The Declaration of
Independence
A Global Approach
Holly A. Hoover, MAEd,
Stonewall Jackson High School, Quicksburg, VA
Global Approach
• Globalization—not novel
• America has always been a
major player in the world …
− economically,
− socially,
− and politically…
In fact…
− The Declaration was…
• Printed by an Irish printer (Dunlap)
• On Dutch paper
• On a British press
• Signed with an inkstand made of
Mexican silver
− The Declaration was…
• Inspired by philosophers from at least five
different countries, including:
− Switzerland, Scotland, Italy, France
and Britain
• Signed by nine men born abroad, and
12+ educated abroad
THE BIG IDEA:
•To what extent
was the Declaration
(THEN)
and is the Declaration
(NOW)
a global document?
OPENING QUESTION:
•What is the most
important paragraph
of the Declaration?
− THEN and NOW: two VERY different
answers
THEN—PURPOSE (1
st
and last ¶)
• The Declaration served the purpose of
solving the Continental Congress’s
MAIN problem:
− EXTERNAL RECOGNITION! (first and last ¶)
•Must change war from Civil to
Revolution in order to…
1. Obtain Military Aid
2. Open Diplomatic channels
3. Control American Commerce
Congressional communique to
Benjamin Franklin and Silas
Deane, envoys to France:
“Obtain as early as possible
a public acknowledgement
of the independency of
these states…by the court of
France”
THEN—REACTION (Home)
• When first introduced:
− The Declaration is “an instrument
pregnant with our own and the fate of the
world.”
--Thomas Jefferson
• AT HOME:
− Patriots: “Now we are a people! We have a name
among the states of this world!”
− Loyalists:
• Either angry at the presumption OR
• happy the conspirators were flushed out into the open
THEN—REACTION (Global)
•THE WORLD:
−Getting the word out:
•Two weeks after its release, the
Declaration had reached
Warsaw!!!
•In late 1700s: already intricate
network of newspaper, journals,
spies and agents
The Declaration’s Travels
Scotland
Aug 1776
Scandinavia
Aug 1776
London
Aug 1776
Ireland
Aug 1776
Denmark
Sept 1776
Holland
Aug 1776
Spain
Aug 1776
Vienna
Aug 1776
Switzerland
Oct 1776
Italy
Sept 1776
THEN—REACTION
• Biggest Obstacle: not communication, but the
English Language
• Scottish Sec to Britain Commissioned to Paris (1778):
− “The United States would form the greatest
empire in the world: Yes, sir, and they will
all speak English, everyone of them.”
(John Adams (1780): “English is destined to be in the next and
succeeding centuries more generally in the world than Latin
was in the last, or French is in the present age.”
THEN—REACTION
• The Declaration brought about an international
debate about the theories behind legal
recognition of states
• The works of Swiss author Emer de Vatell was
heavily consulted (The Law of Nations)
− States have rights to existence, independence
and equality (But when do they get that right???)
• Which comes first: the announcement of the
revolt, the success of the revolt, or the
recognition of the new “people?”
THEN—REACTION
• BRITISH REACTION
− King George III: speech to Parliament
• “for daring and desperate is the spirit of those leaders,
whose object has always been dominion and power, that
they have now openly renounced all allegiance to the
crown, and all political connection with this country."
− The GOVERNMENT did NOT respond openly to the
Revolution for fear of acknowledging the right of
other nations to interfere
− Only two responses were written in London:
• One by Thomas Hutchinson (there in exile)
• One by John Lind, a Tory pamphlet writer: “Answer to the
Declaration” 
THEN—REACTION
• BRITISH REACTION
− Sent letters to British soldiers in the colonies based
on Lind’s pamphlet
• Mocked America for philosophical statements
of equality and rights while holding slaves
• Said, if independence is acknowledged, what
would stop a criminal “like Captain Kidd” from
avoiding prosecution?
− “Instead of a guilty pirate he would have become an
independent prince.”
• No government was EVER instituted without being at
the expense of one or other rights to life, liberty or
pursuit of happiness
THEN—REACTION
• FINALLY: French Recognition
− Treaty of Amity and Commerce
• Recognized America’s independence
− Treaty of Alliance
• Formally entered war with America (making
them a part of the peace negotiations)
•The British answer:
− Harshly denounced the French for
cooperating with the “dark agents” of
the English colonies, who “founded their
pretended independence on nothing
but the boldness of their revolt”
THE EFFECT:
• Britain had to acknowledge this independence:
− “A great revolution has happened—a revolution
made, but by chopping and changing of power in
any one of the existing states, but by the appearance
of a new state, of a new species, in a new part of the
globe. It has made as great a change in all the
relations, and balances and gravitation of power, as
the appearance of a new planet would in the system
of the solar world.” --Treaty of Paris, 1783
• After serving its purpose:
− No longer important
− Fell out of favor in America as a dangerous document
(until after War of 1812—when it became a symbol of
nationalism and democracy)
THE EFFECT:
• The Declaration of Independence became a new
“genre” of writing—that of a document in
recognition of a new nation, people, or the
furtherance of a cause
− What Jefferson made from scratch, others may
merely copy or emulate
− In this light, the Declaration is not a symbol—but more
practically, a model
NOW--PURPOSE
• Over half the nations of the world have their own
declaration of independence which emulate the
U.S. Declaration in
• Motivation
• Form and/ or
• Language
• While its domestic purpose was revealed 240
years ago, the words of the second paragraph
continue to inspire patriotism and drive those
concepts of democracy that Americans hold most
dear.
Declarations of independence since 1776
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
Vermont, 1777
Flanders, 1790
Haiti, 1804
Colombia, 1810, 1831
Venezuela, 1811
New Granada, 1811
Mexico, 1813
Argentina, 1816
Chile, 1818
Peru, 1821
Guatemala, 1821
El Salvador, 1821
Mexico, 1821
Nicaragua, 1821, 1823, 1838
Costa Rica, 1821, 1838
Panama, 1821, 1903
Hellenic Republic 1822
Brazil, 1822
United Provinces of Central
America, 1823
Bolivia, 1825
Uruguay, 1825
Ecuador, 1830
Belgium, 1830
New Zealand, 1835
Texas, 1836
Alta California, 1836
Honduras, 1838
Paraguay, 1842
Dominican Republic, 1844
Liberia, 1847
Hungary, 1849
32. South Carolina, 1860
33. Taiwan, 1895
34.Philippines, 1898
35.Panama, 1903
36. Bulgaria, 1908
37.Mongolia, 1911
38.Finland, 1917
39.Lithuania, 1918
40. Estonia, 1918, 1919
41.Czechoslovakia, 1918
42. Latvia, 1918
43. Georgia, 1918, 1991
44. Yugoslavia, 1918, 1943
45. Ireland, 1919
46.Korea, 1919
47. Syria, 1941
48. Iceland, 1944
49. Austria, 1945
50. Indonesia, 1945
51. Vietnam, 1945
52. Israel, 1948
53. South Moluccas, 1950
54. Libya, 1951
55. Malaysia, 1957
56. Guinea, 1958
57. Togo, 1950
58. Congo, 1960
59. Katanga, 1960
60. Benin, 1960
61. Niger, 1960
62. Senegal,
63. Mali
64. Mauritania
65. Rwanda, 1961
66.Tanganyika, 1961
67.Singapore, 1965
68. Southern Rhodesia, 1965
69.Biafra, 1967
70. Equatorial Guinea, 1968
71.Bangladesh, 1971
72.Bahrain, 1971
73. United Arab Emirates, 1971
74.Guinea-Bissau, 1973
75.Angola, 1975
76. East Timor, 1975
77. Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus, 1983
78.Palestine National Council,
1988
79. Lithuania, 1990
80. Uzbekistan, 1991
81. Slovenia, 1991
82. Croatia 1991
83.Estonia 1991
84.Latvia1991
85.Ukraine, 1991
86. Belarus, 1991
87. Moldova, 1991
88. Azerbaijan, , 1991
89.Uzbekistan, 1991
90.Kyrgyzstan, 1991
91.Crimea, 1991
92.Kazakhstan, 1991
93.Kosovo 1991
95.Turkmenistan 1991
96.Armenia 1991
97. Chechnya, 1991
98.Macedonia1991
99.NagornoKarabakh1991
100.South Ossetia 1991
101.Serb Republic of
Krajina1991
102. Bosnia
Herzegovina, 1992
103. Tatarstan, 1992
104. Serbian Republic of
Bosnia and
Herzegovina, 1992
105.Crimea, 1992
106.Republika Srpska,
1992
107. Abkhazia, 1992
108.Eritrea, 1993
THE BIG IDEA:
•To what extent
was the Declaration
(THEN)
and is the Declaration
(NOW)
a global document?
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
• This presentation was largely
based on research by David
Armitage in:
− The Declaration of
Independence: A Global
History © 2007 by Harvard
University Press
• Lesson plan based in part on
Reichard’s and Dickson’s:
− America on the World Stage: A
Global Approach to US History
©2008, Univ. of Illinois Press