Wouldn’t “Columbia” be a more likely name than “Columbusia”, considering that Columbus personally changed his name from Colombo to make it more Latin-ized?

[...] ‘AMERIC’ — A segment of 36 Square Surface Feet of 12 Wooden Panels — and Receptive, the Country — was Feminine. — America was named. — We wonder where is ‘Waldseemüller’ hiding — other than in his work. — Columbo wore a dirty old trench Coat. — Perception of time and space changes, — even for us, — a segment of a clerk: — Always changing what is wrote, — Linking to what we see as relevant, — Holding on and Letting go. — America the Beautiful — North and South and Central — Surrounded by Seas and Oceans — And Politics just for show. –>>L.T.Rhyme This entry was posted in DEMOCRAZY, DICTCOMHOTWORD, L.T.Rhyme and tagged Democracy, LT, LTRhyme, the HOT WORD by admin. Bookmark the permalink. [...]

Merci Beaucoup, Oui, Lady Liberty?

America comes from the ATLANTEAN language (meaning,I AM RACE

Nice history! Some good stuff here. THANKS!!!

I dislike Blogchi. I think he should be banned. He never says anything that is relevant to the posted content.

I think Columbus day should be re-evaluated. Not only were his “discoveries” unrecognized by him for what they really were, but what he really did was pave the way for the conquest of already inhabited lands by Europeans, greedy for wealth and power. There was no discovery- only invasion. Unfortunately, the Europeans knew little about how to live in harmony with the environment and how to respect natural resources, so they were always out to conquer new lands and people and always looking for more to consume. These are things that could have been learned from the native people of the new world if the white man wasn’t so vain, pompous, and egotistical.

Oddly enough, when you are naming things, you generally name it after your surname (the Cook Islands, Faraday’s law, Hudson Bay). Only royalty names it after their first names (Prince Edward Island, Victoria, Alberta). Hell, even in the article, you name it Columbosia, not Christophersia.

Interestingly enough, Amerigo’s actual name was Amalricho, not Amerigo. There is little evidence that America was based on Vespucci’s name, although this is the widely accepted view.

We generally have a very romantic view of the native american cultures, which is not entirely accurate. Many of them were just as greedy, power hungry, and blood-thirsty as the Europeans. It is easy to make blanket statements about the whole of this or that, but the natives were even more diverse than the europeans, many of their groups being very different from one another.

Well, the article is kind of misleading. By the headline, I had thought the article was going to shed some light on why English speakers equate USA with America. But the article only talks about the origin of the name America and how the name America was used to refer to the so-called “New World” that lied between Europe and Asia. That’s ok. But then the article should continue on to describe how English speakers ended up equating USA with the whole of the so-called “New World” instead of just sentencing “The rest is history.”

[...] ‘US A NAMES#MORE’ than we could have imagined. — Vespucci the Cartographer and an explorer too — Amerigo took notes of where he was — Columbus didn’t have a clue. — Waldseemüller was a craftsman — United were States of Mind. — Google Earth woulda solved everything. — Ceptin there was Nuttin of Dat kind. — Democracy was another thing of which there wasn’t a clue. — Now some Corporate Behemoths try to take it away — What’s an idiot to do? –>>Rupert Likes to Rhyme This entry was posted in DEMOCRAZY, DICTCOMHOTWORD, Rupert L..T. Rhyme and tagged Democracy, RLTR, Rupert L.T.Rhyme, the HOT WORD by admin. Bookmark the permalink. [...]

uccha poyyandi…malli thaagandi

Regardless of whether the continent was there and inhabited before Columbus one can accurately say that the continent and its inhabitants were discovered. That is the definition of discovery: the ‘uncovering’ of what was already there.

The reason some bristle at the term ‘discovery’ is that it tells the story from the perspective of the Europeans, which is somehow inherently bad. It also could be said that the natives discovered the Old World when the Europeans landed, though this is admittedly a stretch.

The whole continent is America, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. It is wrong to refer to the US as “America”. Interesting article, though. Love this site. Thanks.

Methinks Blogchi needs his/her meds…

@Carlitos… you tell ‘em! As a member if the Choctaw tribe, I have always wondered why it was taught in school as a “discovery” rather than invasion. I guess the winners always write the history, huh?

What about “CANADA”? As my dear old dad once told me “The Spanish were exploring the west coast of North America and got ‘up north’ a bit. They had a quick look around and came to the conclusion – ‘ca nada ! (nope, nothing!) and buggered off elsewhere! ” — we were living in Vancouver at the time and I repeated this to my grade 3 school teacher- Boy, oh boy, if looks could kill….. So…true? false? allegory?…anyone?

“Columbusia?” The name “Columbia” (or “Colombia”) (referring to the Americas) is well known. There is the country in South America, the capital city of South Carolina, the USA capital district, and the Canadian province “British Columbia”, just to name a few. “Columbus” itself is the capital of Ohio and a major city in Georgia, too.

Carlitos,
You’ve fallen into the noble savage myth. The Indians did not live harmoniously with nature, and had a wide netowrk of commerce and political intrigues with different white men colonies.

On another note, to learn more about why America is called America, and the history of its discovery, I suggest listening to an Interview with Toby Lester on his book “The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America its Name” (Free Press, 2009) In the great podcast New Books in History.
You can find it here:
http://newbooksinhistory.com/2010/01/07/toby-lester-the-fourth-part-of-the-world-the-race-to-the-ends-of-the-earth-and-the-epic-story-of-the-map-that-gave-america-its-name/

I agree with Carlitos. Columbus didn’t discover anything, the land had been discovered and inhabited for thousands of years before Columbus and his fellow explorers arrived. All he and Amerigo did was introduce the Europeans to more land to steal and more people to kill fo no reason.

^typo(for no reason)

I agree with Carlitos. Native Americans were here first; it wasn’t a new world. Why is this brutal “holiday” still celebrated?

Amerigo is an Italian variation on the Germanic name ‘Amalric(or Amalrich)’ (English version is Emmerich), which means “work-ruler”.

Columbus was Genovese, and his original name was Cristophoro Colombo. There is a country in South America that bears his name: Colombia. In America, the English version gives its name to Columbia (as in British Columbia, in Canada, or the famous University in NY). So there is due homage to Columbus, at least in some places and institutions.

@ “Tammy D”:
I find Blogchi’s rhymes interesting and provocative. He/she is a poet, and often points out concepts that I hadn’t considered. I think it’s unfair and irresponsible to suggest banning someone simply because you don’t care for their comments, or think them irrelevant.

@ “nilonz”:
See above. I applaud Blogchi’s efforts. Discussion should be encouraged, not quashed or ridiculed. Malicious smarmy comments and cattiness are out-of-place in this forum.

I do not understand why it is refer to the U.S. as “America.” America the continent, not a country. Even though the U.S. is my home I think I dont agree with the celebration of the “discovery” of a man who in reality did not discover anything since there were already other people living in the American continent.

Didn’t Columbus run into the West Indies, and NOT the mainland? The Vikings, on the other hand, preceded the Europeans. Leif Erikson landed on America centuries before Columbus was a wee sperm.

@Mauri
The English settlers would have been called ‘Americans’ (as in ‘those American colonists’) before the USA even came about; likewise, where they were going was just called ‘America’ by the English. Not really hard to see how it came about if you think about it.

Also, the Anglo world has never really seen the Americas(North and South) as one continent…(cause they aren’t). So just, ‘the Americas’. While not rare, it’s a bit uncommon to use just ‘America’ to refer to the New World.

Carlito sounds like a closet racist.

It is true that Columbus was not the first human to “discover” the Americas, but that’s what it would seem to people that’s never known it was there. The cycle of finding new land and settling it (even if it was already populated) is a phenomenon seen throughout history, all around the world. To say that white people as a whole are “vain, pompous, and egotistical” because of this is quite the hateful generalization, and betrays deep held biases.

Why does this text consider the entire America as only the USA? I think it is a ignorant view of the world because the USA is just a part of the whole continent. Using this reference, we omit the entire continent.

I also agree with Carlitos. Columbus Day is nothing more that European’s egoistical way of honoring themselves. Just look at the names of schools and other institutions. It like people of European decent want to take credit for everything “good” that has happen in this country history. What a farce!!!

Bubba what are you doing on dictionary.com! come back to popsci

I love the comment my nilonz (the Choctaw) regarding invasion rather than discovery.

Certainly relieved USA is not named after that entitled child rapist and torturer Columbus. He was an awful person; the least of his crimes was keeping two sets of “books” to trick his hungry crew in thinking the trip was nearly over while he feasted aplenty.

“AVG” I don’t care if the Native Americans were noble or not, there was no excuse for the horrible treatment they suffered.

United States of Leif Erickson!

Actually, the attribution to Amerigo Vespucci is one of two apocryphal tales often related as definitive.

The real reason is lost to time.

@Carlitos and those agreeing with his view

As stated several times by others, Columbus and Amerigo discovered a land mass that was unknown to the people of Europe, therefore the definition of discovery is entirely accurate. Columbus perhaps less so, since he believed he had arrived in India. It was Amerigo’s realization that it was a region previously unknown to Europe that led to the mass settling of the region.

Furthermore, the native tribes were not a bunch of peaceful nature-lovers as you people seem to think they were. When the europeans arrived, some of these tribes attacked them without provocation, others engaged in peaceful trade with the settlers, and others were killed and enslaved by settlers. Who did what to whom first is anybody’s guess, as accounts vary from region to region. Suffice to say it is unlikely that the european settlers could be held entirely responsible for inciting the wars that followed.

Greed was not the only factor that led people to quit Europe for the newly discovered lands. Many sought to escape religious persecution and other political and social pressures prevalent in Europe at the time.

Perhaps you should read some more in depth accounts of history before you go pointing fingers. Historical records exist on both sides of the fence. Just make sure you are reading records from the time, not some garbarge written hundreds of years later.

When you said “Why aren’t the continents of North and South America…” You implied that there are at least two American continents. I have two questions to this: What happened with central America? Is it also a continent or what? And, how many continents are there?

I was taught (in Colombia, proud of being the only country in America that keeps Columbus’ name) that there were 5 continents, Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania (Australia) and America. America the continent, is divided in three parts: South, Central and North.

I agree with Carlitos. Columbus didn’t discover anything. He only brought his white stupid men to make our people slaves, rape our women and destroy our monuments, to bury our gods and to steal steal steal as much as they could. Our gold, our land, our culture… If it wasn’t for them, we would still be a very rich civilization…. That’s why Latin America is nowadays the 2nd poorest continent.
Oh and just FYI America is the whole continent, all the way from Alaska To La Patagonia (Argentina). I hate to hear people from the USA call their country America… It’s not just you guys, there are more countries in this planet.

I wonder why America isn’t called Ameriga.

I think the most disturbing fact is that outside the Native circle along with those who understand and took the time to learn who Columbus really is; as opposed to blindly “celebrating” him; fail miserably in a universal and human acknowledgement of the proliferation of genocide, slavery and hegemony introduced into the western hemisphere by this individual.
Every society and cultural group in America understands the horrors of African slavery and the Jewish holocaust.
Would we ever have a holiday honoring John Hawkins, who brought over the first boat load of slaves in 1619? African slavery resulting in, not only the dehumanizing and degradation of millions; but even millions more who would die during the middle passage. Today in USA, the widely used maxims call slavery “A stain in our history.”-“A dark chapter in our society.”
And although the Jewish holocaust did not happen in America, we as the citizens collectively pay honor , respect and mourn all those who suffered these brutal atrocities against humanity: not only the ripping away of life, but the attempt at complete annihilation and every trace that these people ever existed.
These events are despicable times in history and no civilized society or anyone who respects life would ever create a holiday to honor those responsible.
Now comes the Native American: The horrific savagery that occurred above, with the added insult of having these bestial acts committed on our own lands, as they were summarily being usurped was the plight of indigenous people everywhere.
A lead player in the stealing of lands, slavery and murder of the Indians; that would boom into the millions was Christopher Columbus, and he gets a holiday- a Holy Day.
Why is there not a collective outcry to end this so-called holiday across all humanity?
This is a most troubling question that is buttressed by its own merits of apathy and unawareness. When crimes against humanity are committed a society comes together to acknowledge such vicious acts and rightly condoms them. America needs to do the same and realize this is not just a Native American issue but an issue that speaks directly to the civility, morality and social structure of our country. We all need to say once and for all- We do not celebrate murder, rape and slavery!
Columbus certainly needs to be part of American discourse and should be earnestly studied as other explorers were. But to coronate him with a ‘holiday,’ is like celebrating a man who hangs a pregnant woman upside down from a tree, while he slits open her belly to feed his dogs.
This is not hyperbole; this was Columbus, and what he did along with numerous other crimes against humanity. But America refuses to unfetter itself from the romanticized narrative which further perpetuates stereotypes, myths and misinformation to the detriment of Native Americans.
As a Native American I find it appalling and offensive that my country continues to honor a murderer, slave master and usurper who would inspire many others to do the same. And it saddens me that people of all walks of life can’t come together, as it has been done in the past; to condemn this so called holiday and recognize Columbus as the offender against humanity as he was. As an American, I am embarrassed that my nation continues to cling to archaic notions that ‘celebrate’ despotism, genocide, conquest and plunder in the name of Columbus, while touting how enlightened and more advanced we are than the rest of the world.
By, Larry Spotted Crow Mann

What I would like to know is how all this idiots that reserve the word AMERICA for the USA,do not realize that America is much bigger than the united states of america along….

Carlitos, you said a mouthful – Thank You – while presumably you already knew that there would be at least one dissenter in the bunch – which is fine – but it’s part of what keeps this cycle of indifference going albeit on its last leg of existence. Let’s take it several leagues deeper…this earth, The Earth~Planet Earth, has been in existence for millions of years, so beyond our Native American brothers and sisters whom I honor and am connected to/with, [reportedly] there have been many other peoples and life forms to inhabit this space, e.g., Afrikan peoples, Atlanteans, etc….so I think the best, most harmonious way we can look at our existence on this plane is to recognize and re-member that WE are all One, infinite manifestations of the THE ONE SOURCE that runs through ALL. In embracing this, many problems and suffering and other demands and deluge of the ego falls away and We then open ourselves up to the power within us ALL. Yes, sounds trippy, uh? Well, it sounds no more trippy than the trippy state that we happen to be living in at the moment…the violence, mind control, murder, manipulation, disrespect for the planet and human/animal/agricultural life – all of that is as tripped-out as it gets! Don’t you think? Try it…

Bubba, Canada comes from Kanata, the word for village from the Iroquois.
In any case, the fact that America was equated with USA is strange considering, North and South America is much larger.

Canada comes from the Iroquois word for village. (kanata)

1. Life isn’t fare; get used to it.
2. You don’t have to like it; you just have to understand it.
3. Don’t get mad; get even. Just kidding; life is short make the most of it.
4. The living will always re-write history; often thru ignorance.
5. One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch.
6. In a nutshell: As a descendant of the invading European hordes I apologize to those who were here first, and to the Africans my forefathers enslaved, for the terrible behavior of my ancestors. I should elaborate to sound more sincere but this format does not have the editorial space.

Research proved to me that “America” truly means “Land of the Plumed Serpants” (thus the serpant on one of the very first “American” flags! Please check it out at Fossilizedcustoms-dot-com! Thanks. P.S. “English” is from two words from different languages “Engle” from Latin meaning “Angel” and “Ish” from Hebrew meaning “Man” (“Isha” is Hebrew for “Woman”).

If you think about it, Columbus was no more than an arrogant man who was “exploring” on borrowed money that he had to beg for. Then he got lost, and stumbled onto an island part of America that he believed was actually Asia. Native Americans already lived there, so it wasnt like he was the first one to “discover” America, in fact, he wasnt even the first explorer to go there. And then, he tried to claim the island he was on as his, and made native americans do his slave labor. He was so obsessed with gold that he massacred hundreds, if not thousands of them. All people are equal. After all, we used to live as one, before we spread out across Pandora. i think we should use this day to comemorate all of the people throughout history who have been killed for their money, or simply because they got in the way. Sorry if there are any typos.

About Vespucci, he was already a famous and recognized “navigator”, much before Colombo (or Columbus) sailed to the new continent. Not only Vespucci’s records, but also his reputation could be named as the reason why during the first decades of 14th century he was named the discoverer. What sounds curious to me is why do U.S. people call themselves americans if all this denomination should actually define all american peoples and countries? (I also refer to U.S. people as american, but isn’t it quite incorrect?

@Bubba; Ha! That’s hilarious!

Uhm….
A) If the Americas were named after Columbus, they would be called “Columbia”, like all the other places based off of his name.

B) Christopher Columbus DID write about his accounts of making contact with the New World contrary to the author’s statement. He had a whole diary he wrote recording his voyage over the Atlantic and first contact with the indigenous peoples. I actually had to use them as a source in a paper I wrote two weeks ago.

C) The inhabitants living in the United States are called “Americans” because it’s in the name of the country. You know, the United States of AMERICA (the full title of the country). Just putting this out there, people from Canada do not consider themselves American, they’re content with “Canadian”. I’ve personally asked, so people shouldn’t get so bent out of shape over it.

Realistically, it’s the nature of all those who find the new land (even though inhabited by natives) such as MAADS in old Persia when discovered by those who came from North and settled where it’s known today as a country between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Golf. It’s not discovery nor invasion, it’s a fact of life, to settle down where there is more land, more freedom and more opportunities to be taken over.

….. and about Canada, it’s taken from KANATA, the name of natives who lived in that land.

America is four regions(or divisions of space, whatever) (south, central and north America and the caribbean), then what gives USA the right to call itself America. When you hear America you think of USA not of all the countries in the American continet. When you hear American you think of someone from the USA, not someone from the American continent. It would be like South Africa calling itself just Africa and when you think of africa you think of just South Africa and not of all the other countries of the African continent. I have nothing against USA but just something that seemed wrong to me.

Well, Carlitos, I am part Cherokee & Choctaw on my mother’s side &she was born in the Kiamichi Mountains in Oklahoma, south of Tahlequah. My father is from Dutch & Irish origins(his surname ‘Rummerfield’ is a small town in Pennsylvania) & Mom was a little French from her mother & Irish &French & English from her dad(among many other things… along with the Native American portion from both my maternal grandparents). I believe there is German in there somewhere…. hence ‘Heinz 57′ is my ‘I Am Race’….Many Americans are from many ‘Races’….heck I may even be part Black since the Cherokee & Choctaw once owned African-Am. slaves. My Granddad’s folks were from Mississippi & part-White & Choctaw farmers. Some of Grandma’s people were Cherokee driven to OK. on the Trail of Tears. On top (or underneath) all that, I have an ancestor who came over on the Mayflower, & those who fought in The Revolutionary War for Independence, and The Civil War… I could be a member of the DAR as my great-aunt was. Your name Carlitos is from Spanish European origins so you may very well be European & ‘Indian’ or as we say now, Native ~ American (just as I & many of us are) The Cherokee developed an alphabet & written language. But would they have done so without European settler’s influence? I don’t know for sure. I’d like to think so. But while colonization of these ‘new’ lands was very brutal to some of my ancestors, other ideals like the legacy of the ‘Magna Carta’ & the evolution of many other rights-of-the-people, like ‘Religious~Liberty’ etc. arrived on these shores(w the Puritans as well as others) along with or subsequent to the “Conquistadors’ both South & North. Both Benjamin Franklin & Thomas Jefferson were influenced by the Iroquois Confederacy(6 eastern sea-board Native Nations) as the longest living example of participatory & cooperative democracy in the world… long before the Europeans came. An Onega chief was even requested/sent to the Continental Congress to speak. Look at… http://www.ratical.com/many_worlds/6Nations/ …to begin with. The legacy to the Native Peoples from America’s ‘discovery’ is overwhelmingly tragic (more died from disease than anything else). But the legacy to the whole Nation as it stands today (not as we might have wished it to be ideally)… with all the political innovations, not to mention the scientific inventions & breakthroughs is still in the positive register I would have to conclude. We can’t change history… but we can make it better going forward (P.S. …and I am one who is disturbed by American adventurism that has led to several undeclared & possibly illegal wars in this & the past century…. ‘Entangling Alliances’ & undue foreign influence & meddling… theirs & ours… that George Washington warned us against) Anyway Carlitos, it’s a mixed bag…. just like us. So rather than devolve into ‘Race-Wars’…. let’s just try to do the best with the hand we were dealt … & rather than games of chance, let’s conscientiously decide on our future from now on… Take Back The Future… so to speak …since the past is but prologue. That said… I Am proud to be American… of many ‘Races’…. wherever the term originates from.

Most of the early settlers were NOT invaders, or power hungry, or greedy. Many were outcasts, religous refugees, and political refugees. I’d hardly label them invaders.

Columbus was a greedy bastard and his discovery practically destroyed an innocent civalization he should never have had a holiday in the 1st place.

All I have to say is… Columbus never landed on “America” he actually landed on an island closer to Cuba and Mexico. I don’t quite remember were he landed but I do remember that he did NOT land in American and it was an Island in the south east. Also 7 years after his discovery of America (which he believed was India), he died thinking that his discovery was a major failure. It wasn’t until later that people discovered tobacco that proved to be a crop of high demand in European countries, and was the beginning to slavery and trade in America. So why name a place by someone who never even took one step in the land?

It was named America because Americus Vaspucci discovered America and not Columbus…

Canada is a name given to this great country and was derived from a native word meaning, “meeting place.”

It’s actually wrong if you’ve ever read the book of general ignorance you’d know it’s named after richard ameryk.

By the way LT’s comment proves my point.

@ Bubba

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation occasionally plays a “Canadian History Minute” on TV, which shows a French exploring expedition in the area of what is now Ottawa. An old indian chief comes out to meet them and invites them down the valley, into the small encampment, which he pronounces as “ka-na-ta” (accent on the second syllable). One of the Frenchmen thinks that the word merely means the small camp, but the know-it-all Catholic priest insists that they are so important that the word refers to the entire country. With the possible variation of a few details, this is why kanata became Canada. Kanata is now the name of a city which, along with one called Nepean, form a tri-city with Ottawa.

Columbusia doesn’t make any sense, Columbia would fit better.

Also, America is a CONTINENT, Columbus discovered El Salvador.

And i also agree with Carlitos, Columbus’ first official action was shooting a native to show his power.

I think it doubtful the name America, came from the cartographers name Amerigo. He wrote America on maps he drew of the coastlines of North America. Did he; an educated man; not know how to spell his name?

It is interesting that Amaraka (all the letters a with the sound as in mama), means The Land of the Serpent People. The Serpent Peoples included several nations of which some were on the east coast at the time,such as the Iroquois and Cherokee. I think Amaraka is a lot closer to the sound of America than is Amerigo.

Amerigo Vespucci is the one who figured out that Columbus didn’t find the water route to Asia so he claimed the Americas as a New Land.But the paragraphs above have very good and useful information.

Columbus didn’t discover anything. He only brought his white stupid men to make our people slaves, rape our women and destroy our monuments, to bury our gods and to steal steal steal as much as they could. Our gold, our land, our culture… If it wasn’t for them, we would still be a very rich civilization…. That’s why Latin America is nowadays the 2nd poorest continent.
Oh and just FYI America is the whole continent, all the way from Alaska To La Patagonia (Argentina). I hate to hear people from the USA call their country America… It’s not just you guys, there are more countries in this planet.

Avg makes a good point, Carlitos does not do indigenous populations any favours by portraying them as simplistic caricatures rather than complex and sophisticated societies

i like learning about things like this, it’s cool! thanks!

just learned this in APEC…

@avg on October 10, 2011 at 7:43 am
Carlitos,
You’ve fallen into the noble savage myth. The Indians did not live harmoniously with nature, and had a wide netowrk of commerce and political intrigues with different white men colonies.

Avg, first of all to call them Indians is inaccurate. The Native Americans, in general, did live harmoniously within their environment as relative to how Europe and much of the rest of the “civilized” world was living. The Native Americans did not have the Black Plague, for instance. They did not have Measles, or Chicken Pox, etc. This is because they did not overstretch their use of resources. They did not create industry and associated waste and pollution. They did not leave their trash in the street and wallow in their own shit. They lived with a connection to the Earth and the land, evidenced by their very lifestyles, to say nothing of their recorded and oralized histories and mythologies.

And you’re telling me they had a “wide netowrk of commerce and political intrigues with different white men colonies” before white men even arrived? How does that work?

I’ll give you that there were savage tribes and some horrific and “barbaric” practices and rituals. But to claim that these equate to the crimes and horrors that white man has introduced to the world is ignorant and insanely biased.

I get that when they say the Americas were “discovered,” they’re referring the European perspective. It just irks me that it’s the only perspective anyone seems to care about.

Happy belated Leif Eriksson day, everyone!

I think Columbus day should be re-evaluated. Not only were his “discoveries” unrecognized by him for what they really were, but what he really did was pave the way for the conquest of already inhabited lands by Europeans, greedy for wealth and power. There was no discovery- only invasion. Unfortunately, the Europeans knew little about how to live in harmony with the environment and how to respect natural resources, so they were always out to conquer new lands and people and always looking for more to consume. These are things that could have been learned from the native people of the new world if the white man wasn’t so vain, pompous, and egotistical.

Since we were young, we were taught that Columbus was a wonderful man that founded America, and that is why we celebrate him. We should not celebrate the raping of our women, pillaging of our lands and genocide of our ancestors. This is why today (or Oct. 12th) we celebrate Indigenous Resistance/El Dia de la Raza. What will you celebrate? I urge you to Reconsider Columbus Day!!

All that info and blah blah, my teacher just told me Americas were named after Amerigo Vespucci. (AmeriGO…AmeriCA)See how easy that was? No too much info, just one simple connection. It’s that simple.No need to bore people out with info on the Greek and the Latin and the-omg, am i turning into a nerd?? no, i can’t be!!

Another theory is America is named after Richard Americk, a wealthy English merchant. Americk financed John Cabot’s voyage to North America in 1497.
see http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/americaname_01.shtml

It’s actually from a wealthy Welsh patron whose last name was Ameryk. He funded the exploration of Canada.

I don’t celebrate Columbus day, but I do celebrate the meeting of the 2 worlds. In the Berkeley area it’s Native People Day. Food for thought

Actually, ‘Amerigo Vespucci’ was the first to discover NORTH America.

Columbus was in the Bahamas somewhere.

So it should be Vespucci day. Not Columbus day.

Of course the early explorers “discovered” America.

Are you seriously going to say that if NASA goes to another world where there is life that the astronauts cannot write, tweet or radio back to the rest of us here on planet Earth that they have discovered life in case in some ridiculously politically correct world of the future the aliens might say that we couldn’t have “found” them because they were not lost, or we couldn’t have “discovered” them because they already knew that they were there?

Just as those astronauts will be human beings relating their findings to other human beings, the early explorers were Europeans writing for a European audience in books that were going onto European shelves to be read by Europeans.

The native Americans could equally have written their own accounts of how they discovered these white strangers on their beaches or found them roaming their plains and they could have placed such tomes on their native American library shelves or bookshops for other native Americans to read. I hope they did.

@carlitos…..true, although we can’t go back. Materialism is the curse of mankind. All cultures have embraced it. A survey of all cultures will disclose this.

We have to work within the system we have…….remember……no entrepreneurs…..no businesses…….no jobs, whether you work in the public or private sector……nothing. Public sector jobs are paid by tax dollars, no businesses to provide jobs, no tax revenue. Everything stops…..sound familiar? How about the current economic environment?

Will we all revert to life a-la 1832? I don’t think so. People like technology and the creature comforts afforded by the advances present in modern day living.

Carlosito,

One of the spoils of war is writing the history.

The author wrote, “history of nation’s favorite bird.” You forgot the definite article “the.”

Regarding why the USA calls itself the ‘United States of America’.

It’s because the union of separate states like N. Carolina, Georgia, and Massachusetts gave rise to a federal government. It’s the same with United States of Mexico which includes Michoacan, Chihuahua, Chiapas, etc.

If you are asking why the USA are called “Americans” when there are 2 continents whose people are also American, it’s probably because the British colonists called themselves American, and the U.S. was the first recognized independent nation here. As it happened, by the time the other colonies were independent, Europeans were already accustomed to “American” to refer to the U.S. and its people, and no later country incorporated the word “America” in its official name.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110926221950AAIW9Ec

Hello all,

Building upon the already posted justifications for ‘America.’

The sixth heading, titled ‘Serpents of the Americas.’ Enjoy.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biggestsecret/matrix/matrix07.htm

NB: A pervasive modern English linguistic deficiency presents itself in the articles heading, that is ‘Why is the U.S.A. named “America.”‘

From experience, such generalisation can present as racial superiority. Especially when talking to Latin Americans, who are, and, do consider themselves American. The same issue seldom arises with Canadians because, even though they too are American, they culturally disassociate from the word ‘America,’ associating instead with Canada.

Now, the reason why I label such generalisation as linguistically deficient, and potentially racist is because:

1) Every other major European language adapts a word to identify “A person/citizen/subject of the USA.”

-Italian = Statounitense
-Spanish = Estadounidense
-French = Etasunien (apostrophe on 1st E)
-Portuguese = Estadounidense

Even German distinguishes between Amerikanischen for US-people, and Amerikaner for Americans. This is why equating USA to America is a linguistic deficiency.

We, English speakers, need to develop our language, much like Shakespeare evolved it for us, many years ago.

2) There are three stereotypical types of Americans. That is, ‘Native,’ ‘Latin,’ and ‘Anglo’ Americans. Leaving little room for other denominations like ‘African’ Americans.

From this simple categorisation Latin America only exists, as distinct from, as separate to, Anglo America, otherwise ALL America would be Latin or Anglo, without the need to distinguish.

So, either all Americans are American, or non at all, because there is only one America.

Furthermore, the linguistic refuge of ‘north American’ is also incorrect because when America is divided, under geographic parameters, into North and South, PARTS of Ecuador, Columbia, and Brazil, and ALL of Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, Guiana, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Rep., Puerto Rico, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Trinidad and Tabago, and many Dutch, English, French and USA territories… are discovered to be constituent parts of NORTH AMERICA.

Thus, to think North America = Anglo America is once again, an error.

Thank you

thats good for them. Columbus is a cheater and retard anyway/ STUPID

Happy Columbus Day to you too Amerigo Vespucci

A better question would be, “Why is the U.S. referred to as “America,” the Americas consist of North America, Central America and South America? I am a translator, and I try to avoid referring to the U.S. as America. The problem lies in identifying the country’s inhabitants by means other than “Americans”… I’d love to hear people’s suggestions!

Why wasn’t it called the United States of Vespuccia?

AMERICA IS A CONTINENT

Divided in:

North of America : Alaska, Canada , United Stated and Mexico

Center of America: Nicaragua, EL Salvador, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras just like other Islands called “Antillas”.

South of America : Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brasil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia.

Is is a “terrible misuse” of the adjetive AMERICAN only to make reference to people borned in USA like Americans, they are North Americans.

It would be good for North Americans to read this. I learnt this at School when I was 5, but most of the US thinks is the name of their country.

@Carlito: We like to pretend that the native american’s were at peace with nature and natural resources. Read “Gun’s Germs and Steel” sometime. The native’s did damaget their land, over irrigate, and this lead to the collapse to some of their nation’s. The primary killer and main ingredient to the colonization of the america’s was our germs knocking out significant amounts of their populations. However, I do entirely believe that we could have learned a lot from the natives, especially one’s like the Mayan’s who were obviously brilliant astronomer’s.

Everybody wants to be first…..whether it’s true or not. Whether it’s wrong or right. And there’s BLOGchi who just wants to be noticed.

Columbus did discover the American continents for Europe. As far as the people in the old world were concerned, it was a discovery. That is, it was a discovery to them. That’s a real discovery. If we were to send astronauts on a mission to uncharted space and they came back reporting a new habitable planet that was indeed already inhabited by some alien people, we would rightly call their find a discovery because it was discovered to us, regardless of the fact that some other sentient beings happened to be aware of it before we arrived.

@ Kingsepp
Some clarity on the word Discovery in the context of who was claiming discovery. People are not what, but rather who. The naming of this act as a discovery was an air of superiority – claiming the land was for the taking and its inhabitants thought of as “less than human” because the indigenous were seen as inferior. Today’s understanding of the word “discover” is used more broadly. Make no mistake, in the days of Columbus, discovered land was a means of claiming ownership of the land. Discovering the land, what, without acknowledging the inhabitants, who, was plainly a means of serving self and demeaning others in ways that destroy all.

Christopher Colombus real Name is Christo Colon, and he is Also Italian more precisly Latin, there was no Italy at his time, so why they call colombia and Columbia these names and why are they British ??

In America (US) they have lots of city names like Alexandria, Cairo, Memphis, Mineapolis, philadelphia, Pheonix, Rhode Island, Atlanta, Rome, Athens, Naples… etc..

SO They don’t have enough creativity they decided to steal the Egyptian/Greek/Roman Civilisations and relate it to them ” the Founding Fathers ” , who are of English/British origins, and some are of Dutch I think hence Brooklyn ..am I right ???

America??? What? I don’t get it why can’t just be called Colombia.

How fascinating it is to think that I and 300 million others could just as easily go through life as Vespuccians.

‘I just discovered a cool new web site’. What am I saying there? I found something that I didn’t know existed. Of course, the web site already existed and my discovery of it could not be called a moment of discovery for the web site, although it would acknowledge that I had discovered it for me, not for them. So the finding, or rather bumping into, of the continent that was later called America was a European discovery or a discovery from a European perspective. In fact I can’t think of a better word for it; it wasn’t just a ‘going to’, it was finding something you didn’t know existed. Perhaps ‘The discovery of America’ should be changed to ‘The discovery of America for Europeans’. Other words that have been suggested or are related ‘invasion, occupation, settlement etc.’ are only related to what came later, after the ‘discovery’.

Carlitos sympathisers, please consider what has already been mentioned yet you’ve seemingly failed to grasp. You can only discover what already exists. If it does not exist, you cannot discover it. To take that a step further; discovery can only occur for those who do not know something is there. Since the rest of the developing world didn’t know America existed, and were obviously interested in mapping the world, this was indeed a discovery. To say it was not, because some other people were already living there, is absurd. Discovery is always from the point of view of the discoverer and holidays tend to be celebrated due to their relevance, and relevance is determined by many things but in this case it would be the population majority who descend from the discoverers. Duh! To every primitive culture romanticising, white man hating moron out there I have this to say. The world was coming, mankind was expanding its capabilities and knowledge. The land known today as the Americas (among others e.g. Australia, New Zealand etc.) joining the rest of the world was inevitable. Your views and grievances are an over simplification of the world, mankind and life. Had the primitive cultures had the technology and knowledge of the developing world then they would have done exactly the same as those who did possess the technology. Perhaps they’d have been even more brutal about it, which is likely given the savage and cannibalistic nature of many. This is the nature of man; to learn, discover, expand and conquer. NO culture or race is exempt! Read a history book or two. Nothing has changed under the sun. Native Americans are no different from those all over the world over thousands of years who have preceded them either by being conquered or conquering. Did you really expect the world to just stand by and leave you alone just because you were there first? Are you just naive or stupid?! Perhaps if the primitive cultures hadn’t been so primitive they wouldn’t have been pushed around so much. But instead their cultures, beliefs and superstitions kept them in technological darkness and they were overtaken. Some cultures became so pathetic they lost the art of making fire. Please understand that this is a disgusting regression for any human existence! Be thankful you live in a democratic country where your ignorant voice is tolerated. It could have just as easily gone another way. Historically and statistically it should have gone another way. Nevertheless, the world came; it just happened to be white. It wasn’t perfect, but thank God it was democratic. All in all, what is done is done and was unavoidable. Get over it!

@Bubba: Your Canada thing is too funny, specially when one speaks Spanish… Ca NADA…The “ca” would actually be the word “aca” which means over there or there(but usually pronounced without the first A by Native Spanish speakers…) and Nada which means nothing… SO I think that your Dad was right?

@ Marcela that is why it is not called America rather the United States (of America) – travel a bit noone calls it America ‘cept Africanas and Indians. Most of the world btw is asian in case you were wondering.
@ Carlitos, nilonz, Atrain, … I bet you don’t tell people that you get a $5000.00 deposit to your bank account every month just for being natives to America. Of course you are required to have a primary residence on a reservation. Hope you are not roughing it out there. (most are not) You have technology that you are currently using, a means of defense from a country you constantly bastardize, and windge for no apparent reason that holds any weight other than spouting vocalizations from your parents and perhaps grandparents. (not likely your grandparents as they were likely Pro-U.S.. Natives live on their own land. In their own territories. Want a different name? Get the tribe together and vote for it. Oh, democracy was there before Europeans were – don’t fool yourself. Democracy is the doorway to many freedoms and an equal amount of terrors. It depends on who the leader is! Nothing More!
Oh, and grow up – learn to read – etc. In fact Vikings were visiting the Americas long before good ole Columbus. They are your ancestors. As were the French (unfortunately).
Natives are decent people btw. Quit giving them a bad name.

Ok so another question comes up if Amerigo Vespucci was the person who uncovered or Discovered the americas why are we still today supposally celebrating Christopher Columbus instead of Amerigo Vespucci??? … America is full of Pussies people are scared of everything and do what ever society says do.. it sucks

Hi All,
I am very pleased about this article. Now it is clear to every reader that America is a continent and not a country. Coming from the Caribbean islands, the so called West Indies (that is also an interesting story), I am also an American.
We all are. That is the only thing we all have in common, this wonderful continent, America. Check its diversity and riches. We are all blessed on this land wherever we come/came from. We need to understand the past, learn from it and leave it behind and work together for a better America as a whole.
OK, ok, don’t be afraid. I am not into politics.
I just want us all, to see each others as Americans sharing the land God has fashioned.

Is Central and/or South America not worth a mention? The whole article forgets that there is anything south of the Rio Grande.

LT has already made the point, but seems to have been largely ignored, that if the US had been named after Amerigo Vespucci it would have been called Vespuccia. First names are only used when places are named after royalty. It is interesting that despite the comparatively recent name there is still no consensus on its origin. One theory is that it was named after Richard Amerike (Richard ap Meryk), a Welshman who financed one of John Cabot’s trips to the New World but it seems highly unlikely that Vespucci is the key to all this. On a seperate note, despite sympathising to a degree with Carlitos’ point, he is suggesting that all white people are stupid and all Native Americans lived in peace and harmony and that i’m afraid is stupid in the extreme.

I you read a biography of Columbus, you find out he was not well liked (to say the least). So why do we still celebrate Columbus Day? Because government employees work to hard, and need an extra day off.

What is interesting in the entire article is that nothing has been mentioned why Europe had to find a new root to Asia. To me it seems like one of that documentaries made by CNN that never tells a lie. But hide parts of the truth making up their story.

After the taxes to cross to the Indian Ocean rocketed up, it was almost impossible for the West of Europe, most powerful land in the world at the time, pass to Asia via North Africa. Also to go around would be to dangeous and as expensive. So why not send an stunt called Colombo – a fishman from the people who lived in a monastery – to check it out.

Then the racing begun between England, France, Spain and Spain allied Portugal. Spain and Portugal for example had documents sharing any land from east to west almost 10 years before any other country step one of their feet anywhere close to what we now call Americas.

Carlito, congratulations for your point. It was an invasion. But I also have to agree that the natives were killing one another in order to become stronger among other aspects.

Marcela, very good point. It is geographically wrong to call a person who was born in the USA American, as american is anyone who are born between North of Alasca to South Chile.

Thanks.

what is this for and about. why because am confused

The link between Amerigo Vespucci and America has been widely discredited. Like a previous post, most lands unless named after royalty, carry the surname of an individual – in this case Richard Ameryk (or Amerike):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/americaname_01.shtml#three

Interesting, although I thought this had now been atributed to Richard Amerike, a Bristol business man who patronised trips to the Americas and featured stars and stripes on his family crest.

I don’t get the angst and anger over the “invasion” (discovery, because in the discoverer’s context it was a discovery. Just like if I find a new hole-in-the-wall restaurant I like, I would say that I “discovered” it.

About the “atrocities”, its not like the natives were all peaceful vegans. They were mostly warring, conquering, blood-sporting, just like everyone else. So apparently it is only something to be indignant over if white people do it.

America comes from the Welsh ‘ap Meurig’.

Cristobal Colon was the Spanish name for Christopher Columbus. What he achieved, as a mariner in his time, was akin to the USA putting a man on the moon. It was an expensive and risky enterprise fraught with unknowns, regardless of the motives of those who bore the cost and risk.

Related to the “noble savage myth”, native American (don’t know what the natives called this great land) tribes often savaged each other, notably the oppressive Aztec empire towards its neighboring non-Aztec tribes. Man’s fallen nature is universal.

It is highly unlikely that America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, since no other place is named for the first name of a person unless they are royalty (Exs. Jamestown, Cape Ann, Carolina), . America would be the ONLY time this exception was made. I think it is much more likely America was named for the Welsh explorer John ApMerick.

Could you please come up with some other “Did You Know” stuff in the quote section. The old ones that you alternate between are getting veeeery boring.

I am a United Statesian as far as my nationality is concerned, I am also an American as far as my continentality is concerned. Only in the USA are its citizens claiming to be the singular source of citizenship for the continent. A Chilean realizes he is also an American as does a Jamaican, Costa Rican, Canadian, Cuban et al. Elsewhere a Spainiard knows he is also a European etc, A Nigerian knows he is an African et al The name of the 50 states union is the United States OF America, not the United States IS America The hijacking of American is another example of the bully the US has been since its origins, stealing land from the indigeneous, Mexico, Monroe Doctrine, Platt Amendment, the taking of the ithmus of Panama from Columbia are just a few examples

The 1497 voyage by John Cabot to the Labrador coast of Newfoundland constitutes yet another discovery of the American mainland, which led to an early 20th-century account of the naming of America, recently revived, that claims the New World was named after an Englishman (Welshman, actually) called Richard Amerike.

I agree with Carlitos.

The idea that it is called after Vespucci isn’t really seen as correct by many academics:

http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html

America is NOT named after amerigo vespucci. We know this simply by the fact that it would have to be taken from his first name. Only royalty could name a place using their first name (victoria in australia, jamestown, georgetown etc) if the place is named after the person who found it then it must take their surname (falkland islands, cook islands, hudson river, straits of magellan etc) The most likely source for the name of America is Richard Americ. He was a welshman on a british ship sailing to the newly discovered world. please email me with an responses as i dont frequent the website often GIGATHANATOTHERIUM@HOTMAIL.CO.UK

“Why is the USA called America?”
Becuase people are too lazy or incompetant to know that USA is merely one country in the continant of America.

Good piece of history, but it didn’t answer the question: Why is the U.S.A. (and while you’re at it, it’s inhabitants) called America?

Columbus doesn´t deserve anything, he came looking for a land that his Queen could invade and steal everything. They killed our native people.

“…if the white man wasn’t so vain, pompous, and egotistical.”

-Carlitos

This ignorant bigot, Carlitos, also offered the generalization that “what he [Columbus] really did was pave the way for the conquest of already inhabited lands by Europeans, greedy for wealth and power.”

Let’s recall how few “vain, pompous, and egotistical” Europeans were invovled in this “conquest”. In fact, not only was only a tiny minority of all Europeans involved but also the involved Europeans were frequently sponsored by a government. (Anyone ever hear of Ferdinand and Isabella?)

We can say without hyperbole that Columbus Day celebrates the arrival in the western hemisphere of a particular type of European collectivism, not to mention of Israelitic superstition. But neither collectivism, a root of which is always greed, nor superstition were alien to the western hemisphere, although of course not all the residents found there by Europeans had been collectivized.

Anyhow, it’s ironic that a number of other collectivists, mostly European in descent and all of them radically arrogant, celebrated Columbus Day of 2011 by holding mass rallies and marches for socialism in many places of the USA. The ones in Chicago, for example, angrily denounced corporate greed (but failed to call for abolition of incorporation, which no free market would have), angrily demanded more funding for communistic education (but failed to explain why it’s prudent to subsidize a failed and inefficient system), cried out “Tax The Rich” (but failed to explain how to end the corruption through which some superwealthy people get that way), and postured as peaceful demonstrators (but failed to explain how any of their agenda could be implemented without governmental aggression and violence).

Well, I hope that Columbus Day in 2012, on Monday, Oct. 8., will be a happy one for all Delawarians, Pennsylvanians, New Jerseyans, and so forth. Of course, Columbus arrived on Oct. 12, which suggests another celebration on Friday if not also fun throughout the week, too.

P.S. to Jim Kingsepp: Columbus didn’t discover any hemisphere or continent that hadn’t been uncovered prior to his arrival. On the other hand, there is the irony of the discovery that Columbus was confused about where he’d been and what he’d done.

What I would like to know, is why has the U.S.A. become known as “America” when both North and South America together should be known as that. Is it just laziness that make people for get the “of” part of what U.S.A. stands for? The U.S.A. is just one of many countries in “America”.

The continent as a whole was named America, not only the U.S.

“America” technically refers to North, Central and South America, or so my Quebec-separatist friends would have me believe, and I agree with them (and Marcela, above). I don’t believe U.S. citizens co-opted the word “Americans” deliberately — it was just a way-easier reference vs. those “United Statesians”.

interesting but it Americans should not call their country America, as America refers to a continent and on that continent there are three countries, Canada, United States OF America and Mexico. It is almost as if for some Americans there are no other countries on that continent or that they think of themselves so important that their country has swallowed the other other ones. Americans who refer to their country as United States of America deserve much more respect in other countries.

I’ve always understood that it’s unlikely that America was named after Vespucci because only royals had their first names used when naming places. If it had been named after Vespucci, it would probably have been called Vespuccia.

I don’t know whether it’s true, but someone once suggested it was named after a 15th Century Welsh merchant, Richard ap Meryk (usually anglicised as Americk or Amerike), who financed John Cabot’s voyage to the New World in 1497. This does seem more likely, but there is no strong evidence to support this theory (although there isn’t any for Vespucci either!)

Jim Kingsepp makes a good observation. I would just like to add to what he wrote that: If the Indians came to Europe we would definitely say that they have discovered the “Old World” which would in that case be the “New World” because their observation point would have to be considered for that too. ;0)

This is really a question of who goes where. Or even wider: who performs the action, and who is an object of this action.
For example if Martians come to Earth, we could say that they discovered Earth and Earhlings – and if we went to Mars and found them, we could say that we discovered Mars and Martians.

And to drive this point all the way, let me also add that just naming something is not enough, but you also need to put it in writting so others can use it too.
So if somebody is offended by Europeans coming to a certain continent and calling it a “discovery”, and putting their names on things that already had names, just remember that it’s a bit like patent right: If came up with it first – you make the rules. If the native Americans were so kind to draw a map and put their names on it, most probably Europeans would have used it as it is. Instead Europeans had to draw their own map and naturally put names of senile British monarchs to show how good subjects they are instead of using their own names for their own discoveries.

And this is, when you think about it, so pathetic and lame that Native Americans really have nothing to complain about.
Let’s say you discovered a new chemical element or an island or something like that: i could understand if you would name it after yourself or your father/mother/girlfriend, but if you name it Obamium or Victorium – that’s slave mentality. Think about it: Every such name around the map is another monument to lack of selfesteem to the man who named it. ;0)

What’s with the censorship? I’m just telling the truth.

Carlitos is a closet racist. Just follow his posts around this blog. He tries to politicize everything, on a blog about words. Insecure much?

No one today will argue that Columbus was the first human to discover the Americas, but to people who’ve never known it was there, that’s what it seemed like. Humans finding new land and settling that land (even if it was inhabited) is a phenomenon seen around the world, across many cultures. To say that all white people are “vain, pompous, and egotistical” because of this is a rather hateful generalization, and reveals Carlitos’ inherent bias.

Native American. I really don’t like that phrase. I’m a Native American. I was born in the USA! That makes me native alright. I’m also an African American. My ancestors just migrated north a few … dozen … millenia before other families.

I don’t mind “discovery” being credited to some folks and not others. Heck, I’m making discoveries everyday. They’re new to me anyway. Doesn’t matter from my perspective if someone else first discovered it centuries ago.

You go, Amerigo. Even if you weren’t the first, or even if that wasn’t your real name (a pen name maybe?) It works. Besides, the etymology of a word is pointless. That sound (e.g. America) is equated with an object now. The etymologists only go back so far. They give Greek and Latin roots. But where did the Greeks and Romans get the words?

Somewhere, back in prehistoric times, Gronk the caveman discoverd fire and gave it a name. Despite the fact it was already discovered and named by Clurg the coast dweller and Fratisha wife of Brorg. Thus ensued the very first world war. But that’s another story

The Amerigo Vespucci theory is flawed. Why would you name a place using somebodies first name (unless of royal ilk)? You’d be hard pressed to find any such example in the whole world i would imagine. If it WERE named for him, it would have been called Vespuccia or something.

I read somewhere (I forget now) that it was named for a Welsh land owner or something like that.

Marcela is right, “America” really means everything from Alaska to Argentina, not just the USA. TheTurgidOne is also right; “American” is the easiest term to use in English; furthermore the USA is the only country to have “America” in its official name. Too bad English lacks a word like the Spanish “Estadounidense”, meaning someone from the USA.

Carlitos and friends – the book 1491 clarifies a lot about the peoples of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus, avoiding the romanticization of the Indians, but giving proper credit to how populous, advanced, and old their civilizations were. The Europeans did not stumble upon a primordial wilderness unmarked by the hand of man, but rather a continent deeply shaped by the peoples who were living there. It’s a good read, check it out.

History is a story. We all have our perceptions of it. The only thing that should be said is that those with a narrow view display their ignorance on a shelf. We are all ignorant of many things, but please take the time to be aware of your ignorance. It seems that only those who display a broader view of history understand it at all. The historian’s fallacy states that those who lived before us didn’t have the knowledge that we have today and thusly we shouldn’t judge them based on today’s norms.

such a conversation this inspired. I think there is room for BLOGCHI…
I hope I find time to read through more of the entries/blogs—getting a big picture.

For those Latinos who like to complain about the USA being referred to as “America”….it’s erroneous for you to be labeled “Latin”–you’re not Roman/Italian nor do you speak Latin. It’s not “Latin” America either. Mexico is named after the Mexica Indians but they weren’t the only people in what’s now Mexico and most Mexicans are mixed Spanish-Indian (Aztec, Maya, etc.)

@ Marcela:
“It is wrong to refer to the US as America.” According to who? A logical abbreviation certainly would not make it wrong according to reason. United States of America, America for short. That really does not seem that offensive. What would you have us call our country? Just “the United States”?

In line with your reasoning, I had a Spanish teacher in middle school who insisted Americans would be reviled in foreign countries if we introduced ourselves as Americans versus North Americans. I have traveled extensively since middle school and have found this to be untrue, in my experience. Further, the distinction does not make sense. I am from the country with “America” in its name. For better or worse, I am an American. My friend is from Colombia; she is a Colombian. I have never heard anyone self identify with reference to their continent.

Hey guys,

“Comprised of” is a grammatical construct people use when trying to sound smart. “Comprising” or “composed of” are the viable alternatives.

america is good country, but I don,t know where that name came from originaly, but I heard one of the finders that country his name was america.

If you want to get technical, migrating Eurasian people discovered the continent about 12,000 years ago when they crossed the Beringia, the land bridge which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia during the ice age, and settled there.

Hey “Builder”, thanks for sticking up for “Blogchi” I always think that his/her commentary IS relevant and appropriate, whereas merely bashing someone is more than useless especially if you fail to comment on the actual topic.
Here is some food for thought concerning conquering new lands (thank you Neil Young for being so provocative and meaningful in your poetry):

“Pocahontas”

Aurora borealis
The icy sky at night
Paddles cut the water
In a long and hurried flight
From the white man
to the fields of green
And the homeland
we’ve never seen.

They killed us in our tepee
And they cut our women down
They might have left some babies
Cryin’ on the ground
But the firesticks
and the wagons come
And the night falls
on the setting sun.

They massacred the buffalo
Kitty corner from the bank
The taxis run across my feet
And my eyes have turned to blanks
In my little box
at the top of the stairs
With my Indian rug
and a pipe to share.

I wish a was a trapper
I would give thousand pelts
To sleep with Pocahontas
And find out how she felt
In the mornin’
on the fields of green
In the homeland
we’ve never seen.

And maybe Marlon Brando
Will be there by the fire
We’ll sit and talk of Hollywood
And the good things there for hire
And the Astrodome
and the first tepee
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me
Pocahontas.

Columbus……….1492……………America, im gettin these notes down….

Mixed, for discovering something and calling it a new world..
As usual learned a lot.
Thank you.

America is a continent not a country, btw it is a Spanish name.
All of us who were born in this continent from Alaska to Chile are americans.

Who discovered Africa?

sea como sea, Colon al momento de venir abrio la puerta a la colonizacion lo que trajo el gran anvance en tecnologia que impulso el comienzo de nuestro tiempo, nadie mas tuvo el valor de crusar todo el oceano con reos de tripulacion para colonizar toda esta tierra. Otra cosa, America es “TODA AMERICA” no solo los USA, en mi trabajo llaman personas solicitando hablar con alguien “americano” lol, alguien de mexico, guatemala, el salvador, nicaragua, honduras, panama, costa rica, cuba, colombia, chile, peru, argentina, belice, las guyanas, brazil, ecuador, uruguay, paraguay… (falto alguno) buen dia.

Try to learn another language, like me.

I have heard in the past that calling our country America or calling yourself an American is offensive to other people who live on North, Central, or South America because they can technically be considered Americans too. So I’ve always tried to say United States and USA and stuff like that.

Sometimes we take political correctness too far. I realized this is one of those areas. Here’s why:

We call it Brazil. Real name: Federative Republic of Brazil
We call it the UK, Britain, England, etc. Real name: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
We call it Bulgaria. Real name: Republic of Bulgaria
We call it Iran. Real name: Islamic Republic of Iran
We call it Mexico. Real name: United Mexican States
We call it Spain. Real name: Kingdom of Spain
We call it Greece. Real name: Hellenic Republic
We call it Laos. Real name: Lao People’s Democratic Republic

My country’s official name is the United States of America. But I think precedent and popular opinion show that it is not only acceptable but also expected to drop all the formalities and just say America/American.

The fact that people call the United States of America ‘America’ is not down to stupidity or ignorance, but rather convention. It is a convention that was common to both English and Spanish before the independence of the Spanish American colonies. Before the emergence of independent nations in America Europeans said that they were going to ‘America’ or ‘Las Americas’, wherever it happened to be in the continent. As Spanish America split up into Mexico, Peru, Argentina, etc. it no longer made sense to just say ‘Juan is going to America’ and for obvious reasons they started saying ‘Juan is going to Mexico, Pero, Argentina etc.’ Since Anglo-Saxon America didn’t ultimately break up into lots of different countries (just the US and Canada) people continued to say ‘John is going to America’, when referring to the former 13 colonies or the big land mass which developed into the current US – there was no overwhelming reason to change that usage, so the convention stuck. If Spanish America had developed into one or two large entities I’m sure Spanish speakers would still say ‘Juan va a America/Las Americas’.

As far as not having a word for United Statesians is concerned it seems to be a characteristic or weakness of English rather than a historical plot – consider the United Kingdom; despite its being the cradle of the English language there is no accurate word in English to describe the nationality of someone from that country – British is the default word, but not strictly accurate because the UK is made up of Britain and Northern Ireland.

As far as all the nasty thieving, raping, murdering Europeans are concerned, the majority of their descendents are obviously living in the Americas, not in Europe, and are often the wealthy who have managed to maintain their priveleges over the centuries. So if you are going to get angry about all that and start pointing fingers you better be of the indigenous population, because if not then you are talking about your ancestors and should be pointing the finger at yourself, not at somebody whose ancestors never set foot in America.

@carlitos
As others have mentioned, the Native Americans (or Indians, as we call them in my mother tongue) had their fair share of rivalries, brutality, and nature exploitation before european settlers and conquerors showed up. They did not have the european diseases because they didn’t have much contact with animals. They did not domesticate animals.

The Native American culture and peoples were not morally superior to the europeans regarding their treatment of people and natural resources, before and after the white men arrived. As evidenced, for example, by their horrific human sacrifice rituals, and mass hunting of buffaloes (“before the introduction of horses, bison were herded into large chutes made of rocks and willow branches and then stampeded over cliffs.” – taken from wikipedia) before the arrival of white men, and also their vicious hunting of the beaver populations, almost to the brink of extinction, for trading with white colonials for metal implements and tools and, lo and behold, especially for modern weapons, such as guns and rifles. They were also known for their absolutely horrifying raids on secluded european settlements during the 18th-19th century. They were never morally superior, simply technologically inferior.

I said that the Native Americans had a wide network of commerce and political intrigues with white men to emphasize the fact that their relation to european settlers was not a simple run-of-the-mill victim-victimizer dynamics, and the Native American populace were not better in any way then the europeans.

By the way, I don’t care one bit about Columbus Day, since I’m not from the USA. I do think that columbus was a rather nasty greedy individual, and should not have a day named after him, but I also think he should be judged by the moral standards and attitudes of his time (which were pretty bad when it came to non-white and/or non-christian populations) and I cannot deny the importance of his arrival to the American shorelines in the European collective historical perspective.

I agree with Carlitos- Columbus didn’t “discover” America, there were Native Americans already living there. In my opinion, America should NOT be named after Columbus (no offense). He did so many things that were just so wrong!

“european settlements in the 18th-19th century” of course also refer to american settlements.

@Ryan:

► We are named Latinos because we speak a “romance language”, which means our language is a mix of Sermo Vulgaris Or Latin Vulgaris -Or simply Latin- with a few other dialects. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages) is the origin of portuguese, italiano, spanish, french and many many other languages. ◄

@SegioCatalan:

►No se de donde seas, pero tu español es muy bueno. Te felicito. =) ◄

@Walter on October 10, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Of course the early explorers “discovered” America.

“Are you seriously going to say that if NASA goes to another world where there is life that the astronauts cannot write, tweet or radio back to the rest of us here on planet Earth that they have discovered life in case in some ridiculously politically correct world of the future the aliens might say that we couldn’t have “found” them because they were not lost, or we couldn’t have “discovered” them because they already knew that they were there?

Just as those astronauts will be human beings relating their findings to other human beings, the early explorers were Europeans writing for a European audience in books that were going onto European shelves to be read by Europeans.

The native Americans could equally have written their own accounts of how they discovered these white strangers on their beaches or found them roaming their plains and they could have placed such tomes on their native American library shelves or bookshops for other native Americans to read. I hope they did.”

-That’s a bad analogy. We’re all humans on this Earth. Nothing was discovered other than that humans had already migrated to North America. What was recorded in the history books we read is basically “science”. But you’ll note that every once in a while, we have to re-write those books as our understanding evolves. Just as Pluto is no longer a proper planet, Columbus did not discover the New World. It was already discovered, with thousands of years of rich history.

@justaman on October 10, 2011 at 6:41 pm
“@carlitos…..true, although we can’t go back. Materialism is the curse of mankind. All cultures have embraced it. A survey of all cultures will disclose this.

We have to work within the system we have…….remember……no entrepreneurs…..no businesses…….no jobs, whether you work in the public or private sector……nothing. Public sector jobs are paid by tax dollars, no businesses to provide jobs, no tax revenue. Everything stops…..sound familiar? How about the current economic environment?

Will we all revert to life a-la 1832? I don’t think so. People like technology and the creature comforts afforded by the advances present in modern day living.”

-Of course. We might return to that world someday. Nature may make it so just as some wise old Natives know. Sun spots rendering all integrated circuits useless, magnetic field reversal, ecological catastrophe. Those who are connected to the Earth and can listen to her may survive. Those who can’t definitely will not.

@Carol on October 11, 2011 at 12:34 am
“@ Kingsepp
Some clarity on the word Discovery in the context of who was claiming discovery. People are not what, but rather who. The naming of this act as a discovery was an air of superiority – claiming the land was for the taking and its inhabitants thought of as “less than human” because the indigenous were seen as inferior. Today’s understanding of the word “discover” is used more broadly. Make no mistake, in the days of Columbus, discovered land was a means of claiming ownership of the land. Discovering the land, what, without acknowledging the inhabitants, who, was plainly a means of serving self and demeaning others in ways that destroy all.”

-VERY well said.

@Bevan on October 11, 2011 at 1:46 am
“Carlitos sympathisers, please consider what has already been mentioned yet you’ve seemingly failed to grasp. You can only discover what already exists. If it does not exist, you cannot discover it. To take that a step further; discovery can only occur for those who do not know something is there. Since the rest of the developing world didn’t know America existed, and were obviously interested in mapping the world, this was indeed a discovery. To say it was not, because some other people were already living there, is absurd. Discovery is always from the point of view of the discoverer and holidays tend to be celebrated due to their relevance, and relevance is determined by many things but in this case it would be the population majority who descend from the discoverers. Duh! To every primitive culture romanticising, white man hating moron out there I have this to say. The world was coming, mankind was expanding its capabilities and knowledge. The land known today as the Americas (among others e.g. Australia, New Zealand etc.) joining the rest of the world was inevitable. Your views and grievances are an over simplification of the world, mankind and life. Had the primitive cultures had the technology and knowledge of the developing world then they would have done exactly the same as those who did possess the technology. Perhaps they’d have been even more brutal about it, which is likely given the savage and cannibalistic nature of many. This is the nature of man; to learn, discover, expand and conquer. NO culture or race is exempt! Read a history book or two. Nothing has changed under the sun. Native Americans are no different from those all over the world over thousands of years who have preceded them either by being conquered or conquering. Did you really expect the world to just stand by and leave you alone just because you were there first? Are you just naive or stupid?! Perhaps if the primitive cultures hadn’t been so primitive they wouldn’t have been pushed around so much. But instead their cultures, beliefs and superstitions kept them in technological darkness and they were overtaken. Some cultures became so pathetic they lost the art of making fire. Please understand that this is a disgusting regression for any human existence! Be thankful you live in a democratic country where your ignorant voice is tolerated. It could have just as easily gone another way. Historically and statistically it should have gone another way. Nevertheless, the world came; it just happened to be white. It wasn’t perfect, but thank God it was democratic. All in all, what is done is done and was unavoidable. Get over it!”

-Bevan, I like your logic, but it doesn’t end there. Please see Carol’s comment. The white man is still coming. For you and your democracy. Take warning! The white man is still coming, and coming FOR YOU!

Bitch, bitch, bitch!
I begin to understand why some Canadians call us The Excited States of America.
If this keeps up, we’re just one small revolution away from being called a Banana Republic.
Nothing like an intelligent discussion, and that’s what this is, NOTHING like an intelligent discussion. White man, red man do same things, white man bad, red man good? Assuming Atlantis existed, they’d hardly use the Latin alphabet, and even if they did, they would not have a word to name an entity which didn’t come into existence till thousands of years after their fabled demise. Keep babbling, the NSA sieves all this stuff so that they’ll know who to come pick up.

@Paul Trombley on October 11, 2011 at 9:01 am

-Hey Trombley, you’re obviously smart but you don’t listen. You have a bad understanding of what these Occupy protests are all about. I encourage you to open your eyes, your ears, and quiet your mind for awhile.

@tamru on October 11, 2011 at 10:02 am
“What’s with the censorship? I’m just telling the truth.

Carlitos is a closet racist. Just follow his posts around this blog. He tries to politicize everything, on a blog about words. Insecure much?

No one today will argue that Columbus was the first human to discover the Americas, but to people who’ve never known it was there, that’s what it seemed like. Humans finding new land and settling that land (even if it was inhabited) is a phenomenon seen around the world, across many cultures. To say that all white people are “vain, pompous, and egotistical” because of this is a rather hateful generalization, and reveals Carlitos’ inherent bias.”

-I did not say ‘all white people’, I said “white man” which is a generalized term used by Native Americans to describe who they feel are criminal perpetrators against their nation and people. So it was within that context, and should not classify me as a rascist. Biased? Yes, sure. I’ll give you that.

In a world of omnipresent injustice and intolerance; plagued with cruelty of many types and lacking in understanding and compassion, populated by a race of “intelligent” beings arrogant and wrong to believe they are the only ones in the universe and created by a divine being – you bet I politicize. And I will as long as I feel it is a way to sound the alarm and keep peoples’ eyes open and unblind to the imbalance.

@Svenjamin on October 11, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Hey “Builder”, thanks for sticking up for “Blogchi” I always think that his/her commentary IS relevant and appropriate, whereas merely bashing someone is more than useless especially if you fail to comment on the actual topic.
Here is some food for thought concerning conquering new lands (thank you Neil Young for being so provocative and meaningful in your poetry):

“Pocahontas”

-Rock on! A true artist is Neil Young.

Wikimedia*Santoshrs5**me@wiki*

@Archon

- thank you for the correct explanation of how Canada came by its name.

As a Canadian, I am not at all offended that the people of the United States of America are referred to as ‘American’, though we are all ‘North Americans’. I don’t know any Canadians who are offended by this.

@Carlitos

I am glad you admit your bias. Nevertheless, it is a pitiful attempt at semantics. You could just as easily have said the white colonists, but you chose not to. Your racism reveals itself yet again, and you continue to generalize white people in nearly every post. The only sort of politicizing you do is the kind where you rail against whites, while promoting a fantasy view of “Native” utopia. Faced with any kind of fact you turn to disparaging science and sidelining history. How come?

Sorry, incoherent New Age ramblings about nature and “wise old natives” make rather poor arguments (ctrl+F and search his posts for evidence).

So after about the tenth comment that repeated itself, I stopped reading, so someone may have beat me to this, but the name “America” is unlikely to have come from Vespucci. As far back as the 12th century, Templars wrote of a land across the ocean called “Merica,” and seem to refer to it as a rather well known fact among certain circles. I’m fairly certain I’ve come across the name from other sources in writings far predating Vespucci, as well, but I can’t recall where at the moment. Much like Columbus discovering the Americas, which is pretty much a silly idea with what we know of history now, (in fact, there’s little reason to think the upper tier of educated peoples in Europe and Asia hadn’t known of the Americas for a VERY long time,) the pairing of Vespucci with the name “America” is just a very poor attempt at propping up certain cultural heroes and to take credit for the works of others. Sadly, propagating such nonsense tends to stifle the growth of true knowledge. :/

I didn’t read all the way through the comments so this may have been addressed, but as to why the USA is referred to as just America, it’s just a shortening of United States of America, just as the People’s Republic of China is just referred to as China.

man the U.S.A sucks anyways

Did Columbus call the natives Indians? Or did someone else do that? It did have to be someone believing the island Columbus accidentally bumped into was part of India.

Most of us know Columbus was no hero, but all those Italians who celebrate Columbus Day as one of their greatest holidays love him. Let them celebrate the person who means so much to them. It shouldn’t affect the rest of us. It means nothing to us, except maybe sale prices on furniture and mattress sets.

It’s probably not worth it to say, black natives of Africa captured and sold other black natives of Africa to be taken away as slaves to various places in the world. Eventually, some countries voted slavery out, while some countries still practice slavery.

In our country, the union of states that voted against slavery, under the directions of our white Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, went to war to end slavery in the rest of the states. Approximately 2.2 million white soldiers joined the Union Army to free the black slaves when the politicians couldn’t manage to get it done peacefully. Of those, about 360,000 died and 280,000 were wounded. That’s over 28%. And yet, so many descendants of those freed slaves hate the descendants of those Union soldiers to this very day. If asked for their nationality, do they call themselves Americans, Africans, or African Americans?

And why don’t people in Mexico want to be called Mexicans or Native Americans? If I had ancestors from Mexico, I’d much rather be thought of as Native American than Spanish. And as a Native American, I would expect the right to go back and forth across the Mexican-American border at will. Native Americans shouldn’t have reservations or political boundaries. They should be free to travel the entire length and breadth of all of the Americas because no one ever had the legal right to take that privilege away from them.

Can a DNA test tell if a person is mostly Native American? I’m just asking. I don’t know anything.

If you read this, click on my name and type flabbergast in the comment below.

This is the last comment.

I think “Columbia” fits better

In my history book, the name “America” was thought that Amerigo Vespucci but he was an Italian and sailed for Spain and Portugal and he went to South America and realised that it was not Asia. So Amerigo might not be the name of America.

I once heard that America was named after (by extension) a Hungarian king. King Imre was canonised, and the English version of his name was Emeric. Since his mother was a Catholic, she wanted to name her son after a saint. Emeric was then Italian-ised to make Amerigo. Then it was changed to America by the cartographers.

This is just an interesting rumour I heard and I’m afraid I can’t find anything to back it up with, so don’t take it as a gospel truth.

wow…for all i know now America could have been named after peanut butter jelly sandwhiches, just rumours…..