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Mildly Interesting @lemmy.world The Picard Maneuver @lemmy.world 1y ago

"Do you live in the Midwest?" by self-report

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Why is "west" in "midwest"? Can't we just call these states mid?
- Fixed
  
  So living on the line would be living in the Midmid?
  
  "Middle of nowhere" is the accepted term for that region
  
  You have forgotten the face of your father.
  
  We go by Midworld.
  
  Hilarious
  
  Oi get those linea out of Texas its Southwest
- Because the US expanded from the east coast towards the west. The midwest is west of the OG colonies, but not as far west as, well, the west.
  
  Yeah, living in Colorado has always been weird hearing that we're "the west". We're about as middle of the country as you can get. 3 states to our west to get to the Pacific, 4 states to the east to get to the Atlantic.
  
  Edit: lol at people downvoting geography
- Skill issue.
- I believe it's because these states are west of the Mississippi River and something something Louisiana Purchase (high school history was decades ago).
  
  Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan are east of the Mississippi. We couldn't reliably cross the Appalachian Mountains until shortly before the American Revolution. Expeditions before Daniel Boone forged the Wilderness Road had to go around so the most direct route between NY and where Chicago is now went about halfway down Alabama. The Appalachians were the original western frontier and the Midwest was the Northwest Territories. As the country expanded westward and new territories were established and the Northwest Territories gained statehood they became the Midwest.

276 comments