Should south and central American people be called "Americans" too?

Question

why not call people from US in some other way? like cubans, bolivians or mexicans?

Ideas: United Staters!! eh?

Or north americans......but what about Canada... are they called Americans too? Why nobody makes a rule,!!?? But a fair reasonable one.

Answer 1

Ok sweetie, first of all ignore the ignorants, they are partially right but they still don't know how to answer the question. Ok here we go.

Amerigo Vespucci or Américo Vespucio in spanish (see the relationship?) was an italian explorer that in 1501 arrived in what now is Guyana (North of "South" América) he sailed through the Amazona River and ended up in Patagonia (The very south of the American Continent).

Américo was the first European that realized that this was a new CONTINENT instead of Asia (What they thought at the begining, that's why we call our natives Indians because that was the destination of Columbus). The news spreaded rapidly over Europe and in 1507 a publication of a map made by the German Martin Waldseemüller using the description given by amerigo (Américo) showed the new land name as AMERICUS (In Latin) or América (Spanish because Americo was with the Spanish explorers) in honor of Americo.

The actual concept of América is the name of what people call North Central and South America which at the end and technically AND CORRECTLY speaking is the name of the whole land that starts in Canada and ends in Argentina. Back then, and, some countries now call americans refering to all people of the new continent (Not only the USA).

Now in the USA, This country was called in honor to that name and also was the first country that became independent from a European authority.

Being called United States of America means States unified in a land called America which means in some kind of selfish and honorable way that the name of USA is America.

The only thing I ask you to do is please know and spread the word because there's people that really don't know how they became what they are, and yes, you can and should refer to American or americans to all people in the new continent and the nationality of the USA citizens, but you have to explain when you mean which one. To finish my answer is that everybody that know the difference and knows how to explain it is right and everybody in this WHOLE CONTINENT is an AMERICAN, the north, central and south definitions came after.

Thanks for letting me finally explain this to everybody. It took me a long time to figure the why's and the how's (I was born in the USA but raised in Venezuela so it helped expand my mind and knowledge).

By the way Bruhaha has a very good point too.

Tootles

Answer 2

Well, with certainty all the people,who inhabit the Continent of America are Amerivans,including South and Central parts..It's common expression "the Americans",meaning USA citizens,but that's neither wrong or right..

Answer 3

Technically, everybody born interior the Americas (North, imperative, and South u . s .) is an American. many times, besides the fact that, purely human beings from u . s . are seen "individuals" by way of something of the international. So it can be a futile argument because it compares the regularly occurring with the technical. whilst i'm asked the place i'm from, I say "Earth". any further questions?

Answer 4

The use of "Americans" by people in the U.S. is NOT due to arrogance (so please leave that particular point out of arguments for U.S. arrogance). It's more due to the accidents of history, including the pride in the early inhabitants in the individual identity of their state.

We are perfectly aware that the other inhabitants of North & South America are "Americans". But we ended up with a different sort of name for our country in which the ONLY part that lends itself to an identifying adjective or name for the people is the "America" part. "United States" is not like "Columbia" or "Mexico" or "Canada" (as attempts like "United Statesmen" or "United Staters" demonstrate).

In fact, the "United States" part is hardly a "proper name". It has nothing to do with a SPECIFIC geogaphic or ethnic unit (as country names usually do). Rather "united" and "states" are just common nouns referring to all the organization of the parts. So, again, "America" is the only 'proper name' part we are left to work with. Now we don't refer to citizens of a country by the part of the name that refers to the organization or form of goverment. We don't, for instance, refer to people in the "Federal Republic OF Germany" (same basic construction as "United States OF America") as "Federalists" or "Republicans" but as "Germans". (The only exception I can think of is our use of "Soviets" for the citizens of the old U.S.S.R., possible in part because no other nation had an organizational system with the "soviet" label.)

And note how it is we ended up with such a name. The historical REASON for the name "United States of America" had nothing to do with the arrogance of a NATION. On the contrary, it was to preserve the emphasis on the uniqueness of the individual states. As is evident in later sectional struggles (most visibly in our Civil War) the people of each colony, then state, thought of their primary identity as citizens of their particular STATE --as "Virginians", "Georgians", etc.-- rather than as citizens of the larger national unit. And so, the (Second) Contintal Congress used a generic title for the collection of these.

Answer 5

When crossing the border from the USA to Canada, they ask what your citizenship is. Sometimes if you answer "American" they laugh and say "yes, everyone on these two continents are American!" What is YOUR citizenship. We are US citizens. Just as people from Canada are Canadian citizens.

Answer 6

I usually say "I'm from the United States," or "I'm a US citizen," precisely because "I'm an American" is–well, imprecise. The term does refer to everybody from the two continents.

-Fuz

Answer 7

Yes they should. They ARE Americans.

Answer 8

Yes they should be called Americans,but what should U.S. citizens be called?Any ideas?

Answer 9

Nope. But you can call em' errrr...South Americans.

Answer 10

Yes they are

US people should be called,....United Statians Lol don't do that.