Why America is always referred to WEST and countries towards India referred to EAST?
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Back in the day the dominant powers were centered in Europe. So things were generally describe in relation to those nations, particular France, England, etc. However different countries and groups used different map standards to determine where the prime meridian or “center” of the maps would be (the French based theirs on Paris for example). This is an imaginary line extending from the north to the South Pole, a line of longitude. The British prime meridian was based on an observatory in Greenwich England in 1851 and by 1884 it was used by a sizable majority of countries, ships, etc. In October of 1884, US President Chester Arthur brought delegates from 25 countries to establish an international standard for the meridian, and due to its popularity the Greenwich meridian was chosen, though some countries (again France) continued to use other values for awhile. The Prime Meridian was 0º, and marked the boundary between the Western Hemisphere (the side which contained the Americas) and the Eastern Hemisphere (the side which contained Asia and Australia). Europe and Africa were split. But even before that Asia, etc. were generally referred to as being in the east (the Orient) by Europeans.
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