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I guess the notion that America includes South, Central and North America has something to do with the perspective. America = the New World as one unit so to speak, everything beyond the Atlantic ocean...
That is also why, unlike US Americans, we don't think the US is anything special over there, it is just one of dozens of American countries...
How is that a weak argument? Please tell me the country that used "America" offically before the US? Is it wrong for the people of the "United States of Mexico" to call themselves Mexicans?
It is exactly like Greece's objection to the country of Macedonia using the that name. There argument is that "Macedonia" is a traditional territory which includes the new country, and the northern portion of their country. They feel that the name encroaches on their sovereign territory. That is why you see it on a map using the acronym F.Y.R.O.M. or the "former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia".
Mexico is a name that was used by the ruling tribes of the Aztecs. No one outside of the country uses the name. It doesn't encroach on any traditional name in a country in South America.
Had the country been named "The Republic of the Aztecs and Mayans" then there would be a lot of objections from Guatemala.
The name America was kind of hijacked by the US. The term America had already been used for South America before there was any USA. So it is odd to assume that the US has any more right to that name than any other American country, just because they decided to include the name of the continent in the name of their new country.
The continent received its official name (America) in 1507. German cartographer Martin Waldessmüller named the continent "America" after Amerigo Vespucci and the first official map showing the new continent was printed in 1507. "America" only applied to the southern hemisphere exclusively in the beginning.
This is why the use of "America" and "American" by the USA is resented by Americans (I mean "born in the Americn continent"). It seems to be that schools in the USA don't teach this part of history because many are shocked when told the original story.
I always use "American" to mean "born in the American continent".
The continent received its official name (America) in 1507. German cartographer Martin Waldessmüller named the continent "America" after Amerigo Vespucci and the first official map showing the new continent was printed in 1507. "America" only applied to the southern hemisphere exclusively in the beginning.
This is why the use of "America" and "American" by the USA is resented by Americans (I mean "born in the Americn continent"). It seems to be that schools in the USA don't teach this part of history because many are shocked when told the original story.
I always use "American" to mean "born in the American continent".
...you can definitely do that!
But, you'd certainly be considered obnoxious, self-righteous, and annoying by most people out there that you'd meet.
You're self-righteous lecturing style with negative assumptions, would create an immediate 'avoid that idiot' mental note in pretty much any social situation.
Last edited by Tiger Beer; 03-07-2015 at 08:32 PM..
But, you'd certainly be considered obnoxious, self-righteous, and annoying by most people out there that you'd meet.
You're self-righteous lecturing style with negative assumptions, would create an immediate 'avoid that idiot' mental note in pretty much any social situation.
I would say it is the other way round. The USA is regarded as arrogant and arbitrarily appropriatting these terms that have described and indetify Americans for centuries.
Now, I don't think most United Statesians are arrogant, but certainly the country doesn't teach this piece of history in schools.
I would say it is the other way round. The USA is regarded as arrogant and arbitrarily appropriatting these terms that have described and indetify Americans for centuries.
Now, I don't think most United Statesians are arrogant, but certainly the country doesn't teach this piece of history in schools.
When people start a conversation at that level, than it creates an image that the person on the other side starts in a negative, annoying and self-righteous place.
The negative ASSUMPTION that 'United Statesians' don't know where the word America comes from. That kind of condescension is annoying, obnoxious, and self-righteous.
What's next? You're going to spend a couple hours looking for links to validate your negative-based self-righteous centered on attacking 'the other,' in this case, 'United Statesians'? Sounds like a lovely Sunday you are creating for yourself.
I would say it is the other way round. The USA is regarded as arrogant and arbitrarily appropriatting these terms that have described and indetify Americans for centuries.
Now, I don't think most United Statesians are arrogant, but certainly the country doesn't teach this piece of history in schools.
The US is referred to as America because it was the first independent nation in the Western Hemisphere and the most powerful empire in the world at the time the British Empire called people from the new nation Americans. That is what the rest of the world went on to call the people from the United States of America. That's all across the world for over two centuries now.
Tiger Beer is right you definitely come off ass arrogant and annoying and as someone to just avoid dealing with. I mean you only resurrected a dead thread that had it's last response back in 2013 and had really ended in 2012.
I'm a New Yorker ! sounds more cool !
And I don't give a *** about how Canadians feel.
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