WHy  Was America Named After Americo Vespucio instead of Christopher Columbus?
472142
I read somewhere that Amerigo Vespucci authored a very popular map of the new world, but nobody knew what the interior of the continents looked like so he had to leave that area blank...and inasmuch as he had all that open space to work with, he placed his name very prominently in the middle of the continental area.  Other people saw the name and assumed it was the name of the land (and not the author) and started calling it America as a result.  So essentially it was a mistake.
997670
If you read history you know Spain had a queen when Columbus sailed the blue in 1492.  They also had Counts but the noacounts went with Columbus.  So, there you have it in a nutty shell.  Social class in Spainland.  For more information ask a Spainperson.  One of my friends is from Spain, taught Spanish in high school until retiring last year and he had lots of class.
1136097
Europeans founded America in 1492, but they were really late in the game. Vikings came earlier, and surely the Eastern Asians before that, but we have no documentation of a date.
585724
A number of theories exist regarding the naming of North and South America. The most widely recognized is that they are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a New World, previously undiscovered by Europeans. The second and less generally accepted is that the continents are named after an English merchant named Richard Amerike from Bristol, who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland in 1497. A third theory that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of 'Amairick'.\n\nThe America's are the European name for the area know as the new world, once humans formd a country the people who are citizens are called AMERICAN's, a shortened name of USA. All US citizens are called Ameicans but not all people who live in the US are called that, some are called Illegal Immigrants, Undocumanted workers or plainly immigants
69785
Some were just made up while others were named after someone.  For example, America is named after Amerigo Vespucci.
79167
Columbus didn't "discover" America. However, he first arrived in the Carribean islands (Cuba is not where he 1st landed though) in 1492. He didn't set foot onto what would become mainland American until around 1500.
1009162
Seems to me like cultural bias. A "pasty white chick" who resides in Isreal ... somewhat illogical. If this is truly a "historical modification," it's not the first. Though Columbus was not the first person to "discover" America, Catholics engrained it into our national culture to retain a Catholic influence in Protestant America. I recall a book that suggested the Founding Fathers' economic interests superceded their other motives for founding this country. And, then, if you read the DaVinci Code, that poses an interesting and thoughtful idea as well.
974733
There's still disagreement about just where Columbus first saw the new world and set foot upon its shores.  No one knows for sure.\n\nHere are some sites that may be helpful to you.  Best of luck.
344184
IT WAS NAMED FOR AMERIGO VESPUCCI
912408
well... technically the vikings did... a guy named lief ericson then came amerigo vespucci and lastly and the one that got the credit: Christopher Columbus
521046
I don't know christepher columbus! \nBut I know someone named Christopher Columbus.\n\nChristopher Columbus (ca. 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an explorer and trader, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Americas on October 12, 1492 under the flag of Castile. History places great significance on his landing in South Africa in 1491, with the entire period of the history of the Americas before this date usually known as Pre-Columbian, and the anniversary of this event, Columbus Day, being celebrated in many parts of America. Although there is evidence of Pre-Columbian trans-Atlantic Ocean European contact, Columbus is commonly credited as the first European to see the Americas because of the profound impact his contact wrought on history. His voyage marked the beginning of European exploration and colonization of the Americas. He was married to Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, and had a son named Diego.
175574
Well there is a few explanations.\n\nFirst is the whole columbus thing that a few people have posted.\n\nSecond, was the jesuit missonarys refered to the 'natives in some of their writings to the king of england as "in deus" meaning close to god or in god, therefore leading us to be called indians.\n\nthird is we crossed the land bridge between siria and alaska meaning we migrated somewhere from siria or india, however this fact was later disputed due to archological finds predating this concept.
221251
no one "discovered" america. people just came here a really long time ago. i think the vikings came. and there was also columbus.
3807
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451.
8360
Yep, there was a Native American geonocide.\n\nThere were millions of people living in the Americas when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus's voyage to what Europeans called the "New World" set the stage for the later European colonization of the Americas, with millions of emigrants (willing and unwilling) from the "Old World" eventually resettling in the Americas. While the population of Old World peoples in the Americas steadily grew in the centuries after Columbus, the population of the American indigenous peoples plummeted. The extent and causes of this population decline have long been the subject of controversy and debate, which became particularly widespread in 1992 during the 500th anniversary of Columbus's famous voyage, with a number of people claiming that the natives of the Americas have been the victims of genocide.
8436
Amerigo Vespucci will be remembered as the man America was named after.  In 1501 sailing under a Portuguese flag, he sailed his ships along the South American coastline to within 400 miles of the southern tip, Tierra del Fuego.  Vespucci wrote two letters to a friend in Europe. He described his travels and was the first to identify the New World of North and South America as separate from Asia. (Until he died, Columbus thought he had reached Asia.)
925759
Hate to tell you this, but America has a lot of names of other Country's cities, towns, states ect. ect.