Miss Independent

Today, as you might already know, or you probably could have read just above this post, is the Fourth of July. You might also know it as Independence Day, or America’s Birthday. You might just be wrong. Time for a history lesson, bitches.

The Declaration of Independence was voted on and signed on July 4, 1776. But that just declared our intent to be independent from Britain. Britain still wanted a say in the matter, and it took a little something called the Revolutionary War to convince them. So we didn’t win our independence until May of 1781, with the British surrender at Yorktown. And it wasn’t official until the Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783.

But that just meant the states were independent from Britain. They didn’t have to join together to become one country. Certainly, not everyone thought they should. The Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781, established a formal union between the states, but the power was still with the individual states. The United States of America as we know it, was “born” with the ratification of the Constitution, approved in 1787, and ratified by the last state, Rhode Island, in 1790.

My point is this: We did not instantly go from being 13 British colonies to a unified independent nation. It was a long process, full of war and debate. So don’t expect anything different from other new nations.