250th Anniversary of the United States of America
“The great strength of USA is our people. If you want to know what is the defining strength of America it is our people, our immigrant tradition, our bringing in cultures from all over the world”- Colin L. PowellThis year marks the 250th anniversary of the time when the country we inhabit gained its independence from England, or, to put it another way, the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.
It was 1774 when the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia; the group consisted of representatives from the 13 colonies gathering to resist the colonialist policies and excessive taxes England was imposing on its colonial territories. One example was the Stamp Act, which required payment for the use of paper; this measure inspired one of the era’s most famous phrases: “Give me liberty or give me death!” Furthermore, laws passed by England between 1763 and 1775 regulating trade and levying heavy taxes on essential goods, created significant tension between the colonies and the British Crown. Because these laws were imposed without any opportunity for negotiation or representation for the colonists, they became known as the “Intolerable Acts,” sparking complaints, protests, and acts of subversion. Fed up with British policies, the Congress declared that the 13 colonies should be free and sovereign states; it demanded separation from the British Crown, sought to form international alliances, and encouraged the creation of a confederation. Thus, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America was approved. This date commemorates the birth of a nation whose population was composed of a vast number of Indigenous Native American, thousands of European immigrants who had fled their homelands in search of freedom and opportunity, and those born on United States soil of Indigenous and European descent. As Mimi Yang (2025) mentioned: “North America was originally ‘brown-skinned’—home to Native Americans for thousands of years before Europeans set foot on it. Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants and owners of the land.” The first US president was George Washington, and from that time to the present, people from all over the world representing a vast array of cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds have inhabited, shared, worked, and loved this territory and this incredible country now known as the United States of America. |