A question about the history of america.?

Question

In the 1750's was america called america or did it have a different name before 1776?

Answer 1

I don't quite understand why people are telling you about the naming of the North and South America continents. I assume you already know that and are simply asking whether people of the British colonies that became "the United States of America" were called "Americans" and the territory they lived in called simply "America" beginning at the time of the Revolution, or whether it happened earlier.

It appears that no one who has answered so far has read much of the speeches and writings of people in the colonies and in Britain in the years before the Revolution. Because they would find MANY instances of the British colonists being called simply "Americans" and their territory "America".

Here's a nice collection of examples from members of Parliament during discussions of the Stamp Act.

Charles Townshend
defending the right to pass the act in 1765
- sarcastic response to American complaints:
“Will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence until they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?”
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_founding_era/65035

The following are from the debate about revoking the Stamp Act after the American colonists revolted against it-- in the House of Commons on January 14, 1766

Prime Minister George Grenville
Criticizing the colonies' reaction --
"Great Britain protects America; America is bound to yield obedience."
http://www.bsu.edu/web/cdkemerly/ss350/UNIT2/grenville.htm

William Pitt (the elder)
speaking against the Stamp Act, defending his own position in response to Grenville and others. He rose to "deliver my mind and heart upon the state of America."

(Several clips... read the whole to get the sense):

"I have been charged with giving birth to sedition in America. . . . The gentleman tells us, America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted."

"I am no courtier of America; I stand up for this kingdom. I maintain, that the parliament has a right to bind, to restrain America."

"I will be bold to affirm, that the profits to Great Britain from the trade of the colonies, through all its branches, is two millions a year. This is the fund that carried you triumphantly through the last war.... You owe this to America: this is the price America pays you for her protection."

"America, if she fell, would fall like a strong man."

"The Americans have not acted in all things with prudence and temper. They have been wronged."

http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/politics/pitt.cfm

You may also search in the works/writings of others around this time. For example,
Edmund Burke's works -- just open the following (from the 1760s and early 1770s), and run a search/find for "America"
http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/het/burke/Works01.pdf
http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/het/burke/Works02.pdf


In other words this use of "America" and "Americans" was well-established BEFORE the Revolution.

Answer 2

The continent was America, named after Amerigo Vespucci.

The actual title of "United States of America" came after the British Colonies in North America (excluding those that are now in present day Canada) became states united under a constitution (plus a declaration of their independence from the British Crown).

Answer 3

It depends on what you mean...

The names "North America" and "South America" were used as far back as 1507.

Before 1776, there wasn't one unified political entity in what's now called America. People would refer to the individual colony, or all of them as the "British Colonies."

Answer 4

America was and still is America, but that included and includes the huge landmass south of the United States (and for that matter north of most of it).

There is a pardonable confusion here, since, unlike the citizens of most nations, those of the United States have never had a suitable eponymic. "Yankee" is the most generally used, but it has in this country a very different meaning in the South, and not a pleasant connotation.

I have long been suggesting "Usian" as a way to correct this linguistic lapse, but it hasn't yet caught on.

Answer 5

British North America Province
New England
Province of New Hampshire, later New Hampshire
Province of Massachusetts Bay, later Massachusetts and Maine
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, later Rhode Island
Connecticut Colony, later Connecticut.
Middle Colonies
Province of New York, later New York and Vermont[1]
Province of New Jersey, later New Jersey
Province of Pennsylvania, later Pennsylvania
Delaware Colony (before 1776, the Lower Counties on Delaware), later Delaware
Southern Colonies (depending on the subject under discussion, Virginia and Maryland may be separated as Chesapeake Colonies)
Province of Maryland, later Maryland
Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia
Province of North Carolina, later North Carolina and Tennessee
Province of South Carolina, later South Carolina
Province of Georgia, later Georgia

Answer 6

The continents were called America as far back as 1500 or so.

The United States was not referred to as America until the late 1700s.

Answer 7

At that time, each colony was referred to by it's own name, or maybe the Native American name for the area. There was no "America" then.

Answer 8

It was referred to as the "Americas" a reference to Amerigo Vespucci the cartographer (that's a mapmaker by the way), it was also known as the New World by early explorers and Vinland by the Vikings before them.

Answer 9

"America" north and south, as the continent was known, from 1500 onwards, was named on charts and maps, as such.
This was a result/initiative of an Italian merchant, Amerigo Vespucci, who essentially determined the southern latitudes of South America.
Our declaration of Independence, was drafted as "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen Colonies, of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA"
As Amerigo may have said...FINE

Answer 10

"The Colonies".