If America got their independence from Britain on July 4 1776, then why did that war continue for 5 years?

[Anonymous]

Surely Independence means a light switch, no? Mexico got independent from Spain immediately on September 27 1821, ditto Brazil from Portugal September 7 1822, and Jamaica from Britain on August 6 1962.

Look I'm not American, so could a history enthusiast please educate me on this?

Did that Independence document just come in handy or something?

Updates

1 y

I think October 19 (Battle of Yorktown 1781) would be a more suitable Independence Day holiday for Americans. But that's just me.

[razelove]

Think of the war of independence similarly to libertarians wanting a civil conflict today. They'd have to be pushed really hard to first, fight back instead of talk about it, and two, cooperate with each other.

The first battle was in 1775, July 4, 1776 was the declaration of independance, after the 13 American colonies got together and agreed to actually fight off the British together. As far as wars go it was actually pretty swift, and less because of what Americans did, but more because other world powers like Spain, France, the Netherlands, etc. were wanting to break up the shadow of the British Empire as well.

If it had been us against the British, we were outmanned, outgunned, their logistics were better, their discipline was better, and even in America when trying to organize for war an equal 33/33/33 supported, were against, or didn't care about the revolution. From what's in the history books, that didn't really shift until the UK hired German mercenaries to come over. As warfare then had an element of rape, and pillage. Mercenaries then being only about that paycheck, and opportunities to rape and pillage.

We adopted hit and run tactics using the "kentucky" rifle simply because we lacked troops, discipline, and supplies to fight a decisive battle even if we wanted to. If I'm remembering right, lots of retreats where British were sniped, died in swamps, etc.

Anyway, 4th of July is all about the signing of the declaration of independence, the constitution and bill of rights came later on, as we had to win before worrying about self-governance, and most states were very paranoid about any form of government at that point, hence documents putting all power into the hands of "the people" rather than any government branch or singular person, with the government branches restricting each other on top of that. Ideally.

I think to this day not all states have ratified the constitution or bill of rights.

[NamerOfStars]

It was actually the second, not the fourth, but reality never gets in the way of amgood story. And the idea is that independence happens immediately; whether others choose to acknowledge it reflects only on them, not the newly independent.

Also, to be fair, Canada got its, um, "independence" in one day. They did so via the most Canadian of methods: asking politely. Of course, since that consisted of dissolving their ties to the UK Parliament while leaving Elizabeth as their sovereign, it was a dematd for LESS representation in government (seriously; take a look at those Royalist nuts and you'll wonder why Quebec EVER votes to not leave), but still.

[Aurora1010]

Mexican Independence ended in 1821, but Independence Day is celebrated on September 16, which was the start of the armed uprising in 1810.
In 2010, 200 years of Mexican Independence was celebrated.

[purplepoppy]

What independence? It was just a temporary ceasefire while we dealt with the French back home. I do hope our subjects are taking care of America until we come back.

[OlderAndWiser]

We had a foreign aggressor on our soil for the first five years of independence.

[NathanDavis]

using Mexican history in this instance is not the best approach... because although there was a declaration in 1821, there was no immediate stop to conflict... Spain never accepted the independence of Mexico in 1810, and they surely did not accept it in 1821... and they kept control of the region of Veracruz and also the port of Tampico till 1826 or something like that

Spain only accepted Mexico's Independence till 1836.. so maybe you could say that's when the war "ended" between Mexico and Spain, however... the conflict still went on and on, all the way till the Mexican Revolution in 1920 and till the 1940's or so
history is just way too convoluted to try an minimize to one exact day in which "the light was just switched"

[Lliam]

1776 was when the Declaration of Independence was signed. It was essentially a declaration of war against the British.

To my knowledge, when the British admitted defeat, the British Govt did not sign a treaty of surrender. It merely gave the colonies self-rule.

So, it is the declaring of liberty that's celebrated, not the achieving of it.

That's my thought, anyway. I had been asked that question before.

[BCRanger10]

No, it just means a declaration. We were effectively telling Britain "we're done with you; we're not your subjects anymore." To which Britain said "no, you're not; yes, you are", respectively. One party can make an assessment of the state of their relationship to another, but that doesn't mean that the other will accept or approve of it.

[BCA6010]

No, it is the date of declaring independence because from that day onward, the colonies began governing autonomously from the British Empire. Using the date of Britain recognizing independence undermines your own platform, and would also be a subject of debate since Britain was actively attempting to undermine the US government up through and during the US Civil War. When your intent is self-governance, you generally don't give a crap what other countries have to say about it.

[jshm2]

The same reason George Bush Jnr declared "the end of the Afghan war" a decade before it actually did, with the Afghans booting the Americans out a few months ago.

When something ends and when it military ends are not the same thing.

[Dargil]

We declared independence. The Brits did not agree to it until we kicked ass Then they tried again in 1812 and we showed them the door in 1815.

[Avicenna]

They just declared independence on that date. It didn’t actually become independent until the British Parlisment ratified the Treaty of Paris.

[Agagagagaga]

Declaring independence is not the same thing as securing it.

[exitseven]

They declared their independence on that day but England was not convinced,

[Anonymous]

Man, this question is almost as comical as one I read the other day where the guy said "if Jesus was Jewish then why does he have a Mexican name"?
You can't do anything but slap your forehead to these questions.

[Iron_Man]

What about Greece do you have any information on Them?

[Snakeyes7]

Technically that was when we declared independence from Britain.

[msc545]

Nah, it's just paper. Independence came with the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

[JamesRandiDebates]

We considered ourselves independent then. It just took a few years to convince the Brits.

[OddBeMe]

Because we didn't. That's when we declared it.