I lived in the States for five years and I still don’t really get what Americans mean when they say the midwest. I guess that’s partly because Americans also don’t know, so you never get the same explanation twice.
It’s all the middle junk nobody wants which is why there’s so much of it.
Seriously tho, the historic context is that “The West” was west of the Mississippi river, which iirc got started calling that after the Louisiana Purchase. So the previous “west” wasn’t accurate enough so the states between the Mississippi and the Appalachian mountains (chiefly the northern states around the Great lakes). Then the area has just kind of expanded to include the plains states since they’re also flyover country
Pretty much, there’s some pretty clear distinction as well. Like you won’t find anyone on any part of a coast calling themself a midwesterner obv, but also the south east has the distinct trait of being The South, for better or worse. Usually worse. Southwest also gets a similar effect from being what everyone thinks of as “cowboy country”.
I would consider the Rockies as their own distinct cultural and geographical region, tbh. Most of Montana that I’ve ever seen wasn’t in the mountains but that could just be a matter of perspective.
Eastern Wyoming and Montana are the Great Plains, so that at least makes a little sense. Idaho though, there you have me. I am at a loss. Maybe it’s their poor public education system?
It’s because the US started on the east coast and expanded westward, it was named back when it actually was the middle of the west and just never changed it. Same way we still refer to the art movement that began in the late 1800s as “modern art”.
“It is called the Midwest because of the location of those states in the 1800s before the U.S. expanded to the Pacific Coast. These states were part of the Northwest Ordinance. This term became obsolete once the U.S. expanded westward, resulting in these states becoming the Midwest.”
Another site defines it as West of the Mississippi River, but between North and South. So I guess it qualifies.
I don’t know if it’s providence, algorithm, or confirmation bias, but I just ran into a four-day-old Namexplain video on this exact subject.
TLDR: it used to be the westernmost part of the country, called Northwest Territory, but then we got some more land farther west and changed the name, but then we got more land further further west and didn’t.
They are roughly in the middle of the west, as a whole country. I think our Midwest is fairly far east, due in part to the fact that the western edge of the USA was once much further east, and many conventions have survived from that time.
I am from Illinois, which fits most folks idea of what is midwest, but it’s really and truly just…middle
10% of Tennessee is so high on hillbilly heroin they don’t know which question they got asked and just said “yes” on the off chance it was “would you like some free oxy?”
13% of Tennessee West Virginia is so high on hillbilly heroin they don’t know which question they got asked and just said “yes” on the off chance it was “would you like some free oxy?”
I bet you that 10 percent are the people who are in the very northwest corner of TN so it would make some sense for them to answer yes given that they’re not far from Missouri.