America: Land of the Free ... Home of the Brave

As America celebrates the declaration that came 442 days after the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, we pause to remember and honor those brave Patriots. As a people who fought the oppressive rule of Britain during the American Revolution, in a twist of irony America would join forces with Britain in a strategic military alliance during WWII, as was evidenced by American occupation in Boxted. This time the oppressor was different-Hitler's Nazi Germany. From the Stamp Act (1765) to the Tea Act (1773), leading up to the Boston Tea Party then the Intolerable Acts (1774), the outraged colonists urged the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to British power. Soon after, the first shots of the American Revolution were fired on April 19, 1775. These were shots fired that would begin the struggle for power and control of America lasting into the new millennium. Like colonists who struggled against British rule in how they lived their lives, England would find herself aligned with America during World War II to secure her own fate-free from German rule. Colonists were not interested in being British citizens, just like the citizens of both England and America had no interest in being subdued under Nazi rule and becoming German citizens. British authority began to erode in the colonies with a sweeping support for colonial independence. On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was formally adopted by 12 colonies, with the necessary colonial signatures added by August 2, 1776. The American War for Independence would last for 5 more years with numerous costly battles culminating in the Yorktown victory (1781) and the signing of the Treaty of Paris with Britain. Finally, the United States of America would become an independent and free nation. Thankfully for future generations since the American Revolution we would see the galvanizing effect of both nations of Britain and America. Were it not for that collaboration, both militarily and politically, it is hard to fathom overcoming as underdogs against Nazi Germany and ultimately the death of Hitler's Third Reich. Thank God for the underdogs. God bless England and may God bless America.