America at 250: Why the US still wrestles with its ideals at home and its role abroad
LONDON: On the occasion of its 250th birthday this July 4, amid the usual fireworks, state fairs, battle re-enactments, parades and backyard barbecues that define Independence Day celebrations, America is a country reflecting on its founding ideals in an era of division and reinvention.
In a sense, this is history repeating. In 1776, America was forged in a spasm of division and reinvention, when 56 members of the recently convened Continental Congress of Britain’s 13 colonies accused King George III of tyranny, split from the mother country and declared independence.
The colonialists won the war that had begun the previous year and, in the terms of the peace deal signed in Paris on Sept. 2, 1783, Britain formally recognized the birth of a new nation: the United States of America.
A painting showing the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. (Getty Images)
