Declaration Of Independence: The True Identity Of The United States

By the time 1776 had come, the Declaration of Independence had asserted the United States’ independence from the mother country of Great Britain. This alone had shown the world that the people living in those states and colonies were their own independent people. The men of the new country had fought and died in their war for independence, and they soon had their own way and style of life away from Britain’s rule. After the war had been won, there had to be legal documentation stating the rights that the men and women in the new nation had. This is where the true identity of the American people emerged. They developed their own way of life, their own laws, and their own culture away from the rest of European influence. However, the country that they had declared independence from, never truly left America alone. The British were soon back in the land, and they were trying to slowly pry it away from the United States. This is something that the people of America would not let happen. When the British burned the nation’s capital, no man, no woman, no child identified the state that they were from. Instead of “North Carolinians,” “Virginians,” or “New Yorkers,” there were only “Americans.” The war of 1812 had erupted in the young nation, and the Americans …show more content…
Their navy had grown in size and now rivaled any other nation’s navy. After the war, it was apparent that America was a force to be reckoned with. This attitude would carry on as the naval skirmishes dropped dramatically after the war’s end, and the impressment of sailors would cease. For the first time in the country’s brief history, the need for a standing army war quite obvious. Young men were quick to sign up for the powerful army that would conquest their new lands. (Latham, Pg. 142; Nationalism & Civic Pride, Web; Emerging Nationalism after American War of 1812,