They're two different things. The Internet was invented in the US. I'm European as well, but not sure why you'd need to overreach to claim we invented the Internet.
Yes we are all aware they are different things, I made a semantic leap because the terms are used interchangeably in common parlance. I should have known a technical forum would take me up on that.
The internet was created by meshing many different networks together (mostly ARPANET and SFNET).
Networks which now form the backbone of the internet also existed in europe at the time, mainly in britain and france.