Can't all north Americans be considered Americans?

Question

if you live in africa then you would be african if you live in asia you would be conciderd asian. so how come people call mexicans mexicans and canadians canadiana and only call the people in the US americans shouldn't we be call United statian or something

Answer 1

North and South Americans can refer to themselves as Americans, to be technical about it.

It goes back to the genesis of our country. Canada and Mexico are actual names of countries. The states all have names, too. But the United States was at the begining a discription, and it was meant that way. The federal government was supposed to have as little power as possible, with responsibility that COULD be allocated to the states BEING allocated to the states. Therefore, the federal government was referred to as "the federal government of these united states." Note no capital letters, and the plural tense. In popular culture the federal government was just a entity on paper, necessary but not wanted. People used to say, for example, "The united states are in recessions", referring to all the states as entities, not a single country as an entity. People did not refer to themselves in terms of a country, only states - Californian, Texan, Virginian.

That all changed with the Civil War. The influence of the Civil War was so profound that the entire mindset of popular culture in the US changed. "united states" went from being a discription to the name of our country, "The United States". Even though grammatically it is wrong ("The United States is in a recession" is not grammatically correct) the accepted usage changed.

This creates a problem - as a name, we could call ourselves "United Statesers" or "United Statesians" but these are clumsy and awkward. Before the Civil War, when people wanted to refer to themselves at the federal level, they just called themselves "Americans" because the country didn't have a name, only the government did (Federal), so they just used the name of the continent. The term also applies to Mexicans, Canadians, and everyone else in the New World - but these countries started out with names so the citizens had no need to refer to themselves as Americans. By the Civil War, there was already a 250 year history of referring to ourselves first by the State, then by the Continent.

At this point, even by the end of the Civil War, precident made it impossible to change.

Answer 2

No. Note that the continent is called "North America". People in Canada and Mexico are North Americans. Only those who live in the Unties States of America are "Americans".

Answer 3

Different areas like to be called different thing, and plus there are different countries. An Asian, might say that he is Chinese, Japanese, Laotian, or Philippine. African might Say that the are Nigerian, Egyptian,or South African. You can not lump people together it will not work

Answer 4

From the top of Canada down to the tip of Argentina... we are all Americans.

Answer 5

For the same reason you always call tissue paper Kleenex, even if it's Puff's: it's just become associated with us in language.

Answer 6

Because America rules the world! We are all powerful and can force anybody to do anything! And we would hate to be confused with weaker nations.

Answer 7

you would think wouldn't ya. makes since

Answer 8

....... why north American .......... why not south also ............. just because U.S.A. is such a dominating force that ............ it is accepted as Americans ............