Interesting video if you have 15 minutes to spare. It all depends on where you come from..

I think the ship sailed on "America" meaning anything but the US quite a long time ago. Geologically, it's two different continents with different names plus some little bits of smaller tectonic plates. It's unfortunate, but there is no common culture, either historically or philosophically.

I think this issue really comes from government and education policy in Latin America. Unlike English, Spanish (and many other languages) have what amount to language police. This is the one that oversees Spanish:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Spanish_Language_Academies

I'm sure that there's no criminal penalty but, for instance, a student in a Spanish-speaking country would be considered "wrong" to refer to the US as "America." It wouldn't just be a matter of opinion or preference. A scholar probably wouldn't be allowed to use the term in a Spanish language research paper. So there's really no way of knowing what common people in Latin America really think of "America" as the United States.

A couple of more things: Spanish speakers in the US are also governed by one of these entities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Academy_of_the_Spanish_Language

And, these groups don't just say it's wrong to call Americans "Americans." It's also wrong to say that name of the country is the United States of America or USA.

Pretty interesting - thanks!

But to sum it up, just scroll to the last 40 seconds of the video to know the truth (as we Americans know it ;))

...but yeah, I've always considered Canada/US/Central/South as The Americas. But "America" is the term used and understood all over for the US, specifically -- but only by foreigners, by the way! We're American, sure, and if you say that anywhere in the world, you're assumed to be from the U.S. But when we're traveling abroad, we don't go "back to America", we're not "from America" -- we go back to the U.S., cuz we're from the U.S.

Other places may call themselves the "Unites States of...", but, we are The United States. And we're Americans.

Canadians are Canadians. Mexicans are Mexicans. Costa Ricas are Ticos (and, Costa Ricans) -- we're all "Americans", but the word itself -- today -- really only means those from the United States. But it's interesting to hear about the history of the word....

It sends a shudder down my spine to be regarded as European!! I is British

In the words of a Miss USA contestant, we're US Americans.

i class myself as English, not British, Yogi..:)

Technically anyone who lives in "The Americas" is an American, but the U.S. has more or less co-opted it.
Its weird, cause when U.S. citizens are overseas, they will say "I am an American," but we refer to our country as "The States."

Half Scottish aren't I so I regard myself as British, but I was born in England. Actually I just regard myself as Geordie......

We have North America, South America and central America, so to me, I think of "America" as the USA.