Set the scene 250 years ago.

The British were using the colonies as a cash cow, imposing heavy taxes while deploying troops as enforcers to suppress unrest and take over private homes at will. Eventually, they pushed the colonists beyond the breaking point.

For that first generation of Americans, the choice became simple: This must end. And if it does not end peacefully, we will fight to make sure it ends.

The world must have laughed at the thought of a pedestrian militia taking on the British Empire. But when roughly 22,000 colonists showed up for army service, it was clear they were not playing pretend. They were deadly serious — even though they were facing a British force that would eventually grow far larger and better equipped.

They knew the odds were long. They knew the fight would be longer. They knew winning would be more than difficult.

And that was fine with them.

Because everything they had done in life was difficult. Why would independence be any different?

The fight began with promise at Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. But soon George Washington nearly lost his entire army in the Battle of Brooklyn, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence had every reason to fear that their signatures might become their death warrants.

But Americans don’t quit. They adapt.

Time and again, this country seems to find the right leader at the right moment. In that moment, General George Washington was that leader.

He and his men pulled off a stunning victory at Trenton on December 26, 1776, and shocked the world again just eight days later by defeating the Redcoats at Princeton.

Those were not merely battlefield victories. They were proof of concept. They showed that this fragile American experiment had something inside it that could not be measured only in muskets, money or manpower.

It had resolve.

In the end, the resilient and resourceful Washington would lead his men through more than eight long years of sacrifice, setbacks, hunger, disease, doubt and bloodshed — culminating in victory at Yorktown and finalized by the Treaty of Paris.

Yes, it was hard. Victory was almost unthinkable. But for early Americans, nothing was too hard to attempt. Hard was expected.

So we return to the question we started with: Would our founders and first fighters be surprised that the country they created would become the dominant power in the world 250 years later?

My answer, based on our past, is no.

They would not be surprised. Dare I say, they may even have expected it.

Because despite our flaws, failures, divisions and detours, there has always been a belief among Americans that we can accomplish what we set out to do. We are not afraid to fail. We are willing to adapt. We argue, stumble, regroup, and keep moving until we win.

That was true when Washington crossed the Delaware. It was true when his army marched to Princeton. It was true when 13 colonies became a country. And it remains true today.

America has always defied the odds, taken on impossible tasks, and somehow found a way to prevail.

Yes, it has been hard. Yes, it has defied logic, but that has always been part of the American story.

And I could not be more grateful that it remains the case today — and, I believe, will remain so far into the future.

Brian Kilmeade is the author of six American history books and the upcoming book “Uniting the States: The Six Crucial Moments That Forged the American Miracle.”