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 (1st 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

Vienna

Aug 1776

Scotland

Aug 1776

Ireland

Aug 1776

Holland

Aug 1776

Spain

Aug 1776

Scandinavia

Aug 1776

Denmark

Sept 1776

London

Aug 1776

Italy

Sept 1776

Switzerland

Oct 1776

• 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.”

THEN—REACTION

(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.”

• 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

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

• 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”

THEN—REACTION

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. Vermont, 1777

2. Flanders, 1790

3. Haiti, 1804

4. Colombia, 1810, 1831

5. Venezuela, 1811

6. New Granada, 1811

7. Mexico, 1813

8. Argentina, 1816

9. Chile, 1818

10. Peru, 1821

11. Guatemala, 1821

12. El Salvador, 1821

13. Mexico, 1821

14. Nicaragua, 1821, 1823, 1838

15. Costa Rica, 1821, 1838

16. Panama, 1821, 1903

17. Hellenic Republic 1822

18. Brazil, 1822

19. United Provinces of Central

America, 1823

20. Bolivia, 1825

21. Uruguay, 1825

22. Ecuador, 1830

23. Belgium, 1830

24. New Zealand, 1835

25. Texas, 1836

26. Alta California, 1836

27. Honduras, 1838

28. Paraguay, 1842

29. Dominican Republic, 1844

30. Liberia, 1847

31. 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.Nagorno-

Karabakh1991

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