12th November 2008, 8:45 AM
Actually I'm pretty sure it's because before discovering the new world, europe and asia was "the west" and "the east" and if you're anywhere in eurasia, those terms make sense. But if you go to the new world and still refer to the old locations by their old terms, as we apparently still do today, that flies out the window. So yeah I get your point, the idea is the culture of America grew up with the old terminology.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)