First published in 1768, the venerable publication has decided not to follow Trump's edict. But why? And what does it reveal about Trump?
In case you haven't been caught up on the shenanigans, Google Maps has made the change. Apple Maps has also made the change. However, one encyclopaedia of note is not backing down.
They explained their reason as follows: "We serve an international audience, a majority of which is outside the U.S. The Gulf of Mexico is an international body of water, and the U.S.'s authority to rename it is ambiguous."
"It has been called the 'Gulf of Mexico' for more than 425 years," they continued. "But it's important to note the distinction between international and domestic areas." On the domestic front, the encyclopaedia confirms that it will change the name of the Alaskan mountain called ‘Denali’ back to its former name, ‘Mount McKinley' once "that change is made official by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names."
There is, however, another way of looking at the whole issue in the Mexico / America argument. Consider how the Gulf of Mexico got its name in the first place. It was not from the Mexicans themselves. The ancient Aztecs knew the oceans to their west and east as “Sky Water.” They did not invent geographically specific names for the seas around them, because they did not need them.
The Gulf of Mexico instead got its name from 16th-century Spanish mapmakers. In the age of discovery and conquest, European mariners often named bodies of water after the destination territory on the other side of that water. The Gulf of Mexico is so called because when a Spaniard sailed toward Mexico, the Gulf was the sea that the Spaniard crossed.
Once you understand this practice, you see it everywhere.
Bodies of water are typically named by dominant nations not after themselves, but after the subordinate nations on the other side. To rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” is to reconceptualize the United States not as a sending point, but as a receiving point; no longer a country that stamps itself upon history, but a country upon which history is stamped.
Maybe, in that very specific sense, the attempted renaming of the Gulf of Mexico is a fitting memorial to the Trump era, says The Atlantic. "Trump’s act of imperial boastfulness unwittingly reveals a disquieting self-awareness of imperial decline. As so often, Trump claims to be a winner while acting like a loser."