Chart: Independence in the Americas
Chart: Independence in the Americas
As the United States marks Independence Day, we look at the ways other countries in the Americas celebrate their national holidays.
2018 marks 242 years since the United States declared its independence, making it the oldest sovereign nation in the Americas. The centuries that followed the Declaration of Independence saw other countries in the Americas gaining their own freedom, with Belize as the most recent example in 1981.
While most of these countries celebrate the day they rejected a foreign power’s rule, others have distinct national holidays. Cubans, for example, were subject to both Spain and the United States and instead honor their 1959 revolution.
As the United States celebrates the Fourth of July, we chart independence days in the rest of the hemisphere, the countries from which each nation obtained its freedom, and the beverages with which citizens choose to celebrate.