I’m open to being corrected, but my guess would be the long time gap between the original colonization of the east coast and the spread west of there. In 1776 US borders extended to Pennsylvania, so when settlers started moving to Ohio and beyond I imagine they would have called it “The West” until they realized how much west there really was.
It’s from an east coast mentality. If you’re sitting in New York City, everything else is west. You have middle way west (Midwest), the West, and the West Coast.
Same goes for Europe. You sit in London and you have the middle east, the east, and the far east.
I live in the Midwest and I still don’t really understand why half of it is on the eastern part of America.
I’m open to being corrected, but my guess would be the long time gap between the original colonization of the east coast and the spread west of there. In 1776 US borders extended to Pennsylvania, so when settlers started moving to Ohio and beyond I imagine they would have called it “The West” until they realized how much west there really was.
It’s from an east coast mentality. If you’re sitting in New York City, everything else is west. You have middle way west (Midwest), the West, and the West Coast.
Same goes for Europe. You sit in London and you have the middle east, the east, and the far east.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States#Etymology