Why do other countries call us americans yanks or cowboys?

Question

It does not make any sense!

Answer 1

First, Yanks. Before the Revolution, the British coined the name Yankee Doodle. The American colonists were refereed to as Yankee Doodles. That was a derogatory name for uneducated hicks. The Colonists refused to be insulted by the name, but began to refer to themselves as Yankee Doodles, Yankees, or Yanks.The name stuck, and is still in use.
Cowboys - - The stories of the American settlers battling Indians in settling the West was very popular in Europe. The Wild West show with Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull toured all of Europe and was, by far, the most attended show of its time.
Later books, stories, pictures, paintings,of Cowboys and Indians were everywhere in all of Europe. Many Europeans would dress as cowboys. They put on their own cowboy shows in imitation of the American rodeos.
So Americans and cowboys were closely knit in the minds of Europeans. So when Europeans refer to Americans as cowboys, take it as a compliment.

Answer 2

Well guess they call us Yanks for yankees and cowboys cause we are noted to have those too. I really dont know.

Answer 3

"Yank" originates from a derogatory term the Dutch colonists used toward the English after New York/New Jersey shifted from Dutch to English hands (in the late 1600s); since then the term expanded to cover all northeaterners, then all northerners, and later US citizens in general.

Cowboy comes from the quintessential mid-20th-century Hollywood glamorization of US history.