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.
Can someone explain to a european why this huge chunk of the eastern half of the country is called “midwest”?
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.
Manifest destiny / westward expansion
As someone who moved here from New England let me explain.
That’s the midwest.
Man, I WISH we had good cheese curds in Ohio.
Because Midwest is a nice way of saying “flyover country”