It would be amazing if they had arrived to the Americas and ask some natives about how they call a place and they said “this? This is New Amsterdam. We don’t know what’s Amsterdam but this is a newer version of it”
That sometimes leads to confusing results. When Europeans arrived on the Saint Lawrence river they asked what they called the place. The indigenous people thought they were asking about what the word for village was so told them that word. Then every village they went they thought they were asking the name of the place but were actually asking “is this a village?” and the response was “yes, this is a village.” So that led to the assumption the entire region was called that.
Yeah so the indigenous word for “village” was “canada”. Woops! When they figured out the mistake it was already on all the maps, so whatever I guess.
“Americans” as in white Europeans?
It would be amazing if they had arrived to the Americas and ask some natives about how they call a place and they said “this? This is New Amsterdam. We don’t know what’s Amsterdam but this is a newer version of it”
“It’s called Noo Amsterdam, I don’t know why you think it’s referencing some place we’ve never heard of, it just means big harbor”
That sometimes leads to confusing results. When Europeans arrived on the Saint Lawrence river they asked what they called the place. The indigenous people thought they were asking about what the word for village was so told them that word. Then every village they went they thought they were asking the name of the place but were actually asking “is this a village?” and the response was “yes, this is a village.” So that led to the assumption the entire region was called that.
Yeah so the indigenous word for “village” was “canada”. Woops! When they figured out the mistake it was already on all the maps, so whatever I guess.
My ancestors had great names for places. Then the white invaders killed most of us and named our land after their home.
I think this meme would be better suggested to say white European immigrants to America.
Exactly - they weren’t “Americans” yet.
Let’s name our town “New [someplace we miss back home].”
Other than the earliest settlements, most cities in the US were named by people born in North America.