The Declaration of Independence

 

The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America is the document adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence explains why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain viewed themselves as thirteen independent sovereign republics free of British domination. These new states took a collective first step toward becoming the United States of America with the Declaration of Independence. New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia all signed the proclamation.

The declaration was established to establish equal rights for all people, and if it had been intended for a specific group of people, it would have been labelled "rights of Englishmen." This line has been dubbed "one of the most well-known in the English language," as it contains "the most potent and momentous words in American history." The passage came to symbolize a moral standard for the United States to aspire to. This position was prominently supported by Abraham Lincoln, who regarded the Declaration as the bedrock of his political philosophy, arguing that it serves as a statement of ideas upon which the United States Constitution should be construed.

The Declaration of Independence sparked the creation of other comparable papers in other countries, the earliest being the 1789 Declaration of United Belgian States, which was issued during the Austrian Netherlands' Brabant Revolution. It also served as the major model for a number of independence declarations throughout Europe and Latin America, as well as Africa (Liberia) and Oceania (New Zealand) in the first half of the nineteenth century.