ate the man. That is the kind of image that 00:15:30.049 --> 00:15:31.909 sears itself into your brain and becomes the 00:15:31.909 --> 00:15:34.289 defining story of a place. It certainly stayed 00:15:34.289 --> 00:15:36.389 with the European public later on and fueled 00:15:36.389 --> 00:15:39.029 the cannibal narrative. But despite that horror 00:15:39.029 --> 00:15:41.509 and the obvious danger, they kept sailing south, 00:15:41.629 --> 00:15:45.429 mapping the coast. On January 1st, 1502, They 00:15:45.429 --> 00:15:48.009 found a stunning, enormous bay. They named it 00:15:48.009 --> 00:15:50.690 after the date, the River of January. Rio de 00:15:50.690 --> 00:15:54.250 Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro. I wonder how many people 00:15:54.250 --> 00:15:56.629 sunbathing on Copacabana Beach right now know 00:15:56.629 --> 00:16:00.529 their city was named by Amerigo Vespucci. Probably 00:16:00.529 --> 00:16:03.710 very few. But they didn't stop at Rio. And this 00:16:03.710 --> 00:16:06.029 is where Vespucci, the navigator, earns his keep. 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:10.929 They went far, far south into the cold, stormy 00:16:10.929 --> 00:16:14.000 sub -Antarctic waters. Possibly as far as 52 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:15.919 degrees south, which would put them near the 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:18.240 Falkland Islands or the coast of Patagonia. And 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:20.799 the weather down there is just atrocious. And 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:23.179 the sky changes completely. That was the scariest 00:16:23.179 --> 00:16:25.600 part for them. The North Star Polaris dropped 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:28.620 below the horizon. For a European sailor, that 00:16:28.620 --> 00:16:30.860 was their anchor. That was how you had navigated 00:16:30.860 --> 00:16:33.720 for thousands of years. It was gone. Vespucci's 00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:35.679 there on the deck, freezing, seasick, struggling 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:37.980 with his astrolabe and quadrant, trying to map 00:16:37.980 --> 00:16:40.200 the southern constellations to find a new way 00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:42.179 to navigate. And while he's doing all this, he 00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:44.519 realizes the coast just keeps going south. It 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:46.779 doesn't turn west towards Asia. It's endless. 00:16:47.139 --> 00:16:49.899 It's a continuous landmass. And it's nothing 00:16:49.899 --> 00:16:52.899 like the India described by Cabral. The animals 00:16:52.899 --> 00:16:55.360 are different. No tigers, no elephants. He sees 00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:57.919 tapirs and capybaras. The people are different. 00:16:57.980 --> 00:17:00.759 No silks, no great cities, no kings. The plants 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:02.360 are different. The stars are different. This 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:04.380 is the Eureka moment. This is the intellectual 00:17:04.380 --> 00:17:07.119 leap. Columbus had the courage to cross the ocean. 00:17:07.450 --> 00:17:10.150 But he died trying to force the square peg of 00:17:10.150 --> 00:17:13.089 his discovery into the round hole of Asian geography. 00:17:13.309 --> 00:17:15.529 He was locked into his theory. He was a victim 00:17:15.529 --> 00:17:18.769 of confirmation bias. Completely. Vespucci, with 00:17:18.769 --> 00:17:21.509 his academic background, looked at all the contradictory 00:17:21.509 --> 00:17:23.849 data, the sheer length of the coastline, the 00:17:23.849 --> 00:17:26.349 power of the Amazon, the lack of Asian civilizations, 00:17:26.609 --> 00:17:30.130 and he did the math. He realized this isn't Asia. 00:17:30.269 --> 00:17:32.349 This is an island. This is a fourth part of the 00:17:32.349 --> 00:17:34.569 world. And he puts this incredible realization 00:17:34.569 --> 00:17:38.039 into writing. In 1503, a letter attributed to 00:17:38.039 --> 00:17:40.640 him, Mundus Novus New World, is published. He 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:42.779 writes to his old patron, Lorenzo de' Medici, 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.920 We may rightly call a new world a continent more 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:48.200 densely peopled and abounding in animals than 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:51.039 are Europe or Asia or Africa. Continent. That 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:53.359 is the magic word. That is the claim. It was 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:56.019 revolutionary. Yeah. He is explicitly telling 00:17:56.019 --> 00:17:59.059 the entire European establishment that the ancients 00:17:59.059 --> 00:18:01.670 were wrong. Ptolemy, the god of geography for 00:18:01.670 --> 00:18:03.849 a thousand years, didn't know about this. It 00:18:03.849 --> 00:18:06.130 was a direct challenge to the classical view 00:18:06.130 --> 00:18:08.349 of the universe. But let's be honest about why 00:18:08.349 --> 00:18:11.309 Mundus Novus became a bestseller. It wasn't just 00:18:11.309 --> 00:18:13.750 the nerdy geography updates. It was the tabloid 00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:16.369 stuff. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It was the 16th 00:18:16.369 --> 00:18:19.940 century version of a viral blockbuster. It was 00:18:19.940 --> 00:18:22.940 sex and violence. The letter was filled with 00:18:22.940 --> 00:18:25.799 these lurid, colorful descriptions of the natives, 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:28.460 their lack of clothes, their sexual customs, 00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:30.900 and, of course, the cannibalism. It was shocking. 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:33.220 It was titillating. It went viral in a way that 00:18:33.220 --> 00:18:36.480 dry ship logs never could. It was a perfect clickbait 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:38.940 for the new printing press technology. It was. 00:18:39.099 --> 00:18:41.160 Twelve editions were printed in the first year 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:43.799 alone. It was translated into Italian, French, 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.920 German, Dutch. Everyone who could read was reading 00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:50.180 Vespucci. Meanwhile. Columbus is sending back 00:18:50.180 --> 00:18:52.500 these letters full of complaints about his arthritis 00:18:52.500 --> 00:18:55.339 and mystical ramblings about finding the Garden 00:18:55.339 --> 00:18:58.160 of Eden. Vespucci won the narrative war because 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:00.740 he told a better, more exciting story. And that 00:19:00.740 --> 00:19:03.220 narrative victory leads us directly to the map. 00:19:03.609 --> 00:19:06.269 The map that changed everything. And this part 00:19:06.269 --> 00:19:08.569 of the story is just a total comedy of errors. 00:19:08.750 --> 00:19:10.670 It didn't happen in the royal courts of Spain 00:19:10.670 --> 00:19:13.250 or Portugal. It happened in a muddy little town 00:19:13.250 --> 00:19:15.470 in eastern France called Sentier. Right. You 00:19:15.470 --> 00:19:17.250 have to picture the scene. It's this small group 00:19:17.250 --> 00:19:20.009 of humanist scholars, basically a little academic 00:19:20.009 --> 00:19:22.730 startup. They were led by a man named Walter 00:19:22.730 --> 00:19:25.529 Ludd. and a brilliant young cartographer named 00:19:25.529 --> 00:19:27.650 Martin Walzmuller. And what were they working 00:19:27.650 --> 00:19:29.890 on? They were working on a new, updated edition 00:19:29.890 --> 00:19:33.109 of Ptolemy's Geography in 1507. They wanted to 00:19:33.109 --> 00:19:36.349 create a grand new world map that included all 00:19:36.349 --> 00:19:38.609 these recent discoveries, the sort of Geography 00:19:38.609 --> 00:19:41.529 2 .0. But they are working with bad intel, or 00:19:41.529 --> 00:19:44.559 at least incomplete intel. They are. They had 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:47.099 a French translation of the Sodorini letter, 00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:49.140 remember, the sensational one that claims four 00:19:49.140 --> 00:19:51.839 voyages, and that Vespucci discovered the mainland 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:56.140 in 1497. They didn't have Columbus's logs. They 00:19:56.140 --> 00:19:58.519 didn't have the official Spanish records. So 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:00.440 as far as they knew, Vespucci was the primary 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:03.259 discoverer of this southern landmass. So they're 00:20:03.259 --> 00:20:05.720 designing this huge new map, and they need a 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:07.920 name for this new landmass in the south. And 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:10.940 their logic was actually quite poetic. if flawed. 00:20:11.299 --> 00:20:13.420 They looked at the other known continents, Europa, 00:20:13.660 --> 00:20:17.099 Asia, Africa. In Latin, these are all grammatically 00:20:17.099 --> 00:20:19.599 feminine names. All named for women, mythologically 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:22.160 speaking. Exactly. They reasoned the new continent 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:24.400 should follow suit. So they took Amerigo's first 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:27.220 name, they Latinized it to Americus, and then 00:20:27.220 --> 00:20:29.900 they feminized that to America. The land of Amerigo. 00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:32.059 And one of the scholars, a poet named Matthias 00:20:32.059 --> 00:20:34.140 Ringman, wrote this justification in the book 00:20:34.140 --> 00:20:35.980 that accompanied the map, the introduction to 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:39.980 cosmography. He said, I see no reason why anyone 00:20:39.980 --> 00:20:42.119 could properly disapprove of a name derived from 00:20:42.119 --> 00:20:45.359 that of Amerigo, the discoverer, a man of sagacious 00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:48.160 genius. If only they knew the centuries of academic 00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:51.579 brawling they were about to unleash. So in 1507, 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:54.039 Olsey -Muller prints this massive, beautiful 00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:57.720 12 -panel wall map. It's the first time the word 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:00.440 America appears, printed right across the continent 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:03.140 of South America. And because the map was a masterpiece 00:21:03.140 --> 00:21:06.480 of cartography, it sold. A thousand copies were 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:08.420 printed. It hung in universities, libraries, 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:10.900 and palaces all over Europe. The name literally 00:21:10.900 --> 00:21:13.019 got put on the wall. But here's the twist that 00:21:13.019 --> 00:21:15.920 I absolutely love. Waldseemuller eventually realized 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:18.579 he screwed up, didn't he? He did. It's an incredible 00:21:18.579 --> 00:21:22.599 historical footnote. Years later, by 1513, he 00:21:22.599 --> 00:21:25.200 got access to better data. He learned that Columbus 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:28.160 had actually been there first in 1498. He clearly 00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:30.019 felt bad about it. He tried to take it back. 00:21:30.140 --> 00:21:32.519 How? He published a new Mac. where he completely 00:21:32.519 --> 00:21:35.019 removed the name America and just labeled the 00:21:35.019 --> 00:21:39.039 land Terra Incognita, Unknown Land. He also labeled 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:41.240 a part of Brazil Land of the Holy Cross, which 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:43.119 was the official Portuguese name. He tried to 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:45.460 delete the tweet. He tried, but you can't put 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:48.460 the toothpaste back in the tube. The 1507 map 00:21:48.460 --> 00:21:51.160 had already circulated widely. Other mapmakers 00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:53.279 had already started copying the name America. 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:56.200 It was catchy. It sounded good. And then, in 00:21:56.200 --> 00:21:59.279 1538, the nail in the coffin comes from the most 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:02.109 famous cartographer of all. Gerardus Mercator. 00:22:02.430 --> 00:22:05.730 He uses America to label not just the southern 00:22:05.730 --> 00:22:08.230 continent, but the northern one too. And just 00:22:08.230 --> 00:22:10.190 like that, the Western Hemisphere is branded. 00:22:10.470 --> 00:22:13.170 All because a group of scholars in a small French 00:22:13.170 --> 00:22:16.130 town read a sensationalized letter and made a 00:22:16.130 --> 00:22:18.930 wrong, but very influential, assumption. It's 00:22:18.930 --> 00:22:20.849 a powerful lesson in the power of the printing 00:22:20.849 --> 00:22:24.210 press. Columbus discovered the land, but Vespucci, 00:22:24.450 --> 00:22:28.150 or rather the publishers using his name, discovered 00:22:28.150 --> 00:22:30.710 the audience. So what happened to the real Amerigo 00:22:30.710 --> 00:22:32.890 Vespucci while his name was becoming immortal 00:22:32.890 --> 00:22:35.069 without his knowledge? Did he know he was famous? 00:22:35.369 --> 00:22:37.430 It's very unlikely he ever knew the extent of 00:22:37.430 --> 00:22:39.529 it or that a continent was being named after 00:22:39.529 --> 00:22:42.670 him. He was back in Spain by 1504. And surprisingly, 00:22:42.930 --> 00:22:45.349 King Ferdinand of Spain didn't hold the Portuguese 00:22:45.349 --> 00:22:48.269 voyages against him. In fact, he realized Vespucci's 00:22:48.269 --> 00:22:50.230 practical value. He didn't just forgive him. 00:22:50.309 --> 00:22:52.789 The king gives him a massive promotion. A huge 00:22:52.789 --> 00:22:57.119 one. A job created specifically for him. In 1508, 00:22:57.180 --> 00:23:00.400 Vespucci is appointed piloto mayor, the master 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:03.539 navigator of the Casa de Contratación in Seville. 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:05.460 We need to explain what that actually means because 00:23:05.460 --> 00:23:07.940 it sounds like a ceremonial title, but it absolutely 00:23:07.940 --> 00:23:10.339 was not. Not at all. It was one of the most important 00:23:10.339 --> 00:23:14.059 technical and secret jobs in the entire Spanish 00:23:14.059 --> 00:23:17.599 empire. The Casa de Contratación was the central 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:20.019 clearinghouse for all Spanish exploration and 00:23:20.019 --> 00:23:22.960 trade. Vescuci was the head of the navigational 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:25.440 department. So what were his duties? He was responsible 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:27.799 for training and certifying all the pilots who 00:23:27.799 --> 00:23:29.940 sailed to the New World. He established a school 00:23:29.940 --> 00:23:32.240 for navigation. He had to personally examine 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:34.619 them to ensure they knew how to use the quadrant 00:23:34.619 --> 00:23:37.660 and the astrolabe. No one sailed without his 00:23:37.660 --> 00:23:40.140 approval. He was the dean of the School of Exploration, 00:23:40.299 --> 00:23:43.240 the top gun instructor. Exactly. But most importantly, 00:23:43.380 --> 00:23:45.400 he was in charge of compiling and updating the 00:23:45.400 --> 00:23:47.559 Padron Real. The master map. The secret map. 00:23:47.779 --> 00:23:50.619 It was a state secret. Every captain returning 00:23:50.619 --> 00:23:53.319 from the Indies had to report directly to Vespucci 00:23:53.319 --> 00:23:56.839 and surrender their logbooks and charts. Vespucci 00:23:56.839 --> 00:23:59.319 would then synthesize that new data to update 00:23:59.319 --> 00:24:02.279 the official master map of the Empire. A copy 00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:04.059 of that map was then given to the next captain 00:24:04.059 --> 00:24:06.519 sailing out. This really validates him, doesn't 00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:08.839 it? If he were just a fraud or a pickle dealer, 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:11.519 the King of Spain would never have entrusted 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:14.000 him with the Empire's most sensitive navigational 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.400 and trade secrets. Exactly. You don't put a con 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:19.210 artist in charge of your nuclear codes. The Spanish 00:24:19.210 --> 00:24:21.829 crown knew he was a competent, serious, and brilliant 00:24:21.829 --> 00:24:25.029 navigator and cosmographer. He held that prestigious 00:24:25.029 --> 00:24:28.029 job until the end. He died in Seville on February 00:24:28.029 --> 00:24:32.349 26, 1512. He was 57 years old. And in his will, 00:24:32.410 --> 00:24:34.450 he left his navigational tools to his nephew, 00:24:34.529 --> 00:24:37.750 right? Yes, Giovanni Vespucci, who in true Vespucci 00:24:37.750 --> 00:24:40.829 family fashion became a pilot himself and then 00:24:40.829 --> 00:24:42.569 got fired from the same Spanish organization 00:24:42.569 --> 00:24:45.029 for spying for the Medici's back in Florence. 00:24:45.470 --> 00:24:47.970 Once a Medici man, always a Medici man. Seems 00:24:47.970 --> 00:24:50.529 so. So let's bring this all back to the Vespucci 00:24:50.529 --> 00:24:53.349 question. His reputation has been on this wild 00:24:53.349 --> 00:24:56.029 roller coaster ride for 500 years. It really 00:24:56.029 --> 00:24:59.269 has. In the early 1500s, thanks to Mundus Novus, 00:24:59.349 --> 00:25:03.269 he was a hero. The discoverer. Then, starting 00:25:03.269 --> 00:25:05.730 with Las Casas in the mid -1500s, the backlash 00:25:05.730 --> 00:25:09.170 hit hard. He was branded a thief who stole Columbus's 00:25:09.170 --> 00:25:12.029 glory. And that hatred lasted for centuries. 00:25:12.049 --> 00:25:14.769 It became the accepted narrative. I have a quote 00:25:14.769 --> 00:25:17.430 here from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American 00:25:17.430 --> 00:25:20.890 philosopher, writing in 1856. And he was not 00:25:20.890 --> 00:25:23.710 a fan. He was firmly in the anti -Vespucci camp. 00:25:23.849 --> 00:25:26.410 Oh, the Emerson quote is absolutely scathing. 00:25:26.410 --> 00:25:28.930 It's the peak of that sentiment. He wrote, strange 00:25:28.930 --> 00:25:31.430 that broad America must wear the name of a thief. 00:25:32.059 --> 00:25:34.579 Amurgo Vespucci, the pickle dealer at Seville, 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.579 whose highest naval rank was Bosun's mate in 00:25:37.579 --> 00:25:39.980 an expedition that never sailed, managed in this 00:25:39.980 --> 00:25:42.359 lying world to supplant Columbus and baptize 00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:45.220 half the earth with his own dishonest name. Pickle 00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:47.960 dealer. It's such a dismissive, powerful insult. 00:25:48.019 --> 00:25:50.539 That sticks. Emerson was channeling the righteous 00:25:50.539 --> 00:25:53.319 anger of centuries of historians who felt Columbus 00:25:53.319 --> 00:25:55.740 got ripped off. But is that fair? Based on our 00:25:55.740 --> 00:25:57.940 deep dive today, what's the modern take? Modern 00:25:57.940 --> 00:26:01.190 historians don't think so. The consensus now 00:26:01.190 --> 00:26:03.730 is that Vespucci himself likely didn't write 00:26:03.730 --> 00:26:06.109 the sensational Sotorini letter that claimed 00:26:06.109 --> 00:26:08.789 he was first. That was almost certainly a publisher 00:26:08.789 --> 00:26:11.269 trying to make a buck by combining and embellishing 00:26:11.269 --> 00:26:14.910 real letters. In a way, Vespucci was framed for 00:26:14.910 --> 00:26:17.480 success he never claimed. When you look at the 00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:20.000 private letters and his incredibly important 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.740 work as pilot mayor, you see a totally different 00:26:22.740 --> 00:26:26.339 person. You see a man who is a competent navigator 00:26:26.339 --> 00:26:29.420 and, more importantly, a brilliant synthesizer 00:26:29.420 --> 00:26:31.240 of information. He was the guy who could see 00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:34.220 the forest, not just the trees. Columbus saw 00:26:34.220 --> 00:26:36.539 islands and coasts and tried to force them into 00:26:36.539 --> 00:26:39.480 his mental map of Asia. Vespucci saw the same 00:26:39.480 --> 00:26:41.180 things and was willing to step back and say, 00:26:41.220 --> 00:26:43.440 hold on, this doesn't fit. This is something 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:45.480 new. It's a kind of intellectual flexibility. 00:26:46.299 --> 00:26:49.700 Or intellectual courage. Exactly. Columbus had 00:26:49.700 --> 00:26:52.440 the drive and the raw courage to cross the ocean 00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:55.339 first. No one can ever take that away from him. 00:26:55.740 --> 00:26:58.220 But Vespucci had the intellectual tools and the 00:26:58.220 --> 00:27:00.599 open -mindedness to understand what had actually 00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:03.940 been found. He realized it was a mundus novus. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.319 And in the history of science and geography, 00:27:06.680 --> 00:27:09.200 understanding a discovery is just as important 00:27:09.200 --> 00:27:11.819 as making it. So maybe he deserves the name on 00:27:11.819 --> 00:27:14.279 the map after all. Or at least we shouldn't feel 00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:16.500 too bad about it. I think we can make peace with 00:27:16.500 --> 00:27:19.400 it. America is named after a man who was curious, 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:22.319 educated, adaptable, and willing to change his 00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:24.440 mind when the data contradicted the established 00:27:24.440 --> 00:27:27.259 theories. That's not a bad legacy for a continent 00:27:27.259 --> 00:27:29.380 when you think about it. It certainly beats being 00:27:29.380 --> 00:27:31.579 known forever as the pickle guy. It certainly 00:27:31.579 --> 00:27:34.660 does. So here's a final thought for you to mull 00:27:34.660 --> 00:27:37.480 over. We often say history is written by the 00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:40.160 victors. But in this case... History was written 00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:42.799 by the writers. Columbus did the heavy lifting. 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:46.000 He braved the unknown. He took the risk. But 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:48.339 Vespucci, or the people writing under his name, 00:27:48.460 --> 00:27:51.500 told the better story. They captured the imagination 00:27:51.500 --> 00:27:54.500 of Europe with tales of a new world, cannibals, 00:27:54.500 --> 00:27:57.400 and strange constellations, while Columbus was 00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:00.000 still arguing about Asian trade routes. It raises 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:02.460 a really profound question, doesn't it? Does 00:28:02.460 --> 00:28:04.539 history belong to those who make the history 00:28:04.539 --> 00:28:06.680 or to those who describe it most effectively, 00:28:06.900 --> 00:28:09.900 the deed versus the word? In the case of Amerigo 00:28:09.900 --> 00:28:12.339 Vespucci and the naming of America, the word 00:28:12.339 --> 00:28:14.720 won. Something to think about the next time you 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:16.960 open Google Maps. That's it for this deep dive. 00:28:17.059 --> 00:28:18.259 Thanks for listening. Thank you.