Why was Germany not more prominent during WWII (but apparently during WWI)?
Maybe headlines tended to say "Nazis" instead of "Germany"?
Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
131–140 of 200 posts
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? As names (if that). Try having them pinpoint them on a map, or say anything intelligent about them.
This is so mean spirited, and honestly just wrong. Why do you think this?
I've actually tried it with people.
And in US-own media, I've seen people unable to name the vice president, think Africa is a country, not know the 50 states, and all kinds of things.
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#133What's interesting is if you did this for just about any other country, there would be a wall of star spangled banners. If you ever travel outside the US, you inevitably hear about what the US is doing, what they're discussing, who the important people are, etc. The reverse is not true: - Everyone outside the US knows the top US politicians. You even know what issues they are discussing, like gun control and healthca…
As a Brazilian, that's not exactly my impression.
> Everyone outside the US knows the top US politicians. You even know what issues they are discussing, like gun control and healthcare.
"Everyone" is not the right word here. People speaking english on the internet probably know about those to a superficial level. There's a lot english speaking of people on the US, so we hear about your issues.
> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of?
People that knows some US state names also usually know some of other countries.
> You might also hear about the US sports leagues.
At least for Brazil, Spanish is the one everybody knows about.
> You know what movies are big in the US. You know what songs are popular.
Agreed here, people really like US movies and songs.
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of I prefer to compare the USA with Europe as a whole, its member countries as states. In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? Americans love to chast…
You know, there is another country that have United States in its name, the United States of Brazil. Do you know any of their individual states? You may know now some of the ex-URSS component countries because recent conflicts, but back then, would they had count as countries or states? Talking about EU is like talking about OTAN. Each of their component countries have their own president, their own political countri…
> Countries are about political borders, not economical. Would you put California, Wall Street, Shenzhen and a few more at the same level as countries?
It's about both, and when it comes to the world stage? Yes. Californias GDP is greater than every country in Europe except Germany - just barely. Heck, CA's GDP on the world stage is 5th according to wikipedia.
If you want to talk about land mass, there are also only a few countries in Europe that are larger than CA.
Wall Street, and by extension NYC is one of the most important cities in the world. It is absolutely on the same level as a country.
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. How many US counties would a person from outside the US know about.
These are just the ones that come to mind right now: oakland county, providence, dupage, king, fairfax, essex, norfolk, san bernardino, los angeles, orange, spokane, sedgwick, sonoma, fresno, queens, cook, wayne, almeda, sacramento, san francisco, oklahoma... Don’t ask why these are the ones that come to mind, but I would bet I know 70-80% from books and movies, the rest from news articles.
Knowledge of counties are somewhat of a function of the state. In some states, counties (or their equivalents like Parishes in Louisiana) are fairly powerful. In others, they're almost meaningless. I live in Massachusetts and I could name maybe 3 or 4 counties--and that's because I've lived in two of them.
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think I could name any provinces in China, but I’m sure many Chinese know about New York and California.
You’ve really never heard of Sichuan, Hunan, or Canton (aka Gaungdong) ?
I would have known those were regions of China (and cuisines). I would not have known with any certainty that they were actual provinces.
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#137What's interesting is if you did this for just about any other country, there would be a wall of star spangled banners. If you ever travel outside the US, you inevitably hear about what the US is doing, what they're discussing, who the important people are, etc. The reverse is not true: - Everyone outside the US knows the top US politicians. You even know what issues they are discussing, like gun control and healthca…
There are two parts to this. One is (cold war) propaganda where there is a somewhat vague feeling that the USA has to a greater or lesser extent a set of shared (western) values and aligning ourselves next to them is probably in our own long term interest given the uncertainty that a world dominated by Russia and now China, or, gasp, religion (yes, I know) might bring. The second is aspirational - generations of Euro…
Very relevant: (Bono: America is an idea)
http://www.aei.org/publication/bono-america-is-an-idea-thats...
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm confused, I grew up in the USA and for global maps the US was never centered. It was always on the left, like every map here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Maps_of_the_world , and Africa is in the middle. If the Americas were centered on a world map you'd have to cut Asia in half, with it being on both the far left and right. It makes a lot more sense to make the split in the middle of the Pacific ocean and…
Ah, thanks for clarifying. I was totally under the impression it would be the norm. Here is an example of a map: http://www.freeworldmaps.net/world/america-centric/physical-... I think it was on west coast or Hawaii I saw those. But what really made me think it's the norm was that the a Universal Pictures logo also has the Americas in middle and their intro ends with the Americas centered also: https://m.youtube.com/…
Yeah, that's not typical and the reason is pretty much practical. If you center at or near the Greenwich Meridien, the edges of your map are more or less right between Alaska and Russia and go down the middle of the Pacific Ocean where there's very little land. Of course, one 2D map projection can't cover the whole earth effectively but centering a typical projection on 0/0 gives you something that works for most of the areas people are looking for on a world map.
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
In terms of states, I don’t think they meant, “everyone can’t point to Delaware on map.” I’d wager it’s more like, “People know Texas, and California, New York, and Florida, Hawaii, etc.” I’d wager most people can name several. This is mostly because of point 3, movies and media.
American states are also the size of countries. A more apt comparison would be counties, which barely any foreigners know.
And if we're going there, it's more likely they'll know more European nations than U.S. states. I think there's probably few European nations that people wouldn't recognize by name (e.g. Andorra, Azerbaijan, Slovenia).
Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know, there is another country that have United States in its name, the United States of Brazil. Do you know any of their individual states? You may know now some of the ex-URSS component countries because recent conflicts, but back then, would they had count as countries or states? Talking about EU is like talking about OTAN. Each of their component countries have their own president, their own political countri…
I do know the names of the states of Brazil, yes, but fair is fair: that's a coincidence. However, to your second and third point: yes, I do consider California more on the level of a European country. With its own laws, which very significantly impact the lives of her citizens. Hell, I'd wager almost everyone knew the name of its political leader at some point! Quite a famous guy :) originally European, even. Politi…
Not that you’re wrong, and not that I disagree with much, but I would take issue with your cherry picking.
The United States is a Federation. The States do have strong borders, their own laws, their own takes on a republican system, even their own electoral and judicial systems that are in many ways distinctly different. California is not distinct from South Dakota in this way.
The States do tend to have very large GSP’s relative to most countries, always directly comparable to the GDP of a nation. This is two parts being part of the single largest national economy in the world and one part the fact there are some very poor countries in the world, and even some European countries aren’t exactly rich, even if they aren’t exactly poor either. Generally each State does punch above its economic weight, even if the budgetary considerations are often complicated by that largest national economy in the world having a multi-trillion national budget backing up four of the largest armed forces in the world.
However, that doesn’t make each and every State particularly relevant to an internationally-minded person of the world. A well educated person might be able to name every nation in Europe, South America, North America and even the Middle East and quite a number of subdivisions to boot, but what about Micronesia, Africa or Polynesia? Most probably won’t be able to tell the difference between Polynesia or Micronesia anymore than they can tell the difference between North Dakota, Alabama or Colorado.
Then certain other States have brands, and punch way above their weight. California. Texas. New York. If they are well known, it is because they are distinctly relevant on the global stage by themselves. California alone has Hollywood, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Stanford and Wine Country. These are all fairly well known brands on their own, SFO and LAX are effectively brands to a well seasoned air traveler.
The fact that California has an economy in the Top 5 in the world in her own has no bearing on the life of your average adult almost anywhere in the world, but they will probably recognize the products and services of California, Inc. Even if they don’t, there is still a decent chance they partake in some of California’s bounty of farm products, almonds in particular are largely grown here.
My point being you can’t cherry pick California and use an argument that would apply to any of the other 50 States when you can also make many of the same claims for: German States, Austrian States, Swiss Cantons, Australian States, Canadian Provinces, and UAE Emirates (name more than two without looking it up, you might be able to but at most the only two most hear about are Dubai and Abu Dhabi), and these are just off the top of my head.
There are a lot of places that get to make their own laws and enforce them. In the United States there are many tribal nations that get to make their own laws and enforce them which are largely anonymous and unknown to most Americans and you won’t find them on most maps that mark the States. That doesn’t necessarily put them all on the same level as the sovereign countries they reside in. Norway is a sovereign country, California is not. The United States is a sovereign country, the European Union is a mess of treaties.