USA: Independence Day

By British Expat, 4 July 2010

Yes, the good old Fourth of July…

In fact, the Declaration of Independence wasn’t – it was a statement of principles rather than an explicit act of secession – but the principles expressed in it were so alien to the way that Great Britain governed its colonies at the time that the prospects of reconciling the two were virtually zero.

It took seven years before the Kingdom of Great Britain (as it was then; it didn’t become the United Kingdom until the Act of Union with Ireland in 1800) recognised the independence of the thirteen states, in 1783 – and another four years after that for those states to adopt a constitution, on 17 September 1787.

But 4 July is the day the USA celebrates its independence.