Quote:
Originally Posted by pjohns
I seriously wonder just how a Briton, traveling in the US, might have viewed our celebration of Independence Day.
It is really not quite as cut-and-dried as it might initially seem.
For it is my understanding that contemporary Britons, for the most part, believe that countries, once they mature, should break with their mother countries--much as adolescents, once they become young adults, break with their parents.
On the other hand, there was a lot of blood shed (on both sides) over this breakup.
Thoughts?
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There's certainly been a change in British thinking that's predominately occurred since WW II and there's underlying reason, I believe, for that change.
After WW II, with the creation of the United Nations, the previously held beliefs in the Right of Conquest was formally replaced with the Right of Self-Determination and that has applied in all cases with the exception of a few cases of blatant hypocrisy.
Prior to WW II Britain remained a colonial nation as opposed to a nation supporting self-determination of territories under it's administrative and military control. The "Americas" were a case of colonial government where the Crown of England refused to acknowledge any Right of Self-Determination by the people in the American colonies. It was the "Might make right" tyrannical policy of the "Divine Right of Conquest" that England attempted to impose upon the American colonies.
Today's philosophy of "Self-Determination" has replaced the old "Might Makes Right" (it doesn't) behind the "Divine Right of Conquest" (that was never a right but instead a tyrannical imposition of power). Today those in Britain were raised with this newer understanding of history and don't typically find anything wrong with the American Revolution.
Of note in Britain George Washington was recently ranked as the greatest military leader to ever oppose the British and he's highly honored and respected among British historians and the British people.