What was America called before it was erm…America
I’m not exactly clear what the question really is asking.
America as a land (continent) was called America (presumably after Amerigo Vespucci, although let’s not get into that debate here) from the early 16th century.
Eventually. Britain established a number of colonies in America, thirteen of which became the United States of America. Before that they were called by the name of the individual colony.
I would imagine that in Europe they were called the United States or America soon after the revolution.
Perhaps The New World"
Read Dave Wilton’s thoughts at http://www.wordorigins.org/wordora.htm#america
Vinland, maybe?
Later, it was Cipangu and India and wherever else Columbus thought he’d landed.
We were the southern 3/4 of His Britannic Majesty’s Colonies in North America (the four Confederation provinces of Canada being the other 1/4).
I don’t think the Native Americans had a word for the entire continent; there were probably many words for “land,” or “earth,” or whatever areas they needed to name.
There were four other British colonies in North America in 1776, but they weren’t the four that became the original provinces in 1867.
The four were the old province of Quebec (which at that time included much of what is now southern Ontario); Nova Scotia (which at that time included New Brunswick); Prince Edward Island (originally part of Nova Scotia, but made a separate colony in 1769); and Newfoundland.
New Brunswick was made a separate colony in 1784, partly in response to the influx of Loyalists. Old Quebec was divided into two new colonies, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, by the Constitutional Act, 1791, but those two colonies were later reunited into the Province of Canada by the Union Act, 1840. In 1867, three colonies entered Confederation: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Province of Canada, which was split again into the new provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
Oops! :o
Thanks for the clarification – I did know that Quebec and Ontario had been united for a while, but wasn’t aware of the distinction between the four colonies of 1776 and the four that formed Confederation in 1867. (At least I got the number right!)
“Terra Incognita” or “Terra Occidentalis” (or something like that). I also seem to remember that the Vikings had names for 4 regions in North America (Vinland being one of them), but I can’t seem to find them with Google.
You’re welcome, Polycarp. I know from trying to teach this stuff that it’s not that easy to keep straight.