Amerigo Vespucci

It was not until 1507 that people began to realize that what Columbus had discovered was not a new route to India, but instead was a completely new world. The first person to suggest that this was the case was an Italian explorer by the name of Amerigo Vespucci.

Because he was the first to realize that a new world had been discovered, map makers began calling this new land the ‘Americas’ in honor of him.