whay do Americans say a "British" accent when they mean an english accent?

One cannot answer this question because the meaning of 'American' isn't clear:

- A person or attribute of South or North America

- A person or attribute of the indigenous peoples of South or North America

- A citizen or attribute of the ’United States of America’: the political correct term is 'US-American'

Which 'Americans' do you mean? From North or South America? And from which country in one of theese 2 continents called 'America'?

'American' for 'US-American' is geographically and politically not correct.

This is a FACT not an OPINION.

Hmmm....another young Brit who's got an attitude with Americans because we don't know every damn thing about the U.K. You guys are getting rather tiresome.

The answer probably lies in the fact that most Americans don't know what a Welsh accent sounds like. We know English, Scottish, and if it's from Northern Ireland, that's just Irish. But not Welsh.

Happy now?

Hey English people always refer to the north american accent as just the american accent, that is more ignorant considering countries in south america speak completely different languages.

I am english by the way.

because a british accent is different from a scottish accent and different from a northern ireland accent, they are not refering to England they are referring to britian, in the same way ythe bloke on crime watch would say a man has a london accent, they wouldnt be saying that London is the same as a northern ireland accent, he wuld be trying to define the accent and narrow it down.

Fact is, there are many different accents in the UK, and breaking it down to british as oppose to welsh or scottish or from northern ireland is better then not at all.

-though I dont think many americans can appreciate the many different dialoges in Britian, eg Yorkshire, Mancunnian, London/South East, Liverpulian.....

Cos americans only know London as British plus maybe Stratford

For a lot of us Britain and England are practically synonymous. We are also aware that there are a variety of accents within England, but we may be confused as to where they come from exactly (Cockney??) Scottish accents are pretty easy to identify (for me anyway) Welsh less so.

Some of us are also aware that, while somewhat autonomous, Scotland and Wales are not exactly separate countries. Yet.

Because it's the American way son, if the Americans were to look at a "bloody map" I doubt they would know where England is.

Well, because we speak English, so saying that you have an English accent could mean a lot of things. However, British accent refers to the way people in Britain speak English.

wow - so there's a catholic and a protestant accent in Northern Ireland. That's interesting.

****.

Then they also have to justify it further.

Geordie? Ye knaa what ah mean leik.

Brummie? Thay say itsss thar closest to thar Qoins language.

Liverpudlian? Mancunian? I'm not even going to attempt these lol.

added:

How are the US states and their capitals equivalent with knowing where Europe is? If anything, they are equivalent to the different counties of the UK, not one big piece of land.