• schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    That’s why there’s always the argument that the country should not be called “America”.

    I think, though am not sure, that this comes from the 13 colonies having once been “British America”, which was by default what people meant when they talked about “America” in English, which stuck after independence.

    E.g., “Deutschland” could refer to all germanic-speaking countries, but everyone recognizes that it just means Germany.

    nowadays anyway; before the German Empire was founded, “Deutschland” was usually understood as the entire German-speaking region (what we call “deutschsprachiger Raum” today), and between 1949 and 1990 “Deutschland” could mean the Federal Republic of Germany (usually including West Berlin), or the Federal Republic of Germany plus German Democratic Republic plus Berlin, or Germany in the borders of 1937, or even just East Germany whose constitution initially started “Deutschland ist eine unteilbare demokratische Republik”.

    • zout@fedia.io
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      1 day ago

      Isn’t it because Benjamin Franklin (I think) started naming his fellow country men “Americans”, in order to create cohesion?