Over the past 250 years, there have been several major waves of independence: the revolutions of European colonies in the Americas in the 18th-19th centuries, the creation of independent states out of the defunct Habsburg, Ottoman, and Russian empires after World War I, the end of European colonialism in Africa and Asia after World War II, and, finally, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In honor of US Independence Day, here's an animated GIF that illustrates the historic sweep of the founding dates that countries around the world celebrate today.
