Today’s infographic is from dailyinfographic.com, and shares a brief history about our celebration of America and her independence from Britain. Surprisingly, six percent of Americans do not realize that we are celebrating our independence from Britain. Some even thought Mexico. First of all, please make sure you students understand that while what is now the United States of America was colonized by a variety of countries (not including Mexico or Japan or China), we sought our independence from Britain.
Many also do not understand the insignificance of what we celebrate. We celebrate the colonies adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, and only two signers of the document did so on the 4th. In addition, we actually declared our independence on July 2nd. But imagine what would have happened to this document had we lost the war?
This infographic is a great representation of what Americans believe is important on July 4th. While I do not believe the date is significant, aside from knowing which day to set off fireworks, understanding that we did this at the end of the 18th century, before the Revolutionary War, is the important concept, and that we fought Britain for the right to rule our own country. Other important concepts include the fact that we won because Britain more or less gave up due to financial burden and obligations at home, as well as my theory that Britain never thought we would succeed. It is true that many countries did not believe we would succeed, that this was simply an experiment doomed to failure. However, I believe this played a great role our success. I believe that if Britain had realized how successful we would have become, she may have continued the fight. But also, we have helped her a great deal in two world wars, maybe should would have given up sooner and let us become more established.
What are your thoughts and the thoughts of your students?
Blog: http://dailyinfographic.com/happy-america-day-infographic
