what was the date that “America” was named?
Named after explorer Amerigo Vespucci in 1507 by a geographer named Martin Waldseemüller. The term originally referred to South America. It appears that Columbus believed the Americas to be part of Asia his whole life, but that Vespucci was the first to realize they were something separate from Asia.
Columbus knew he was mistaken from the first landfall, if you read the ship’s log. He also was an accomplished manipulator. He played on his men’s religious superstitions many times with his magic tricks (like pulling the black stone out of a hat, so that all could see he “had the ear of the saints”). His famous predition of the eclipse to escape Inidian capture is a similar stunt.
But he also knew he would be disgraced if he hadn’t gone far enough. That’s why he ignored the continent so long, despite the fresh water flow from the Orinoco.
He wanted to claim he had been to India for the simple reason he wanted money to sail back. When he got it, plus a hundred extra ships, some military and merchant, he was in real trouble. But he kept aiming at Panama rather than the continents, precisely because he knew it wasn’t India and wanted to continue to search for it, rather than risk losing his sponsors.