Perhaps no national day in 2026 carries as much significance for the global community as 4 July, American Independence Day. The USA and Americans around the world will be observing not just another Independence Day, but the 250th, a major milestone most nations can only dream of reaching.
It is a common narrative in American media that the United States is still a “young nation”. This is, in many ways, a misconception. Founded in 1776, the United States is, in fact, older than more than half of the countries in the world today.
However, while the United States may not be young, it is certainly not old either. The true mark of achievement for the United States is not its youth, but how much it has evolved over the centuries. Two and a half centuries later, the USA has become a leader on the world stage.
Diplomatic Network (Asia) reflects on how the United States has influenced the global pursuit of liberty and freedom throughout its history.
The Age of Revolution
How can a revolution be deemed successful?
Historian Joseph Hall-Patton defined the greatest marker of a successful revolution as one that does not descend into immediate civil war.
On this front, the United States was fortunate that 1776 can be definitively viewed as the beginning of its independence without further internal bloodshed following the Revolutionary War.
Another measure of the success of the American Revolution is the fact that virtually every nation that interacted with the American Patriots would eventually experience its own revolutionary moment.
In 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution, veterans of the American Revolutionary War turned to the example of the Founding Fathers while drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
While drafting the French Declaration, The Marquis de Lafayette, a French nobleman and veteran of the American War of Independence, consulted future US President and primary author of the 1776 American Declaration of Independence,Thomas Jefferson.
Tadeusz Kościuszko, who led Polish volunteers fighting alongside the American Patriots, later led his own uprising against oppression in 1794, becoming a national hero of Poland despite the failure of his revolt.
Spain, which had also assisted the American Patriots, would later see many nations across its empire declare independence. Many revolutionaries of the former Spanish empire were also directly inspired by the US Constitution.
Thus, 1776 can be viewed as a watershed moment in global history. Not only did it mark the beginning of the American fight for freedom, but it also signalled the start of a transformation in the global political order.
After 1776, many societies began moving away from despotism in favour of preserving individual liberty and establishing representative forms of government.
The immediate impact of American independence was to inspire patriots around the world with renewed confidence to pursue change within their own countries.
Home of Democratic Leaders
As the Age of Revolution gathered momentum, the United States became a centre of global intellectual thought on nationalism and the rights of the people.
Exiles such as Sun Yat-sen of China, Lajos Kossuth of Hungary, and Giuseppe Garibaldi of Italy, fleeing persecution, refined their political ideas while in the United States before eventually helping shape reform in their home countries.
Meanwhile, millions of immigrants arrived on both coasts of the United States, establishing communities that would later form the foundation of enduring bilateral ties between the United States and the rest of the world.
It is not uncommon to find future world leaders who were raised or educated in the United States among these immigrant communities, including Ireland’s first Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, and the Philippines’ first female president, Corazon Aquino.
Through the course of history, the democratic ideals practised in the United States would spread across the world through immigration, education, and intellectual exchange.
A More Perfect Global Union
The United States may have been exceptional, but it was never perfect.
A civil war was fought between 1861 and 1865 over the contentious issue of slavery and the rights of Black Americans.
Subsequent waves of immigration and westward expansion also brought conflicts concerning the rights of different ethnic, religious, and socio-economic groups.
Even throughout the twentieth century, periods of international cooperation were often accompanied by disagreements between the United States and its closest allies.
Yet through all these challenges, the principles of the American Revolution have remained a guiding beacon for nations around the world.
Had it not been for the successful foundations laid by the American Founding Fathers 250 years earlier, democratic and republican forms of government might still have remained the global exception rather than the norm.
In 1955, the Bandung Conference brought together newly independent and non-aligned nations to discuss cooperation in the wake of decolonisation.
In his opening address, Indonesian President Sukarno praised the example of the United States, which in 1776 had begun “the first successful anti-colonial war in history.”
No other ideas from 250 years ago could hold such pressing weight as the ideas presented by the American Founding Fathers. No other ideas could have changed the histories of nations across the world.
*Diplomatic Network (Asia) wishes the United States and Americans around the world a Happy 4th of July!
