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""To the superficial observer there would seem never to have been an age less propitious for the birth of a new nation. The tendency of the times was altogether for the aggrandizement of big states and the consolidation of their territory at the expense of the little ones, for the extinction of the weaker nations and governments rather than for the creation of new ones. Nevertheless it was this bitter cut-throat international rivalry which was to make American independence possible."" On April 15th, 1783, the Articles of Peace between the United States and Great Britain went into effect proclaiming that ""His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the United States . . . to be free Sovereign and independent States."" That recognition represented a monumental achievement for the new American nation. It also, as Samuel Flagg Bemis shows us, marked the end of a world war. France's search for revenge against Britain after the French and Indian War, Spain's attempt to retake Gibraltar, the complicated trade interests of the Netherlands and Russia, Austria's fears of a two-front war--each of these saw America's struggle for independence as an event that affected their own strategies. And, as Bemis shows us, it is through that prism that we should consider the actions of those who supported America and Great Britain.

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Samuel Flagg Bemis was an American historian and biographer. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree at Clark University, and a second master's and a doctorate at Harvard University. He taught at several post-secondary institutions, including Colorado College, Whitman College, George Washington University, and Yale University, where he was Sterling Professor of Diplomatic History and Inter-American Relations. He was also president of the American Historical Association and a specialist in American diplomatic history. Ben Judge is president of The America Fund. He is the editor of United and Independent: John Quincy Adams on American Foreign Policy and creator and executive producer of the documentary Right Makes Might: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Tom Beyer is a character actor who has appeared in over 100 TV shows, films, and commercials; has performed in innumerable plays and musicals; and has narrated many audiobooks. Grown in New York, fermented in Seattle, and aged in Los Angeles, his passions include Shakespeare, reading, intense physical exercise, and animal rescue. He has won awards for his stage work as both an actor and a director, and has adapted classical literature for the theater. He believes strongly in civic engagement, and volunteers for multiple organizations.

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