Even before his inaugural ceremony Donald Trump is being ostentatiously mischievous and poking his enemies for a bit of fun and free publicity. His latest tease being that he will unilaterally change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to that of the Gulf of America! Cue much standing up, flag waving and pressing of hands to the left breast. Guaranteed to incense Mexicans, which of course is his whole intent. And it doesn’t cost him a penny.
Trump is not the first to use name changes as a political taunt and hitting back where powerless and he is not even the first American to do this. Older readers will doubtless remember the farce of “Freedom Fries” a short-lived name change to that universal foodstuff the potato fry (or chip if you are being British). It was a restaurant’s reaction to the French for not joining in America’s war with Iraq in 2003. It caught on nationwide, had a short blaze of publicity, and then died away drowned amid the hilarity of the world’s reaction which treated the matter as risible, and Americans’ own disillusion with the War. The complaints from Belgium that it was unfair because fries had originated in Belgium didn’t seem to be heard by anyone.
Australians in World War I renamed their jam filled doughnuts, then called “Berliners”, into “Kitchener buns” and a favourite sausage the “Fritz” as “Devon”.
None though was quite as silly as New Zealand’s renaming of French sticks of bread (batons) as Kiwi loaves after the French nuclear tests.
There was a lot of overt anti-German sentiment in America during World War I, which meant that the German Spitz – a breed of dog, became the American Eskimo Dog; Germania, Iowa becomes Lakota, Iowa; New Berlin, Ohio becomes North Canter, Ohio. Sauerkraut briefly transforms into Liberty cabbage; and Hamburgers equally briefly became Salisbury steak.
Add in the generalised Greek coffee/Turkish coffee nonsense one has to put up with in the eastern Mediterranean and we can see that calling things something new within a country probably has more chance of sticking than ones which have international implications. Though don’t bet on it. Certainly the Russians renamed every village and town in Eastern Prussia when they took it over as part of Kaliningrad after World War II but this was an “internal” renaming so was successful.
The British too during World War I joined in this fever. Maybe the politicians all had shares in map producers. The German Ocean had long been the name of that marginal arm of the Atlantic to the east of Britain, a name it had held since at least 1480, but now it became the “North Sea”. An instance of a successful and long-lasting transformation that might give Trump hope. German confectionery and pastries too were always popular and certainly none more than the “German Biscuit” which instantly became the “Empire Biscuit” which you can still buy it as.
So from this quick and utterly unscientific trawl we can see that one country choosing to name this bit of sea or that Gulf is entirely up to them. There is nothing anyone can do to stop Trump naming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America though whether it would catch on Internationally is quite another question. He cannot make you change if you don’t want!
Copyright The Oligarch Kings
