“More than half of the 192 countries now represented at the United Nations have a founding document that can be called a declaration of independence” - David Armitage in his essay The Declaration of Independence in Global Perspective
Since 1776, there have been approximately 120 declarations of independence made by different countries and different peoples.
The US Declaration of Independence was not the very first document able to be called a declaration of independence (Scotland and the Netherlands did so first). However, there is little doubt that among written proclamations of independence, the United States Declaration of Independence (DoI for short) is the most impactful of them all. The impact of this document is limited not only to the United States, in the two centuries since its creation, the Declaration of Independence has had a global impact. The DoI states "let Facts be submitted to a candid world" (the facts being the reasons why the US rightfully should split from Britain). This single phrase indicates that Jefferson and his lesser co-authors of the DoI intended for the world to read it, for their self-interest of hoping other countries would support the United States in its Revolution. Yet they also might have wished in their lofty dreams for bettering human civilization, that others would be persuaded by the DoI to bring such ideals as freedom and equality to their parts of the world.
Though the DoI symbolizes the entire American Revolution, the impact specifically of the document should be looked at, as it will be below.
First, let us examine several documents from aboard that were inspired by the US Declaration of Independence:
So on that note, that a Communist nation-state that the US later fought against could invoke the US Declaration of Independence, it is apparent that the global legacy of the DoI becomes more complicated. As a human invention open to all, the DoI is subject to interpretation and reinterpretation as individuals see fit. If a revolutionary of discriminatory thought or tyrannical ambitions sought to exclude "all men are created equal" or "unalienable rights" from their own independence declarations, while mimicking everything else in the US DoI, there is nothing to stop them from doing so.
Not always were the lofty ideals of the DoI lived up, even when a foreign document directly referenced the DoI and invoked those ideals. France got off to a good start in its Revolution, but the noble ideology of the Declaration of the Rights of Man was ridiculed by the Reign of Terror, a terribly real reign of tyranny, hysteria, and gruesome inhumanity carried out by the guillotine. South America and Central America both drew inspiration from the United States Declaration of Independence for their own ones, but the political histories of the nation-states born would be checkered with despotism and corruption.
To be fair, however, the DoI itself was not totally lived up to right away in the US either, its ideals were more realized in the US than elsewhere, but the institution of slavery flew in the face of "all men are created equal" for decades to come. And of course, racism also impedes that beloved line to this day. Ideals, one hopes they can be achieved, but if they are to be achieved, it will only be in the long run; it is unreasonable to expect any newborn nation to live up to any ideal it enshrines in its declaration of independence to immediately, or even within a decade or two, live up to those ideals completely.
Furthermore, “the great majority of the unilateral declarations of independence issued after 1776 made no direct reference to the American Declaration” (From Armitage's The Declaration of Independence in World Context).
Then what is the true global legacy of the United States Declaration of Independence? At the very least, the DoI began the modern genre of political literature called declarations of independence. It made a formal document proclaiming independence very much a political asset or basic need. It offered a template of powerful and eloquent word choice, and a strong formal structure that could be drawn from.
Perhaps the DoI is shown to schoolchildren in other countries a world history class, but as is the case here in the US, they most likely slept through the class. Certainly, the DoI, well more like excerpts from it, are drilled into the minds of tourists visiting the US. And when the US parties aboard big time, no doubt some American invoking their love for their country will speak of it. But those non-Americans who read in-depth the DoI and truly treasure the DoI to the depths of their hearts, are likely just a handful of intellectuals. This is not a problem, it is the case in history that not everyone impacts history equally, a minority of humans will be accredited with the bulk of historical importance. If the DoI gets into the hands of the right intellectuals, like Lafayette, like Ho Chi Minh, who as it retrospectively turns out one way or another has the means to influence history and does so, then the DoI's global impact, through these select few individuals, may become near immeasurable.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/road-revolution/essays/declaration-independence-global-perspective
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/34411.html
http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-declaration-of-independence-the-words-heard-around-the-world-1404415089
http://onliberia.org/con_declaration.htm
Since 1776, there have been approximately 120 declarations of independence made by different countries and different peoples.
The US Declaration of Independence was not the very first document able to be called a declaration of independence (Scotland and the Netherlands did so first). However, there is little doubt that among written proclamations of independence, the United States Declaration of Independence (DoI for short) is the most impactful of them all. The impact of this document is limited not only to the United States, in the two centuries since its creation, the Declaration of Independence has had a global impact. The DoI states "let Facts be submitted to a candid world" (the facts being the reasons why the US rightfully should split from Britain). This single phrase indicates that Jefferson and his lesser co-authors of the DoI intended for the world to read it, for their self-interest of hoping other countries would support the United States in its Revolution. Yet they also might have wished in their lofty dreams for bettering human civilization, that others would be persuaded by the DoI to bring such ideals as freedom and equality to their parts of the world.
Though the DoI symbolizes the entire American Revolution, the impact specifically of the document should be looked at, as it will be below.
First, let us examine several documents from aboard that were inspired by the US Declaration of Independence:
- The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789)- This isn't a declaration of independence, but it is the crowning idealogical statement of the French Revolution. One of its key draftsmen was the Marquis de Lafayette, the famed general who became a close friend of George Washington and helped the US win the Revolutionary War. Later, he also befriended Thomas Jefferson, the father of the DoI, while he was US Ambassador to France. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen combines the American idealism of the DoI and intermixes it with more uniquely French Enlightenment intellectual thought.
- The Liberian Declaration of Independence (1846)- Liberia, a West African nation that endures to this day, was uniquely founded by the American Colonization Society. The American Colonization Society was a racist, yet possibly pro-black for its time organization that sought to solve the race problems of the US by sending freed blacks back to Africa and settling them in a colony there. The Liberian Declaration of Independence is not revolutionary, and in that sense it is odd. It is a formal break between the African nation-state and its founding company the American Colonization Society. Furthermore, it lists grievances against the United States, including "peculiar institutions of the country" (slavery), but the Liberians are not indicting the US, so much as they are thanking the American Colonization Society for removing them from these problems.
- The Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945)- Written by Ho Chi Minh himself, the revolutionary leader of Vietnam. He directly references both the US Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and boldly declares Vietnamese independence. Ironically, due to Ho Chi Minh's ardent Communism, the US would stand against him during the Vietnam War.
So on that note, that a Communist nation-state that the US later fought against could invoke the US Declaration of Independence, it is apparent that the global legacy of the DoI becomes more complicated. As a human invention open to all, the DoI is subject to interpretation and reinterpretation as individuals see fit. If a revolutionary of discriminatory thought or tyrannical ambitions sought to exclude "all men are created equal" or "unalienable rights" from their own independence declarations, while mimicking everything else in the US DoI, there is nothing to stop them from doing so.
Not always were the lofty ideals of the DoI lived up, even when a foreign document directly referenced the DoI and invoked those ideals. France got off to a good start in its Revolution, but the noble ideology of the Declaration of the Rights of Man was ridiculed by the Reign of Terror, a terribly real reign of tyranny, hysteria, and gruesome inhumanity carried out by the guillotine. South America and Central America both drew inspiration from the United States Declaration of Independence for their own ones, but the political histories of the nation-states born would be checkered with despotism and corruption.
To be fair, however, the DoI itself was not totally lived up to right away in the US either, its ideals were more realized in the US than elsewhere, but the institution of slavery flew in the face of "all men are created equal" for decades to come. And of course, racism also impedes that beloved line to this day. Ideals, one hopes they can be achieved, but if they are to be achieved, it will only be in the long run; it is unreasonable to expect any newborn nation to live up to any ideal it enshrines in its declaration of independence to immediately, or even within a decade or two, live up to those ideals completely.
Furthermore, “the great majority of the unilateral declarations of independence issued after 1776 made no direct reference to the American Declaration” (From Armitage's The Declaration of Independence in World Context).
Then what is the true global legacy of the United States Declaration of Independence? At the very least, the DoI began the modern genre of political literature called declarations of independence. It made a formal document proclaiming independence very much a political asset or basic need. It offered a template of powerful and eloquent word choice, and a strong formal structure that could be drawn from.
Perhaps the DoI is shown to schoolchildren in other countries a world history class, but as is the case here in the US, they most likely slept through the class. Certainly, the DoI, well more like excerpts from it, are drilled into the minds of tourists visiting the US. And when the US parties aboard big time, no doubt some American invoking their love for their country will speak of it. But those non-Americans who read in-depth the DoI and truly treasure the DoI to the depths of their hearts, are likely just a handful of intellectuals. This is not a problem, it is the case in history that not everyone impacts history equally, a minority of humans will be accredited with the bulk of historical importance. If the DoI gets into the hands of the right intellectuals, like Lafayette, like Ho Chi Minh, who as it retrospectively turns out one way or another has the means to influence history and does so, then the DoI's global impact, through these select few individuals, may become near immeasurable.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/road-revolution/essays/declaration-independence-global-perspective
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/34411.html
http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-declaration-of-independence-the-words-heard-around-the-world-1404415089
http://onliberia.org/con_declaration.htm