As the United States marks 250 years since declaring independence from Britain, the anniversary is being observed on both sides of the Atlantic, at a moment when some are questioning whether the “special relationship” between the two nations is fading or over altogether.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by America’s Founding Fathers, but it would take another five years before Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrendered after the British defeat at Yorktown.
And it was not until the 1783 Treaty of Paris that “His Britannic majesty [King George III] acknowledge[d] the said United States … to be free sovereign and Independent States.”…