America. - America. America. - America. America. Americas. Americans. Americanos. American. Americano. A merry-go-round. Amerigo Vespucci An Italian. Welcome to Map Men. We're the men And here's the map. ♫ Map Men, Map Men ♫ Map, Map, Map Men, Men. The United States of America is a five word country. States, United, The and Of are all self-explanatory but the America part makes a lot less sense than you might think. As we all know, America was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. And "discovered" is the right word because there definitely weren't people living there already. And it was definitely him who discovered it, not the Chinese in 1421 or the Vikings around the year 1000 The China theory is heavily debated. And it was definitely the United States of America he discovered in 1492 not some Caribbean islands. Good to be clear. But although Columbus had reached a new world, he never reached the realisation he'd reached it. He'd set off out search of an alternative route to the spices of the East Indies and wrongly thought he'd found one. And so he named the Caribbean islands 'The West Indies' because he'd sailed west to find them which is weird because, if he'd thought about it and he had actually gone around the world and hit the East Indies, he'd have hit them on the east side so he probably should have called them the East East Indies. So if he had been right, the West Indies would today be on the eastern side of the Indies which is ridiculous. But Columbus wasn't the only European who'd had a 15th century mid-life crisis that involved buying a massive boat and sailing west until he'd come to terms with his own mortality. Just one year after Columbus first reached the south American mainland Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci got there second. But the crucial difference between Vespucci and Chris, as people in the voyaging business referred to him is Vespucci did know he'd reached a brand new continent. And word soon spread of an exciting new world. Hear ye hear ye! There's a brand new continent we knew nothing about until now full of gold and spices and exciting new vegetables! Map makers around the world set to work creating new and up-to-date world maps each with their own dreadful renderings of the increasingly but still not very discovered continent. One of these map-makers was a German called Martin Waldseemüller who, in 1507, had all but finished his magnificent new world map except for one small detail... what to name the new continent everyone was talking about. He very likely would have named it Columbia after the widely-agreed discoverer of the New World, Columbus. But Amerigo Vespucci had some very clever PR people who were falsifying documents and spreading lies about exactly when he'd reached the new world. These lies must have reached the ears of Martin Waldseemüller You're listening to the Vespucci Hour on Explorer FM. ♫ Amerigo, he got there first. Because he made the fateful decision to label the new continent "America" Latin for Amerigo. Waldseemüller published his map complete with an unnecessarily long Latin title "Complete Map Following of Ptolemy the Tradition and of Amerigo Vespucci of Others Also the Illustrations" If you zoom into his map and look carefully you can see the little word "America" in what we now call modern day Brazil. It was the first time that made-up word had been used anywhere by anyone ever ever. Nobody knows why Martin named it after Amerigo's fairly common first name rather than the Vespucci part. It's a bit like if I discovered a continent and they named it Markland instead of the more enticing sounding Cooperworld Jonesania. One part of the new world that Martin clearly didn't give much thought to was this bit up here, which he drew super small and super inaccurate. So it may surprise you to learn the inhabitants of this area were the people who centuries later cared the most about this map. Fast forward 500 years to the 90s. Throughout the 90s, the United States tried desperately to get their hands on Waldseemuller's map. Because it contained the first use of the word America, the US considered it to be their birth certificate. Not minding that it had actually been given to a different baby since they had no qualms about swapping babies even though they were now grown adults. At the time, Waldseemüller's map was sitting in a drawer in the private collection of Prince Johannes Zu Waldburg-Wolfegg und Waldsee in Germany. They wanted it so-o-o-o-o-o-o much they paid ten million dollars for it making Waldseemüller's map by far the most expensive map in history. In 2007, the map finally earned its wrongful place on display in the United States Library of Congress. How a library was able to raise $10 million, we can only guess. So how come America got. to name itself America? You'd think that writing the Latin word "America" on Latin America would mean America should describe Latin America. So why is non-Latin USA allowed its A at all? Part of the reason is that they achieved independence before any of the other 34 American countries. In 1776, the 13 colonies that had been known as British America used their rifles to shotgun the name "The United States of America". Over time, the long name "The United States of America" got shortened to just "America" which is how the English-speaking world almost exclusively refers to the United States today. And, as you might expect, or if you're an American, as you might never have given any thought to this annoys a lot of people. Whom does it annoy? First, Latin America. In the Spanish-speaking world, the word "America" on its own always refers to the entire continent and never the country, which they call "Los Estados Unidos" They even set up a petition, demanding Los Estados stop stealing their name and get a new one right now. With 308 signatures, it's surely only a matter of time before America concedes. Second, Canada. Canadians resent the USA arrogantly naming itself after their shared continent. But not as much as they resent being mistaken for Americans by people who can't tell their accents apart and confuse them with people who serve cheese out of a spray can. Third, British people. Couldn't they just keep calling it British America? It had such a nice ring to it if you're British. Fourth, Chris Columbus. If the Americans do insist on naming their continent after a European explorer Columbus, lest we forget, was actually there before Amerigo Vespucci. As it is, Columbus had to settle for the US capital, a province of Canada, another country countless other towns and cities and a national holiday. Poor guy. And lastly, Amerigo Vespucci himself who died never knowing these new lands were to bare his name in so many confusing and overlapping ways. So, if the United States of Americans did want to change their name what on earth could they change it to? Any attempt at a rebrand would come with its own controversy and of course it's hard to imagine patriotic Americans ever actually voting to be called anything else. Even though it appears that the US Library of Congress spent $10 million on a map that suggests its country gave itself the wrong name It looks like the USA of America will go on calling itself America for many years to come. Classic America. Oh, hi. I didn't notice you there. You just caught me buying some electrical tape online. That's right, you can even use the internet to do your shopping these days. And if you're anything like me, you'll hate to pay full price. Which is why I love to use discount vouchers... Discount vouchers! Discount vouchers to give you money off your shopping Money off your shopping! But who has the time to... But who has the time to route around the World Wide Web for these hidden codes in the 21st year of the 21st century? Certainly not me. Certainly not you! Shut up! But now you don't have to, thanks to Honey Honey, the browser extension. Yes, but I'm going to say it. Honey... The browser extension. Just let me say it! Honey the browser extension. All you have to do... All you have to do is go to joinhoney.com/mapmen to add Honey to whatever browser you're using in just two easy clicks. And the next time you're shopping on any of its more than 30,000 supported sites simply click "apply coupons" and get money off. It really is that simple, and you can do it right now for absolutely free. It's simple, if you have a computer there's no reason it shouldn't have Honey on it. And I don't mean runny honey, computers hate that. Ha ha ha... He he he... Ha ha ha ha! Ah, ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Runny honey! Ha ha ha... Ha ha ha ha ha... Ha ha ha ha ha! HA HA HAHAHA.... HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO..... MMMMM.... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...... (ding dong) Ah, that'll be my delivery of electrical tape that I got a massive discount on thanks to Honey I'd better go and get it. So, click the link in the description to put Honey on your computer and get big discounts on all sorts of products like... hmmpph!!! hmmmmph!!!
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America - "We will give you 10mil for this map that has our name on it"
"ok, but this map also kinda shows that you aren't actually America"
America - "don't worry about that bit"
Isn't it because it's an abbreviation of the full name?
Petition to rename England - Olde America
In my experience it seems like people more often call it "the U.S." than America. Which should unbunch everyone's undies because the US would certainly refer more precisely to just the part that comprises our country and not the whole continent.
Here's a quick Chinese lesson.
Beautiful = 美 = Mei
Kingdom/country = 国= Guo
Continent / Area = 洲 = Zhou
USA = 美国 = Mei Guo
North America = 北美洲 = Bei Mei Zhou
South America = 南美洲 = Nan Mei Zhou
The part where they said South Americans hate it when United States of Americans say they're from "America" is accurate.
Wow, these guys are hilarious!
New Map Men? Me Hap Gen.