The American Empire: Created From the British Empire

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The American identity is not concrete. It grows, transforms, evolves, and the American people evolve in parallel. Through vote and through policy, media and protest, election and law, the people dictate the country’s, and the identity’s course. The identity that has roots in revolution. 1776, the United States breaks from Great Britain. The people free themselves, from oppression, from royalty, and begin the governmental experiment that will dominate the globe for the next two and a half centuries. The experiment represents a government so different from Britain’s, that no one would guess they once existed as one. The American people, desperate to rid themselves of British traces, find this beneficial. They must; they are Americans now. Unfortunately, their British heritage will not allow it. Whilst these new Americans battle their inheritance, it creeps into their policies, protocol, their social configuration, military influence, their economic structure, and the very documents with which they broke from their mother country. Eventually, this heritage creates a perfect image of the British empire, world dominance and all. Yet, the citizens still combat it. The leaders abhor it. But, despite attempting to establish its own identity, America reflects British society.

This American quandary first appears in political protocol. It began at the Revolution’s end. On May 22, 1782, just months after Britain’s final surrender at Yorktown, Colonel Lewis Nicola suggested to George Washington that he become America’s king. Washington replied with a resounding no, declaring that he viewed the idea “with abhorrence” (qtd. in “George Washington and the Rule of Law” 2). Washington realized what the Revolution stood for. He ...

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...ast India Company. 6 April 2010. 1 May 2010.

Olson, James Stuart, Robert Shadle. Historical Dictionary of the British Empire, Volume 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 1996.

“The Spanish Armada.” Britishbattles.com. 2010. Britishbattles.com. 24 March 2010.

“Talking Points on the ‘No Taxation Without Representation’ Act.” The Leadership Conference. 3 October 2002. 24 March 2010.

“Timeline.” The Life of Theodore Roosevelt. January 2001. The Theodore Roosevelt Association. 10 April 2010.

“Washington’s Farewell Address.” The Avalon Project. 2008. Yale Law School. 23 May 2010.

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