Every Columbus day, I wander over and over on the same question. Why was named after Amerigo and not Columbus?
Both were Italian travelers, who have explored seas looking for a fortune. They cam across America, and gave their own reviews on the land they saw. But why was it that they did not consider Columbus before naming America after Amerigo.
Columbus explored and discovered New World, which included Americas and Australia, which were further analyzed by Amerigo as an existing fourth continent. Before that the world is known to only three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa.
It was in 1507 when America was named and identified as a continent. But it was in 1506 when Columbus died, with the wrong assumption that the land he discovered is colonized part of India.
I don’t believe that America was named after Amerigo; rather the naming must have some other theory behind it.