Why and when did this happen, that the United States of America is often recognized or called the name of the continent? What about the other 34 countries and the dependent territories in the American continent? But what do I know I was born in the United Mexican States.
Well, we’re not calling ourselves “North Americans”, just “Americans”, so we’re not referring to our country by naming the continent. Only Australians get to do that.
Yes, the full official name of this country is “United States of America”, but then again the official name of Germany is “Federal Republic of Germany”, and China is really “People’s Republic of China”. So, for short, it’s just “America”.
At least, that’s how I see it.
D
When is a long time ago. “America the Beautiful” dates from 1893. “God Bless America” dates from 1918 so the usage certainly goes that far back, I’d think, and I suspect much further.
As to why that’s speculation. I’d suggest that “United States of America” is just too long a phrase to use. Logical shortenings are “United States” and “America.” Both are used some. United States has the problem that there are other united states – Mexico for one as you point out. If the USA was always referred to as the United States, I imagine people might be asking, “Why the United States? There are other united states.”
Here’s a good rundown of the various notions of how America got named “America”.
As noted we are the United States of America. We can be just “The United States” or even “The States” and as a shortening to avoid a mouthful we call ourselves Americans since it is part of the name.
Definitely further than that. I’m looking through Google Books and find, for example, “The history of the American Revolution, Volume 2”, by David Ramsay, published in 1811. In this book, the author uses American as an adjective and a noun to refer to the people of the USA and also uses “America” to refer to the USA.
Is that ALWAYS how you refer to your birth country?
As people ( at least me ) have noted before, there was at one time at least one other country that used America in the name - the FRCA/UPCA. If it were still in existence using the name American as a short-hand would be confusing and problematic. However that nation dissolved shortly after inception. As no other country on either continent currently incorporates America in its descriptor, American is the best term we have. USAers or United Statesians are beyond cumbersome.
Why? Because they were the first independent nation in the hemisphere*. They called dibs.
*Not counting the Native Americans, which nobody did anyway.
On another note, what was the United States of America called before independance from the British? The thirteen colonies?
Even after the revolution was over some parts of the US were colonies of other countries - Florida was claimed by Spain, and big chunk of the center of the US was claimed by France. Alaska was Russian territory and so on.
And at that time, “America” was a shorthand for “the land where the U.S.A. is located” – and the Hispanic nations were only beginning to declare their independence of Spain. Brazil was 11 years from becoming an empire, 70-odd years from a republic. Canada was a group of loyal self-governing colonies. “America” meant either the two continents, most of which was an assortment of colonies, or the single independent English-speaking nation extant, which incorporated “America” in its name to boot.
The Confederation Congress, which met after the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, styled themselves “The United States in Congress Assembled.” I’m not sure if they ever put “of America” in there, but that phrasing does appear in the preamble to the current US Constitution, ratified in 1789.
British North America?
The US Declaration of Independence, 1776, was officially titled “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled.”
(In the musical 1776, the character of Andrew McNair, the Congressional Custodian, speaks up to object to “the United States of America” as a name for a country, but is reminded that he isn’t a member of congress by John Hancock.)
Why are people in English speaking countries taught their are 2 continents, North and South America while we are taught here in México, and in other Spanish speaking countries as well, that it is one continent, América?
And FWIW I have no problem with people from the USA calling themselves Americans although technically all residents of América are Americans. To us, you are estadounidenses or norteamericanos and occasionally americanos.
There’s no generally accepted definition of what constitutes a continent. The division of the Americas into a northern and southern half is pretty arbitrary and seems to be just a matter of tradition.
True enough, but at it’s narrowest point, the isthmus of Panama is less than the length of land connecting Africa and Asia (the Suez Canal is 120 miles long), yet few people few them as one continent.
The (English) American colonies were collectively called “The American Colonies” before the American Revolution.
The colonies were independent of each other, so an Englishman of 1700, for instance, would have said “I’m going to Virginia Colony” rather than saying “I’m going to America”, and would have said “I’m going to the American Colonies” if he meant to visit more than one single American colony.
Also, they were English colonies, not British colonies, until the Acts of Union of 1707, so nobody called them “British colonies” before that and (as far as I know) after that either, since while “The Kingdom of Great Britain” was the official name of what we now call “the United Kingdom” between 1707 and 1801, when it became “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”, nobody called it anything but “England” in general usage until well into the 19th century.
As the Shakester says, the nickname “Americans” was popular with the English, and was used even before the Revolutionary War. We just kinda picked it up from there. No rational reason why.
I don’t speak Spanish - but I’m guessing those last two translate to, roughly, “United Statesians” and “North Americans”. Regarding the second - what do you call Canadians?