On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress of the 13 British colonies in North America issued a document addressing their grievances with the British crown and stated to the world why they consider themselves to be a free and independent country.

That document and its legacy have had a much bigger impact than its signatories could ever have

imagined almost 250 years ago.

Learn more about the Declaration of Independence,

how it came about and its legacy

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Hostility Hostilities between the American colonists and their British

overlords had been developing for years. Things finally boiled over on

April 19th 1775 when the shot heard around the world was fired in Concord, Massachusetts.

From that point on, the disagreement moved into the realm of violence and warfare.

The Americans had a great start to the war with convincing victories at the

siege of Boston and the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga.

The initial sentiment amongst the colonists wasn't necessarily to become independent.

All of the colonists, no matter how long their families had been

there, grew up and considered themselves to be English. Their whole lives they were subject to

the crown. What they really wanted was their grievances to be addressed.

Had George III actually done this, or if they had offered seats in Parliament to the Americans,

none of this probably would have ever happened.

And I should note that in 1776, the population of the 13 colonies would have been approximately a third to half that of England itself.

So it wasn't as if this was a small number of people.

In January of 1776 Thomas Payne published his book titled

Common Sense which made the case for independence. Payne's book made public

what many people already thought and convinced many more of the merits of independence.

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