The Gulf of America: The Soft Power of Renaming Geostrategic Locations

Glauco Ortolano on the provocative use of soft power through naming.

In his first day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to change the names of two important geographic locations. Although many have accused Donald Trump of boastful nationalism, renaming locations is a common soft-power practice in geopolitics that has been practiced for centuries.

The changes Mr. Trump made were created under the Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness executive order and should go into effect within 30 days from signing, according to the text from the White House. The order calls for two changes. First, to rename the Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America, and the second, to change the name of the highest mountain peak in North America, from its indigenous (Koyukon) name of Denali to Mount McKinley, in honor of the 25th U.S. President William McKinley.

Today, the Gulf of Mexico touches the shores of three countries, Mexico, the U.S. and Cuba, but due to expansionist policies, the U.S., through acquisitions of several states such as Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, has a larger coastal territory that is touched by the gulf than the other two countries, so many argue that renaming it as “Gulf of America” is appropriate. I particularly like the proposed name because the word America does not necessarily mean the U.S. but the entire Western Hemisphere, and would serve better to encompass all three countries.

America to designate the United States is in itself a misappropriation of a term, which was first used by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in April 25, 1507 to refer to what is today known as the country of Brazil in South America. It is widely accepted that the land of America was given in honor to Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci by Waldseemüller and his contemporary and collaborator Matthias Ringmann, who stated:

“I see no reason why anyone could properly disapprove of a name derived from that of Amerigo, the discoverer, a man of sagacious genius. A suitable form would be Amerige, meaning Land of Amerigo, or America, since Europe and Asia have received women's names.”

Eventually, America was applied to designate North, Central and South America. However, in 1776, when the United States declared its independence from Britain, the name of the new country was changed from United Colonies (aka New England Confederation) to The United States of America. Due to the incorporation of the name of the hemisphere, citizens of the U.S. and Europe slowly started to use the terms America and Americans to designate the country and its people. This is an important example of a geopolitical strategy, that of renaming or misappropriating a certain name to reinforce its geopolitical power.

In Europe, we can find many other examples of these geostrategic moves. The English Channel was rebaptized as La Manche by the French, which influenced many other countries to use its direct translation as Canal da Mancha in Portuguese and Canal de la Mancha, in Spanish. However, former colonies of Great Britain, like the U.S. and Canada still prefer to refer to the channel as the English Channel.

In the Middle East, the dispute for the name of the Persian Gulf that is often referred to as Arabian Gulf (Arabic: الخليج العربي) by Iran’s Arab neighbors due to the emergence of pan-Arabism, has been underway since the 1960’s. There are other even more prominent examples such as the use of the term Palestine, which has been used to refer to the area at the southeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea beside Syria, as well as to the State of Palestine. This term, as it is well known, is so politically charged and controversial that it would not be wise to explore it here any further.

In the Far East, perhaps the most controversial term is that of the Republic of China (ROC), the official name of the island-nation more commonly referred to as Taiwan but also known as Formosa (beautiful island in Portuguese). To avoid controversy with the often called (mainland) China, (officially People’s Republic of China or PRC, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, the Taiwanese people prefer to use the term Taiwan to refer to their nation. However, to further complicate things, China Airlines, for example, is the flag-carrier airline of Taiwan and, of course, not of mainland China.

Another example that has been widely discussed in the news lately is the case of Greenland, which has sparked the interest of President Trump in purchasing the largest island in the world. It is interesting to note that the term Greenland was changed by early Norse settlers as a geopolitical ploy to make the island that is covered with ice more attractive to other prospective settlers. However, with a present-day population of less than 60,000 inhabitants, with 90% of them being Inuit, the renaming of the island does not seem to have produced the expected results, except perhaps for the U.S. president, who sees the important strategic value of the island in the race to control the Artic.

Although the U.S. failed to purchase the island from Denmark before, this time the geopolitical climate is somewhat different due to the political momentum, as Greenlanders are pushing more vigorously their agenda to become a sovereign state. In 2024, about 64% of Greenlanders demonstrated in favor of separating from the Danish Realm, in spite of having to renounce the annual block grant (500 million euros) they receive from Denmark.

At a recent press conference highlighted in the article Greenland's PM pushes for independence from Denmark amid Trump's interest, pro-independence prime minister Múte Bourup Egede said that "work has already begun on creating the framework for Greenland as an independent state" and pointed to a probable independence referendum as early as April 2025. For now, Egede has not shown any interest in having Greenland sold to the United States, but as we all know, money talks, and even a sole individual as wealthy as Elon Musk could make an offer that Greenlanders could not refuse, proclaim himself King of Greenland at first, and later join the Union as the 51st state.

And that is when Donald Trump, in another executive order, could rename Greenland as Blueland or Americana, in another vigorous geostrategic move to make America even greater. After all, at least geographically, Greenland is a part of North America.  

Glauco Ortolano is an Associate Professor at the Defense Critical Language and Culture Program of the Mansfield Center, University of Montana. He has taught at the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania, and more recently courses in Geopolitics to officers of the US Armed Forces. He was also appointed Peace Ambassador by Le Cercle Universel des Ambassadeurs de la Paix.

The views in this post do not represent those of this publication, nor do they represent those of the author's employer.