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However, without a clarifying context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America. [2] Historically, in the English-speaking world, the term America could refer to a single continent until the 1950s (as in Van Loon's Geography of 1937): According to historians Kären Wigen and Martin W. Lewis, [3]
The earliest known use of the name "America" dates to 1505, when German poet Matthias Ringmann used it in a poem about the New World. [2] The word is a Latinized form of the first name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who first proposed that the West Indies discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 were part of a previously unknown landmass, rather than the eastern limit of Asia.
The American Nation: A History of the United States: AP Edition (2008) Egerton, Douglas R. et al. The Atlantic World: A History, 1400–1888 (2007), college textbook; 530pp; Elliott, John H. Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492–1830 (2007), 608pp excerpt and text search, advanced synthesis
1526: Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón briefly establishes the failed settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina, the first site of enslavement of Africans in North America and of the first slave rebellion. 1527: Fishermen are using the harbor at St. John's, Newfoundland and other places on the coast.
The French first came to the New World as travelers seeking a route to the Pacific Ocean and wealth. Major French exploration of North America began under the rule of Francis I, King of France. In 1524, Francis sent Italian-born Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the region between Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the Pacific Ocean.
Historia antipodum oder newe Welt, or History of the New World, by Matthäus Merian the Elder, published in 1631. The Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci is usually credited for coming up with the term "New World" (Mundus Novus) for the Americas in his 1503 letter, giving it its popular cachet, although similar terms had been used and applied before him.
In the 1960s, Cesar Chavez began organizing poorly paid Mexican-American farm workers in California, eventually forming the country's first successful union of farm workers, the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). [230] U.S. soldiers searching a village for potential Viet Cong during the Vietnam War in 1966 An anti-Vietnam War demonstration ...
The meaning of the word American in the English language varies according to the historical, geographical, and political context in which it is used.American is derived from America, a term originally denoting all of the Americas (also called the Western Hemisphere), ultimately derived from the name of the Florentine explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (1451–1512).