The Real And True Birthday Of The United States Of America: A Sample Essay For Inspiration & Mimicking

The United States of America has a storied and complex history. Because the beginnings of our nation transpired with rebellion, there is much controversy about when our nation actually became a nation. Many believe that it was the formal acknowledgement of our sovereignty by the nation that governed us, Great Britain. But the true answer is that our nation actually became a nation shortly thereafter, when the Articles of the Confederation were adopted and ratified by the colonies in 1777.
The ratification of the Articles of the Confederation marked the first founding constitution of our country. Up until that point, there was no guidelines for what our country actually looked like, or how it would function. The Articles of the the Confederation provided a framework under which our new country would function. In essence, it set forth our philosophy on sovereignty, governance and basic human rights. In addition, the ratification of this document marked the first time that the colonies had acted in accordance with one another. This was the first time that the separate colonies had cooperated on a single goal. By choosing to adopt the Articles of the Confederation, the colonies united themselves under one governing philosophy, and presented themselves as a cohesive nation, instead of a series of small states that all had a different agenda.
In addition, it stands to reason that if the Articles of the Confederation were the first act that was committed together, the one that bound the colonies together as one nation, then one must also look at previous acts to determine why they do not meet this criteria. For example, many believe the signing of the Declaration of Independence to signify the birth of our nation, but this is not so. The Declaration of Independence was merely a letter to the king of England, indicating our intent to set out on our own as a sovereign nation. The king could have rejected this document, and he did. At this point, the colonists were faced with a choice, and they chose to fight. But they could have chosen otherwise, which would have made this statement of intent just that - a good intention. And so this is not what dignifies the birth of our nation.
Neither is the surrender of British forces to General Washington at Yorktown what marks our sovereignty. When the British forces surrendered to General Washington, they surrendered their right to control the affairs of the new country at that point. And so at that point the country was no longer under British rule. However, they were also not under their own rule at that point either, because there was no unifying document or set government to tie them together. The country was basically in a limbo after the surrender of Cornwallis until the ratification of the Articles of the Confederation. Instead of creating a new country, the end of the war brought about only a grouping of individual colonies - interconnected, but separate.
The Articles of the Confederation were the first document that unified the separate colonies under one cohesive set of rules. By ratifying this document, the colonies cooperated on their first action as a nation, marking this as the nation’s birthdate. Further documents, such as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights only served to further reinforce this unification, but the Articles of the Confederation marked the rightful beginning of our nation.