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Originally posted by EmaciatedHooker
You're totally right. But from the USA perspective, we call ourselves American because our country is called "The United States of AMERICA", not because of our continent's name. We're all American, technically, but Canadians and Mexicans don't consider themselves American, I don't think.
It's confusing because people from Brazil are Brazilians but also Americans? Our country is called America, so we're Americans, unless you want to call us United Statians.
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Americans calling themselves "Americans" is more a consequence of the US Civil War. Pre-civil war a lot of people from the US would have called themselves Virginians, New Yorkers, Alabamans, or whatever other State name first, that being their "country", not the greater federation. Sadly, the English language is not good at coming up with a good place name for something like "The United States".