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Percent of People Who Consider Themselves Living in the Midwest (slrpnk.net)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Can someone explain to a european why this huge chunk of the eastern half of the country is called "midwest"?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It makes more sense when you consider that for most of US history the country was significantly smaller than it is now. Originally the country pretty much just consisted of the East Coast - and France, England, and Spain still had large chunks of territory within the US's current borders.

Much of what's now considered the west wasn't captured from Spain/Mexico until much later. So basically just look at it from the perspective of the East Coast where the US originated. To them at that time what we consider the Midwest now would have just been the west. And the terms changed with the westward expansion.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Manifest destiny / westward expansion

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

As someone who moved here from New England let me explain.

Cheese curds
Dontcha know?
Discount Canada

That's the midwest.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Man, I WISH we had good cheese curds in Ohio.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Because Midwest is a nice way of saying "flyover country"