This fascinates me. When did they stop being Dutch? In the play 1776, Benjamin Franklin talks about the colonists making a new race of people, deserving of a new nation. Did the Boers fell that way?
There's not going to be a singular moment, but I'd bet if anyone cited one it might be the time when the Dutch basically let them get owned by England, and then realizing that there wasn't really a home to go back to. When did the Americans become not English? What of the Australians, Canadians, or South Africans? And what of Rhodesians? Some Anglo, some were Afrikaner, and now they have no state. If Rhodesians never die, then who are they?
There's not normally a point where the people are simply cut from the parent group, but there's a slow change, and then a sudden realization that "we're not like you anymore..."
This is actually why I love "The Might of Nations". The book is genuinely trying to grapple with this concept in the 1960's when colonial empires are are letting go of their colonies, and the colonies are divided among ethnic groups, but are also trying to unify as an independent state.
There truly is something particularly special about becoming American. It really was a new race/nation of people, even if they didn't understand it while they were doing it.
This fascinates me. When did they stop being Dutch? In the play 1776, Benjamin Franklin talks about the colonists making a new race of people, deserving of a new nation. Did the Boers fell that way?
Honestly? Yes.
There's not going to be a singular moment, but I'd bet if anyone cited one it might be the time when the Dutch basically let them get owned by England, and then realizing that there wasn't really a home to go back to. When did the Americans become not English? What of the Australians, Canadians, or South Africans? And what of Rhodesians? Some Anglo, some were Afrikaner, and now they have no state. If Rhodesians never die, then who are they?
There's not normally a point where the people are simply cut from the parent group, but there's a slow change, and then a sudden realization that "we're not like you anymore..."
This is actually why I love "The Might of Nations". The book is genuinely trying to grapple with this concept in the 1960's when colonial empires are are letting go of their colonies, and the colonies are divided among ethnic groups, but are also trying to unify as an independent state.
There truly is something particularly special about becoming American. It really was a new race/nation of people, even if they didn't understand it while they were doing it.