The Revolutionary War, I feel, is often misunderstood. Maybe that’s due to our own ignorance, or rather a failing in our education system. We teach and discuss the war with romanticized patriotism—it is in fact the war that leads to the birth of our nation. However, we don’t realize how close the conflict came to defeat. To borrow from the sports world, the Continentals snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat. If it weren’t for a few gaffs by British leadership, the war might have turned out differently. In truth, the British generalship was filled with too many egos, each vying for glory to further secure their own titleship. Lack of communication, and a strange lack of adherence to orders led to their downfall. Perhaps it was a superiority complex, that they felt their armies were vastly superior to that of Washington’s, which for the large part, was true. But the difference was those fighting for the cause were fighting for their land, their families, and ultimately freedom from a government a world away. The British were only fighting for glory. Historian Paul Lockhart described this in The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: the Baron de Steuben, and the Making of the American Army, when discussing the soldiers involved: the Americans were fighting as citizens, while the British were fighting as subjects. A very important delineation.

July 4, 1776, was a long way from independence. Over seven years of bloodshed would continue until the Paris Peace Treaty was signed. A lot happened over that period, including many moments where the Colonists could have failed in their cause. If that would have happened, ALL 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence would be hung for treason. Maybe that’s where we falter as Americans. We recognize the birth of our nation on July 4^th, but we fail to remember that the Declaration was only the beginning. The signees at the Philadelphia State House during the Second Continental Congress on that sweltering summer day may have made an open declaration creating a new nation, but they had yet to evict the British from the continent. It’s one thing to create a nation, it’s another to attain recognition as such.

Another point of contention, many colonists were British themselves, or at least from recent British decent. It is not like they were conquered by the Empire and had to succumb under harsh colonial rule like others. This conflict was entirely something else. The Age of Enlightenment was the source of liberalism and liberal thought (no, not the idea of liberal as we see in our modern society). The essays penned by John Locke, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, and many others, influenced the colonists to fight the oppression emplaced on them by the British. After the bloody and expensive Seven Years War—known in the Colonies as the French and Indian War—Parliament needed to refill the coffers. While taxes were high in England, they were very low in America. The government saw fit to change that. Various acts passed with names that should resonate: the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, and the Townshend Acts. As each one passed, the toleration of the Colonists waned, they possessed no voice in Parliament and felt they were being unfairly represented. Tensions mounted leading to events such as the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party. This led to a series of acts dubbed the Intolerable Acts. They were designed to coup any rebellion festering in Boston. That idea failed and instead rallied support. This ultimately led to the formal exchange of gunfire at Lexington and Concord —“the Shot Heard Around the World.” The Colonists attempted to reconcile at various points, even submitting an Olive Branch Petition. The hope for reconciliation was a driving force for many. But it fell on deaf ears. The British Monarch, King George III, along with Prime Minister Frederick North wanted submission, not resolution.

There are many moments during the Revolutionary War that provide a unique cross-section into our nation’s history. If any of them had gone wrong, then our world today may be very different. For instance, the French didn’t show up in force until the summer of 1780, even though an alliance was struck in 1778. By Spring of 1781, British Generals Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Charles Cornwallis maintained footholds in New York and the Carolinas respectively. At the same time, former Continental Army commander, Benedict Arnold, now fighting for the Redcoats, floated up the James River with a small force, securing a foothold in Virginia. The cause was fading. But something changed. The Colonial forces rallied and through a series of timely victories and retreats were able to avoid a devastating blow, instead draining British resources. Another point, the war had gone global, something that many don’t realize. Not only had the French joined, but so did the Spanish and Dutch. The British were now facing a much larger enemy with no allies of their own. While it was important for the British to keep their American Colonies, they shifted some of their resources to the defense of their possessions in the West Indies, as the wealth procured from sugar was more important.

The Colonists claimed final victory when the French finally defeated the British Navy in the Chesapeake Bay. This allowed Washington, with a combined French and American force of 17,000 to lay siege to Yorktown. Cornwallis could not escape, nor were British forces from New York coming to his aid. He had one option, surrender.

The victory at Yorktown was the final major battle of the War. The British were done, enough had been invested in the conflict. 242 years later, we celebrate that victory, and all the victories of the war, to a date that occurred years before. But if it weren’t that Declaration, that moment in history where the world changed, the Nation as we know, would not exist. This Independence Day, remember the Declaration, but more importantly, remember everything that happened after.