The answer is that 1776 was when the colonists formally declared independence from Great Britain, so now they had to govern themselves. It also saw the creation of the first government under the Articles of Confederation, which gave very limited power federally. Also during this time, in 1787, the Americans changed their government with the addition of the U.S. Constitution, which centralized the government and gave more powers to a chief executive, that the previous government did not have. All of these events greatly shaped how Democracy was born in the United States.
