Why did American colonizers typically keep the names that indigenous peoples and former colonizers used, unlike most European colonizers who would typically rename their conquests after places in their own countries?
This is an observation I've noticed and I wonder what made the USA different in its aim. Other than completely butchering the pronunciation of its new territories, and often dropping accent marks and other things that don't exist in the English language, the names of towns, cities, states, etc. would usually remain the exact same.
Compare this with most European colonizers. Spain would give all its territories entirely new Spanish names, often recycling ones it already has. The UK would do the same but with English, obviously. Even Portugal, the Netherlands, etc. all have done it that way too.
Posted Jul 25, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC
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