Geography Question...

The Core RPGC Main Forum
1

This is out of pure curiousity (which is why this isn’t on the homework board).There is a debate on another forum of mine on what “America” is and who “American’s” are. This question is by a Swedish friend of mine who is unfamiliar with North American terms I guess and no one really seems to have a correct answer, so here I am.

One woman suggested that America is an entire continent made up of North, Central and South America. I disagreed with this because well, it’s a natural thing to think that America, in itself represents the US of A. And lots of other reasons too, but saying both continents are called America just because they have “America” in their last name just doesn’t sound right.

So, following that, you’re technically saying that every citizen in North and South America can be called “Americans”. Plus the woman is also saying that America (US) can be classified as a continent, which i believe is also wrong, since that’s like saying Canada or Brazil is a seperate continent in itself.

Can anyone clear this up? If I recall, there was and is only 7 continents, but this term “America” seems to confuse non US citizens apparently (well in that particular forum, it does) and what America is exactly, also.

Explanation? Comments? Shoot.

2

Well I dunno, btu TECHNICALLY “America” would cover North and South America (Two different continents, Central is in fact part of North I believe). But America usually refers to the US of A, generally by Americans, and those who jsut want a quick way to point out the countiy. I think other nationalities consider themselves Americans by virtue of continent, and it’s a bit of a sore spot.

Anyways, that’s what it seems to be. I dunno for sure.

3

There exists North , Central and South America. The US is part of North America and is formally referred to as the United States of America. Americans are citizens of the US. Anyone who lives in other countries is can be qualified as a north, central or south american, however to be “American”, you have to be a US citizen. And the US is not a continent, in fact, its smaller than Canada.

4

Yes, “America” composes of North, South, and Central America. I’ve just completed a project on Brazil. I’ve read that when you go there you should never say “Well, you know, back in America, we…”. You would pretty looked at as a wacko. Brazilians consider themselves American. They’d be pissed if you called them Spanish too. Their official language is Portugese.

5

Hum, to me it seems like this concerns grammar and national identities rather that geography. Well, personally I’m Finnish, and I can’t really understand the way the term ‘American’ is used in USA to refer only to residents of the said country. My take on the subject is that ‘America’ refers to the twin continents of North and South America, and people of those continents are all Americans. Suddenly I feel very fortunate that in my native language there is a single word that means “a citizen of (or something else that originates from) the United States of America”, separate from people and things of the entire continent.

6

Originally posted by BahamutXero
Their official language is Portugese.

Had to highlight on this one:ah-ha!: Yeah I used to think Brazil consisted of mainly Spanish citizens till a couple years ago. Brazil is actually Portuguese, with a smaller mix of French and English. Spanish is there too, and I actually know a girl who speaks a mix of Portuguese and Spanish (she had a technical name for it but I can’t remember…), a language in itself. It’s just interesting to me.

But ah, I didn’t know that we are kinda “Americans by virtue of continent” ( I stole your words!)…maybe that’s what confused me about the whole thing when others were saying that everyone from N and S America were Americans. And Sin probably summed up what I was thinking, except for a few things I didn’t know.

EDIT: Crowley, I think the others determined the numerous usages of the word “Americans”. But your reply left me to ask that, why would US citizens just be called Americans and people from other countries within our two continents be something along the lines of what SS said, Americans by virtue of continent?

7

Brazil is also home to large populations of Africans and Japanese. More Japanese live in Brazil than anywhere else out of Japan.

8

America refers to North, Central, and South America, although StarStorm is right, Central America is indeed part of North America. However, the US is the most powerful country in America, and the rest of America is technically, due to the Monroe Doctrine, inside the US’s sphere of influence. As a result, people in the US feel that when America is mentioned, in reality they are talking about the US. It is as if the US is the capital of America. Also, throw in the fact that US citizens are very nationalistic and ignorant, meaning they feel superior to the rest of America. As to the US being a continent, I have just one word: no.

9

<img src=“http://www.rpgclassics.com/staff/tenchimaru/td.gif”> America is UNCLEAN, and it’s inhabitants are filthy capitalist pigdogs.

10

Well the lady is right on the first count and wrong on the second. Citizens of the U.S. generally use the words America and American because its easier, but it is more accurate to use it to describe both continents and their citizens. Central America is often distinguished from North America because of the cultural difference, but geograhpically speaking, they are the same continent.

Interestingly, in a number of other languages, e.g. Spanish, there is another word for U.S. citizens that essentially means United Statesian, and the country is more often referred to as the United States (Estados Unidos) rather than America.

Perhaps the person forgot that Antarctica is a continent since nobody lives there permanently and so randomly picked a seventh.

11

Originally posted by demigod
Perhaps the person forgot that Antarctica is a continent since nobody lives there permanently and so randomly picked a seventh.

She replied back a few minutes ago and said she was taught that North and South America were the same continent. The lady lives in Belgium, by the way, so maybe things differ there…?

12

Originally posted by BahamutXero
I’ve just completed a project on Brazil. I’ve read that when you go there you should never say “Well, you know, back in America, we…”. You would pretty looked at as a wacko. Brazilians consider themselves American. They’d be pissed if you called them Spanish too. Their official language is Portugese.

No, dude, it’s not like that. I’ve been to all the regions of BR, and everywhere you go nobody would consider him/herself american. When we say ‘american’ and ‘America’ we are ALWAYS meaning ‘someone from US’ and ‘US’. BTW, the term ‘south-american’ is very rare. You’re right about the Spanish part, though.

Now, back to geography. Officialy, the american continent was discovered by Cristopher Columbus in 1498. I’m not getting into the discussion about whether he was or wasn’t the first here, that’s for another thread. But he arrived in Central America, and the place he found was later called America in honor to another captain, Américo Vespúcio.

Mr. Vespúcio was born in Florence (I’m quite sure it’s in Italy). He sailed for the Spanish crown. The thing here is, Américo was already quite famous in Europe for his sailing. He sailed through most of the known world to his time and wrote books about his travels that were all the rage in Europe. A lot of people back then wanted to be Américo Vespúcio, just like nowadays a lot of people would like to be Keanu Reeves or Arnold Swash-something. Add to that, he was the first man to prove that the american continent was not part of India, but rather a New World (hence this famous expression). So, when it came to naming the continent that ranged from the pole of Argentina to the edge of Canada, they put the first name of Mr. Vespúcio in the place.

So, why are united-states-of-america-'ese people called just americans? Well, when the country was formed, way before it got all the 50 states in the collection, it needed a name. Not just any name, but one that looked so cool, that it would impose respect. So the East Coast guys chose United States of America. But you know how people are; humans are about the laziest animals on Earth. They’re so lazy that saying United States of America everytime they refered to the country was too much effort for them, so they said only America. Kinda the affective thing you do when instead of saying (let me pick a random RPGC user) Sir Percival, you say only ‘P’. See, you save a lot of breath and typing. Time passed, and what was just a slang used to save some breath became the norm. Saying America was not lazyness anymore… It had become the right way to say it, at least in the informal level. And since the country is called America, what should people born in there be called?

13

This is what I think:

  1. Only people who live in the U.S. are known as ‘Americans’. People living in Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America are not. For instance, if you were to ask a Canadian: ‘Are you an American?’ He would probably say no or specify that he was a Canadian. As Ren(who lives in Brazil) pointed out, people living in Mexico, Central America, and South America certainly wouldn’t consider themselves to be ‘Americans’.

  2. When people refer to ‘America’ as a continent, they mean only North America, not both North America and South America. People don’t really consider North and South America together to form 'the American continent; they would call it the ‘New World’ instead.

14

Originally posted by Ren
No, dude, it’s not like that. I’ve been to all the regions of BR, and everywhere you go nobody would consider him/herself american. When we say ‘american’ and ‘America’ we are ALWAYS meaning ‘someone from US’ and ‘US’. BTW, the term ‘south-american’ is very rare. You’re right about the Spanish part, though.

Brazilians also consider themselves Americans. Consequently, don’t use the phrase ‘in America’ when referring to the United States.

This is from a cultural business website. If you want to check it out, click here. .

15

I am [u][i]NOT[/i][/u] any stinking American, no offense to all Americans, I’m a Canadian. Sure I live on the continent of North American and could be call a North American but I am in no way, aside from land mass and having cousins in the US, an American. Never have been, never will be, never want to be.

16

Just a note. North and South America are sometimes jointly called The Americas. That may be where calling the two continents as one comes from.

As for Monroe Doctrine, that was later modified by the Roosevelt Corollary to make it stronger or something. Some later president, FDR I think, threw it out so the Americas aren’t treally technically in our Sphere of Influence any more foreign policy-wise.

17

There is no real agreement as to whether North and South America form a single continent or are in fact two continents so generally when you want to avoid trouble you can simply refer to them as North America, South America, and the Americas. The word America is almost always used to refer to the USA, maybe it’s because of a superiority complex, but then tend to forget that just north of the US is the world’s largest country (since the USSR fell), but somehow they just can’t seem to find it on a map. The term American refers specifically to citizens of the US, us Canadians don’t like being called Americans; it makes us feel stupid (you need to have seen one of Rick Mercer’s specials “Talking to Americans” to understand why.) If you want to refer to people living in North or South America then you can use the term North or South American.

So in recap:

Americas: North and South America
America: The United States
American: Citizen of the US
North American: Citizen of Canada, the US, or Mexico (sometimes)
South American: Citizen of a South America, e.g. Brazil, Argentina, etc.
Rick Mercer: Very fun comedian if you like poking fun at Americans.

I hope that clears up any confusion.

18

HEh. Is not like I’m stupid, so keep me out of that stereotype.

19

Originally posted by StarStorm
HEh. Is not like I’m stupid, so keep me out of that stereotype.
You made two errors in that post. >_>

20

It’s silly to approach this as if ‘American’ has some inherent meaning. Popular usage dictates what ‘American’ means. Now, I’ve never, in a conversation, heard of someone from outside the U.S.A. being called an American. If you walk up to someone in the U.S.A., Canada, England, Australia, Japan, or almost any other civilized country, and say, “Hi, I’m an American,” he’ll assume you’re from the U.S.A. That North and South America are continents is irrelevant to people’s existent definition of ‘American.’

Besides, what else could we citizens of the U.S.A. call ourselves? We use ‘American’ because it’s the only logical derivative from ‘United States of America.’

Xwing1056