Alonso de Ojeda Maps Venezuelan Coast

1499

Accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci, the Spanish captain Ojeda charted large sections of the northern South American coast, finding indigenous villages built on piles over lagoons. The resemblance to Venice gave Venezuela, little Venice, its name. The Americas were acquiring their European toponymy through casual analogies. Vespucci's subsequent letters about the coast would lead the cartographer Waldseemueller to name the entire continent America.