Why America and not  Columbia?  (Second Part)

 History of a little known fraud

Danilo Anton

6) A secret expedition arrives to the shores of Amerrique

The King Fernando, who was never at ease with the titles and prerogatives that the Crown had given to a foreigner, decided to find out from trustable sources the characteristics and potentiality of the new lands, without the intermediation of Columbus.

With the financial help of the House of Berardi, now under the responsibility of Alberico Vespucci, he decided to organize a new expedition under the command of experienced and trustable Spanish sailors.

The selected captain was Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, who had been in charge of La Niña during the first Columbus trip.

The other vessels went under the command of Juan de la Cosa (who had also participated in Columbus 1st trip, and had revealed to be an excelent cartographer) and Juan Díaz de Solís. Alberico Vespucci was going to accompany the expedition in his double character of representative of the financing agency and prestigious geographer.

7) The Medici Bank financed the Atlantic travel

The Medici Bank was the most important commercial and banking conglomerate of Europe during the last half of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth.

Heirs to the financial acumen of the Knights of the Order of the Templars, the Medici built an economic empire of great power and historical projection. In a large measure, the origin of the Medici’s fortune was due to their role as administrators of the Pope properties, as well as to the monopolies obtained thanks to their relations with the Church authorities, and clever lobbying in the corridors of the Council of Constance during the second half of the fourteenth century and the first decades of the fifteenth century.

When the Moorish kingdoms of Andalusia were defeated, and the Atlantic commercial routes to Madeira, the Canary Islands, Africa and the Indies were open, the Medicis were present in Seville commissioning expeditions and buying and selling slaves, gold, ivory, fabrics, and other profitable products.

After 1489 their representative in Seville was Gianeto Berardi, recommended by Alberico Vespucci himself, who has met Berardi during his first trip to Seville in that same year.

After the fall of Granada and the first trip of Columbus to America, the House of Berardi, channelled its investments towards the financing of transatlantic expeditions to the Indies. Important sums were lent to the Crown with high interests (above 10% per annum) with the expectation that they were going to be timely repayed with the riches obtained from beyond the seas.

8) King Fernando’s expedition arrives to the new continent

King Fernando’s fleet left the port of Cadiz on May 10^th, 1497.

After crossing the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea, the vessels arrived to the coast of Cariari in September or October of the same year.

From the sea, the explorers were able to discern the outline of distant mountains and a long straight sandy coastline.

Perhaps, this was the Asian continent mentioned by Columbus, or more likely, as Vespucci suspected, the view of new lands, separated from Asia by still wider seas.

9) The natives of Cariari wore gold ornaments

The boats landed on a large white sandy beach which ended in a rocky point (probably the present port of Limón). Local natives, who inhabited wooden and straw houses, approached the Europeans with a friendly attitude. They told them that their country was called Cariari (today Costa Rica). They wore various golden ornaments, such as necklaces and bracelets, arousing the greed of the sailors.

10) Amerrique awas the land of the gold

When the Spaniards asked what was the origin of the jewels, the native informers pointed toward the far away mountains, repeating the word: Amerrique.

11) The existence of a new continent was proved

The fleet continued its route due North along the Central American coastline, the Gulf of México and Florida. This route proved them that Cuba was an island and not an Asian peninsula as Columbus thought. A few months later, Juan de la Cosa would draw the first map of the continent showing clearly the two Americas and the Caribbean lands, depicting Cuba as a separate island.

After 17 months of travelling they returned to Spain in October 1498, providing the King with a detailed report of their experiences and observations.

A few weeks before the arrival of Yánez Pinzón to the peninsula, Columbus had left for his third trip (initiated in June 1498), from which he would return in chains a couple of years later.

Yánez Pinzón expedition was recorded for posterity in the second letter of Vespucci, written in 1504 and published in 1506, eight years after the end of the trip.

12) The news spread in the sailors circles of the Spanish ports

After the fleet arrived to Seville, the 150 sailors who had participated in the trip, starting telling their story in the Andalusian taverns of the sea ports. A new land had been discovered, its name was Amerrique. In the Castilian-Mozarabe argot of Southern Spain, the word was pronounced “America”.

13) The name America was known throughout Europe

The news spread very fast through the Italian ports, in Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Venice and Naples, and from those cities to the rest of the continent. In the years 1500 through 1502 there were many people in France, Germany and even England who knew that there was a very rich continent with plenty of gold on the other side of the Ocean. Its name was America.

14) Florence and Machiavello government

By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence, the capital of Tuscany was the main financial power of Europe. She was the home of the Medici Bank, who was the administrator of the Pope properties, and had made a fortune charging a very important commission for their services.

15) The politics of Florencia

Recently, the events of Tuscany’s politics had weakened the Republic facing its traditional adversary: Genoa. In 1494, Fray Savonarola, an austere and sectarian monk had taken power in Florence, and four years later, when Savonarola was executed in the public square, a new Gonfaloniero (president) was installed, Piero Soderini. The secretary of state of the new government was a young and intelligent administrator called Niccolò Machiavelli

From the books "Amerrique, Orphans of Paradise"  and "The Largest Fraud in History" of Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones