Amerigo Vespucci was a geographer.
Amerigo Vespucci ( [ ameˈriːɡo vesˈputtʃi ] ; March 9 , 1454February 22 , 1512 ) was an Italian explorer , financier , navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia 's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus ' voyages , but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to Old Worlders . Cartography ( from Greek χάρτης khartēs , `` papyrus , sheet of paper , map '' ; and γράφειν graphein , `` write '' ) is the study and practice of making maps . A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography , the study of Earth 's natural environment and human society .