It's difficult to discuss this without arguing but what about the name "America" not the "United States of America".
There are many countries on the continent of Africa and almost a billion people and nobody would argue referring to people from there as Africans. What if South Africa argued only its citizens could be called Africans?
There are many people and many countries in the EU and Europe (who aren't part of the EU) that you could refer to as Europeans. Spain doesn't have exclusive use to the word European anymore than someone from Italy or Germany does.
Asia is a bit different but an Asian person is generally from India, China, south Asian, etc. just not China or Japan.
The Americas both North and South what do we call people from those countries? No not just North American or South American I mean referring to all people, otherwise the USA should be called the United States of North America.
The problem is that US dwarfs the rest of the continent in most things - economy, scientific development, etc.
In other words - if a random person somewhere in the world mentions 'America' they are most likely refering to the USA. So people (outside of South America obviously) just choose to save time and skip the 'Northern' bit. I know it's a bit unfair to South Americans - but that's life. Same way Scots and Welsh are probably unhappy when rest of the world thinks they are from England.
Perhaps if in the future the roles change and South America dominates, the language will adopt.
There are many countries on the continent of Africa and almost a billion people and nobody would argue referring to people from there as Africans. What if South Africa argued only its citizens could be called Africans?
There are many people and many countries in the EU and Europe (who aren't part of the EU) that you could refer to as Europeans. Spain doesn't have exclusive use to the word European anymore than someone from Italy or Germany does.
Asia is a bit different but an Asian person is generally from India, China, south Asian, etc. just not China or Japan.
The Americas both North and South what do we call people from those countries? No not just North American or South American I mean referring to all people, otherwise the USA should be called the United States of North America.