It’s basically the same argument Argentina has about the Falkland Islands. When Argentina was part of the Spanish empire the Falkland Islands were part of the empire, not that the Spanish did anything with the islands. But at no time in history has Argentina existed as an independent country and has had ownership of the islands.
OK, looking at this I can now understand why it may not all make immediate sense to someone who didn’t grow up here.
And in the US, there’s definitely a subset that believes England means Great Britain or even the United Kingdom.
Same folks that referred to the entire USSR as Russia, probs.
There are plenty of people in the US that refer to England as “London”.
Using any country’s capital as shorthand for its current government is a common form of metonymy to be fair!
That’s one of my favorite nyms
And there are plenty of people in russia who think everything that was ever USSR should be russia.
It’s basically the same argument Argentina has about the Falkland Islands. When Argentina was part of the Spanish empire the Falkland Islands were part of the empire, not that the Spanish did anything with the islands. But at no time in history has Argentina existed as an independent country and has had ownership of the islands.
& vers vicea