Without offenses, why do people from united stated call theirself "americans" 2 refer 2 "people who is fromUS"

Question

Isn't America a continent? USA is not all America. Thanks dears!

La guerre: in spanish we call "people from USA" as "estadounidenses" because the name of the country is "Estados Unidos"... Anyway thanks!

Answer 1

Indeed, the America's are a combination of North, Central and South America. United States of America has been refered to as America, and its people as American since the colonial era in the 1700's by the British.

Since the country's name is United States of AMERICA, we can call ourselves American. Generally, if you go anywhere else in the world and you say you're from the US, they will refer to you as American as well.

Of course, anyone else living in these American continents can refer to themselves as American. however the implication of living in the US will be inferred.

Perhaps United Statians?

Answer 2

It's very simple. When the United States was still the British 13 colonies, the English colonists living there called themselves "Americans." The British in England used some different names for them and called them "Yankees" and "Continentals."

However, the name "Americans" eventually stuck and now even the British call us "Americans."

At the same time, the Spanish called their colonists (colonios) in the Western Hemisphere "Criollos." So the name "americano" or American never became associated with them.


The Anglo-American colonists of the 18th century did not pay much attention to Spanish or Latin America and knew very little about it. Latin America did not start becoming important to the United States until about the time of the Civil War (1861 - 1865).

In fact, the name "Latin America" itself was actually coined by the French in the 1860's during the reign of Napoleon III. That is the name they gave to the region. Napoleon the III was interested in setting up a French - controlled Catholic empire in Mexico and also one in Brazil even though he failed.