Why do United Staters think they're the only Americans?

Question

and whose idea was it to divide the American Continent (New World, The Americas, etc) into North and South?

Answer 1

Uh... "United Staters" do not think they're the only Americans, first of all. Americans (well, most of them anyway... but we're not talking about inbred Bubba here) know perfectly well that the American continent has other countries than the USA.

This is a language question, not a geography question really. It's just the way English works. It's the same in German, French, Arabic, Russian (Amerikaner, Américains, Ameriki, Amerikanskiy)... but in Spanish I believe that if you say you're "Americano", it means you're from the American continent, not that you're from the the USA.

Answer 2

We don't think this, despite the fact that the rest of the world refers to us as America or as Americans. When a German says  that's an American over there, he means a citizen of the United States. We refer to ourselves as Americans simply because we are Americans,  That same German might refer to a person from Chile as a South American. The person from Chile is free to call himself  an american, if he is so inclined, but people will mistakenly assume he is a US citizen.

We refer to others as South Americans or Central Americans when we don't know the specific country they are from. Both US and Canadian citizens can be described as North Americans. However if a Canadian refers to himself simply as an american he will cause the same confusion as the Chilean I reference above.

Place names tend to indicate geographic location by including North, East, West or South,. Governments adopt such names because it would be confusing not knowing which part of of a couple of large continents you are referring to simply as "America" for example.



That The United States  Of America came to be referred to simply as America is simply a result of people shortening the name for brevity.

Answer 3

You are wrong senior!! It is not possible for Mexico to be called United States of Mexico.Los mexicanos don't dig it.What they want is for the gringos to speak their language and drink tequila in barrels with all the nasty worms in it.!!

Answer 4

"you don't see united Chile of America

do you? i think not... "

Well, no...  However I DO see about 7 populated countries in Central America, and 12 countries in South America. They are all "Americans" too.

To answer the 1st part of your question, "Why do United State-rs think they're the only Americans?" -

Because some of us didn't pay enough attention in school. Some of us didn't pay enough attention to this question.Then there are some of us who will never travel outside of the U.S. and really don't spend much time thinking about  it.

Contrary to the last 2 answers before me,there are many of us who DO realize we are not the only Americans.

I will let someone else answer the 2nd part of your question.

Hope this helps!

C. Girl

Answer 5

hello UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!

you don't see united Chile of America

do you? i think not...

hmmm..