It would be 122 years before the USA entered a foreign war in the Spanish-American war which lasted eight months. The technology was very different by then with sinking of the USS Maine by a Spanish dynasty diminishing in power. The guns were long guns of several variety. The Maine was in Havana Harbor at the time. Cuba was fighting for it's independence from Spain as did the Philippines at the same time. The Philippine-American War occurred in 1899. The three wars were an expulsion of the Spanish Empire from North America and the Pacific. The controversy was the wisdom of expansionism by a rising power, the USA. The country acquired several island nations including Puerto Rico and Guam. The Spanish-American War lasted eight months and the Philippine-American War took longer 3 years and 1 month.
The first major World War began in 1917, one hundred and forty-one years after the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. World War I lasted a year and one month. The war technology included tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. It was a shift in power primarily in Europe and the USA and Russia fought together for the first time. The Russian Revolution would be occurring at the same time. It was during this time the Balkans would be reaching a boiling point. Basically, the empires fell as a result of WWI. The Russian Empire, German, Austro-Hungary and Ottoman existed no more and replaced with a self-governing ideology by Lenin and the independent states of Poland, Finland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
Kingdom and Empires were replaced by the ambition of a self-governing body called the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson was president of the USA. The ideology then was to end such massive wars, which also included areas of Asia and Africa. The Treaty of Versailles would document the understandings of the peace to follow.
China was still isolated into it's own wars and is a completely different dynamic resulting in changes in the people that would be victors there resulting in Taiwan and Japan. There are so many arguments still today as to where boundary lines should be drawn. The Chinese Empire lasted far longer than any other form of governance. It would last longer than Rome or Greece. The Chinese Empire is believed to have lasted from 221 BCE to 1912 AD.
The League of Nations would do it's best to herd cats, but, it was ineffective and was dissolved when WWII broke out in 1939, one hundred and sixty-three years after the Declaration of Independence. I think most Americans are aware of the weaponry of WWII and Franklin D. Roosevelt as president of this country. The war would end with Russia in alliance with allies. Russia was also instrumental in the defeat of the Japanese Empire. It fought a two front war. The Yalta Conference of 1945 documented the way forward in dividing Germany and bringing about a stable region. It would be about the same time China now was a republic with a president named Chiang Kai-shek.
WWII marked the first time in human history when a weapon was capable of wiping out the human race. The ideology of nuclear power woke the world to a new struggle for power. Splitting the atom would prove to turn peace into deterrence to war. There were plenty of administrative reconciliations in the Nuremberg Trials and the formation of the United Nations, but, over hanging all that was the nuclear weapons. There had to now be a meeting of global powers to control the outcomes of conflict and find resolutions to prevent the self-annihilation of the human beings.
World War II would lead to the Korean War, 194 years after the Declaration of Independence. The peninsula was divided in half at the end of WWII. Now, for the first time Russia would no longer view the USA as an ally, but, instead would find identity with common interest in communism and the ally of China. North Korea would be allied to Russia and China and South Korea was allied with many countries through the UN but lead by the USA. The final result was a continued divided peninsula with highly diverse forms of ideology and government. That division has lasted through to this day. The difference between communism and democracy has never been more evident as the people of the USA face the betrayal of billionaires.
After WWII the USA entered into the era of illegal wars. Arguably it could be stated the war in Vietnam could be somewhat viewed as a left over form WWII. Southeast Asia was divided into four countries and Vietnam was also North and South. That is a totally separate discussion. In time however, President Kennedy was see the reason for occupation of Vietnam as a mistake and saw no reason to escalate it beyond sending advisors to assist in the settlement of Western ideology. Supposedly it was the new hope for the people, but, the cultures were so different and China viewing the presence of that culture as a threat there was no real settling it. It wasn't until the Gulf of Tokin incident that the USA would find a reason to enter into a war for control. 50 thousand USA troops dead finally ended the occupation of Vietnam.
The Vietnam would last for 10 years and 2 months beginning in 1965, one hundred and eighty-nine years after the Declaration of Independence. The weaponry was sophisticated and the damage and deaths escalated.
The next war was after the attacks of September 11, 2001. It was the Afghanistan War. It was 225 years after the Declaration of Independence. It lasted an entire generation with attempts at nation building. It finally ended abruptly in a similar manner of the exit from Vietnam. Soldiers were lost in the final acts of the USA military.
Shortly after the Afghanistan War an illegal war in Iraq began in March of 2023. Two hundred and twenty-seven years after the Declaration of Independence. It would last 8 years and 9 months. The reasons for the War in Iraq was based in lies. It was said Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks of September 11, 2001, but, there are no facts leading to that conclusion. It was a war of choice. The lie was a political convenience backed by fear begun by Osama bin Laden. After the deaths of 4,418 American soldiers the plague beset the USA manifested in deaths in the homeland by an invisible killer called PTSD.
The Declaration of Independence was an act of bravery to separate from the imposition of kings and queens. It was the act of bravery that ensconced the idea of freedom. Freedom. The Revolutionary War was fought for the reason of freedom and happiness. It would begin the belief that people could govern themselves far better than any king or emperor. Freedom built the greatest nation of people based in diversity, hope, equality, and opportunity. Freedom grew a country full of people that basically care about each other. Freedom built more than a boundary to a country, it grew a country devoted to the hope that enshrined peace as a goal.
Today, this country is rattled by the power of money. Money. Billionaires willing to dismantle a country that has brought power to the world in a form that shared prosperity and technology that has taken human beings to the moon with aspirations of more. Greed has rattled the foundation of our country on this 250th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Greed.
Money.
Billionaires.
None will succeed in ending the dreams that started 250 years ago and protected by the spilling of the blood of so many Americans over two and a half centuries. The people of the United States of America are strong and resolute and will continue to protect the dream handed to them so long ago.
Enjoy the celebration of July 4th, but, the challenges are more evident today than ever before, there is also the challenge of protecting not only our freedom and country, but, Earth as well.
Peace.
