So, we stole the name America? Did you know there's a football team in Mexico that calls itself America? Where do they get off thinking that they represent an entire hemisphere? And what's up with Costa Rica, Are they the only one's with a Rich Coast? And what about Puerto Rico? And don't even get me started on El Salvador.
The scary thing is the number of people who actually feel this way... But I agree with DanRod... sorta... I don't think the United States of America is a country without a name.. it's just that their forfathers we're people without imagination... I mean no poetic story can be atributed to this, no native roots, nothing.. it's boring... so the ESTADOUNIDENSES are left with a country under an unoriginal name... they had to chose something.. so they chose to say that America is the US and nothing else is America... psssss Chinofan, I'm on your side... but I ain't voting for you
There's also a football team in Colombia that's named America... but they aren't claiming to be the only ones that can use that name... see the difference?
did you read my previous post? it looks like you didn't get it. Webster's Dictionary Continent: any of the main large land areas of the earth, conventionally regarded as units; Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America, and Antarctica. http://www.worldatlas.com/geoquiz/thelist.htm the above link is obviously intended for children, but the point is that kids in the United States are taught differently. Remember that? When we talk about continents, we are referring to geographic entities, not cultural ones. http://www.littleexplorers.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Continents.shtml here is a more detailed website that explains why. guess what? Whereas North America and South America are distinct continents, it turns out Europe and Asia are acutally Eurasia, the same continent!! Somebody better tell UEFA!! Oh my god, I was going to go on, but now I've had a look again at your message and you've said: "I think that Americans started teaching that North and South america are different countries so that they could still the name". It appears that you need to brush up on your English, and maybe than you'll understand why it's okay for Central and South Americans to think of one big America, and it's okay for us to think of North and South America and oh, by the way, America, the country.
I'd say Benjamin Franklin had a pretty rich imagination. http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/inventor.html
How about Australia? Do you have a problem with the continent Australia having a country named Australia in the midst? When the USA was named, the rest of America was owned by the colonial powers in Europe. Therefore, the name United States of America made perfect sense, none of the other states or countries were united or independent. It just so happens that in English (or most other languages) there is no better way to name to name a citizen of a country called "United States of America" than American. It is not a conspiracy to "steal" the name from anybody else, and it has nothing to do with whether there are two continents or one. It is a natural evolution of the first initial name. Btw, growing up in Poland I was taught there was one continent of America. In Polish the country is called Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki (direct translation of USA), and there is no other grammatically correct way to call an inhabitant other than "Amerykanin". German has the same situation by the way. Everywhere in the world (other than Latin America perhaps) an "American" means somebody from the USA. You may not like it, but that's the way the name evolved (due to convenience, not any politics), and you can't expect the rest of world to change to suit your hurt pride.
yeah... and we all know how poetic scientists are, right? and if even if you say he was, then I guess he must have been flying a kite back when the name came up... My country's name came out of over imagination... (I think the spaniards must have been trying some whacky tabacky they stole from the indians...) I admitt the way the name came up is relativly stupid... why can't you admitt that the United States of America is a no-brainer name...? oh, BTW, here we're taught that you guys are the United States of North America... but not because it's two separate continents, just a region.. PS: I can testify that in the States they do teach a different geography than here... but in Europe, they agree with us... (see, I'm not saying wrong or right...)
If you want to make Hispanics (Latinamericans, latinos) happy, start teaching that from Mexico to Argentina it's all one continent and USA and Canada are a different continent. So, if "America" is the name of the USA. Why doesn't anybody cheer "America, America, America"
Australia: If you define this continent by the tectonic plate it looks like it should be called IndiaAustralia. http://www.littleexplorers.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Continents.shtml
This is from Webster: Main Entry: Amer·i·ca Pronunciation: &-'mer-&-k& Usage: geographical name -1 either continent (N. America or S. America) of the western hemisphere -2 or the Amer·i·cas /-k&z/ the lands of the western hemisphere including N., Central, & S. America & the W. Indies -3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA What do you think the "american" part in south-american, central-american or north-american means? Of course it is not taken as a reference point with USA. So America has always had a meaning. What I'm saying is that the sum of south, central and north-america is called America since centuries ago. This is before USA had a name. I can't believe there's people that can't see this. I'm not lying or crazy (in this ). It's a fact Another fact is that most of the world call american to US people (de facto). What I say is that I'm tired of being corrected when I say I'm american. Teachers in latin-america should teach that US people are called the same way as us, whatever reasons for this. Also, 'american' teachers should teach that America is also the name of this hemisphere and there are more americans than US citizens/people born there. The historical mistake of calling a country with the name of the geographical zone is already done and it's too late to correct. But at least people should know about the fact that America has 2 meanings. The main meaning for me is 'continent'/western hemisphere. Nice to see someone agrees with me Loloy.
Well smallpox is a special kind of disease. Furthermore, aspects of the Indian culture and society (a tragic coincidence) helped spread the disease more than you'd normally expect, and the Indians suffered enormously. A lot of people from a lot of different ethnicities died from bullets in this country in the 19th century, but the Indians took the brunt of smallpox.
Isn't your normal response in these threads: "Get the hell off my continent!"? God Bless Vespucciland!
You must have just skimmed my posts. They were very educational. In fact, I notice your punctuation has improved tremendously just from having skimmed them. Imagine the benefits that would have accrued to you had actually taken the time to be thorough.
Is it for me. I like to know what other people think about the topic. I always wonder about this. See that we even have the "Copa America" tournament. I have a very strong belonging feeling to America so it's curious the way you think about it there in the north.
And your post greatly raises the level fo the educational content... This thread is much more educational than most here. Feel free to contribute.
I hope Mexicans take over the 'USA', change all the currency to pesos, make Spanish the official language, make people in the US celebrate independence day on May 5th (I know is not their independence day). And worst of all, open the borders until there's a mexican selling burritos in every single corner of the US.
That's never going to happen. about half way there on that one. We already celebrate that day...cheap beer, margueritas, and discount tacos. the borders might not be open, but the other is pretty much true in any major city
What would have happened if the South was succesful in seceding from the Union. That would have meant that there were going to be 2 Americas, beside the continent of America. USA = United States of America CSA = Confederate States of America So, which ones would have been called americans, the union or the confederates? What a mess. My guess is that USA citizens would still be called americans, or north americans. But, how do we call confederates, South Americans? , American Southeners? Someone said before that this is a ridiculous discussion. I don't think so, I think this is a valid discussion and an important one because names and words do mean something. We see everywhere names and words being used incorrectly. As an example, some Christians (from new Protestant churches) are led to believe that Catholics are not Christians. Sounds ridiculous, but there are some people that believe that. I think Protestants don't like the name protestant, therefore they want to call themselves Christians, and making people believe that Catholics do not belong to the Christian (protestant) faith. Dangerous believe, but it is happening as we speak. If we don't fight against it, in 10 years Catholics will not be Christians in US culture. Do you guys see the connection with the words Soccer/Football. Association Football never fought for the word football, therefore we are stuck with naming our beloved sport Soccer, which is a really ugly name. American Football should have been called "American Rugby" as it is understandably called in Italy.
This whole discussion makes me wonder what people from the Central African Republic call themselves. As far as the Civil War I'd imagine that the people of the CSA would have called themselves Confederates, while the Union would have kept the term Americans. All of this reminds me of my mother and youngest brother (the only one who was schooled entirely in American schools) fighting about how many continents there are (I always said four by combining the Americas and counting Eurasia and saying Australia wasn't really a continent but just a really big island) and who is an American. My mother would always correct us, because it's just easier to say American, and there's really nothing you can do about it.
We're the only country to refer to the continent in our name - thus, we're American first and foremost. Others belong to their country first, their continent second. (So whether you say South American or just American, if you're from Bolivia, you're a Bolivian first.) We're screwed by name stealing accusations at every turn (others are United States of something something)- but that's backwards, because we've been an independant country for longer than most of them. We've hodgepodged together an identity - we cheer U.S.A, we're American, but the word can also refer to others from that continent. I don't understand how me using the word to refer to myself means that no one else can use it - but I also think it makes sense to clarify, if you are from the continent: "I'm continentally American, but not from the United States of America."
The problem may not be you, or how you use it Femfa, but you'd be surprised how some "americans" react when I or a fellow south or central american friend uses it... plus, admitt that if you're outside of the US and you ask someone : are you an american?, you're refering to the country, not the continent... I think I'll just stick with calling you gringos, not to insult you guys, but just because it inspires no historical/political debate... Oh and by the way, we don't think Australia is a continent... we call that continent OCEANIA... wich has Australia, New Zealand, and a bunch of other islands
It's easy to admit that I use "Americans" primarily to mean those from the U.S. - for the exact same reason that I specified above that I use it to describe myself- we're the ONLY country to have the continent as part of our name. When I'm refering to Spanish-speaking America, I say "Latin America" - when I refer to anything south of Panama, I say, "South America." From Panama up to Mexico's Southern border, I'll say "Central America". Mexico, Canada and the U.S. are "North America." If I mean the whole continent I specify, "The American continent" and if I mean everyone who resides there, I say "Continental Americans" or "The New World" I don't ask people if they're American (meaning the continent) for the same reason I don't ask if they're European - it's not specific enough. There are vast ranges is culture and language - and besides who seriously identifies themselves primarily by their continent? I'll ask - Are you French? Swiss, etc. In Spain, that's still not good enough - they'll generally specify even what city they're from. Gringos? Great - that's nice. Basically, the whole American debate is just an excuse then to choose to call us by lazy and insulting names and then claim that it's our fault.
As far as I know, most "Americans (continent)" see themselves as americans in the same way as Europeans see themselves as europeans and Africans see themselves as Africans. We see each other (Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, etc) somewhat like if we were from the same country. In the same way as Europeans and Africans do. That's the problem with the US taking over the name "America". "Americans (USians)" don't give a damn, because they don't give a damn about anything south of the US except for Cancun and Jamaica.