What Was The Purpose Of The Declaration Of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the most influential document ever written. Although its’ main purpose was to declare separation of the 13 colonies from Britain, the document did much more. This declaration shaped the American government, defined American values, and articulated and protected our rights. In addition, the document initiated an 8-year war (the American Revolution, 1775-1783) and legitimized freedom for an incalculable number of causes for equality of race, sex, class, occupation, religion, age, and religion. The Declaration of Independence begins by explaining why the 13 colonies were separating from Great Britain and why it was becoming a nation. A delegate committee was appointed to draft the Declaration. The Declaration

The Declaration’s method was to state a philosophical and political belief common of the Enlightenment in 18th century, to list 27 very specific and descriptive reasons as to why the colonials wanted independence, and to state that, since “Governments exist only through the power of the people that they represent… when a government fails to grant rights to the people and removes the involvement of the people, the people have the right to change their government.” The person who pushed the ideology was John Locke, who was a huge the proponent of the Enlightenment. He believed that humans, by nature, had the right to pursue “life, health, liberty and possessions”. Jefferson altered this in the Declaration to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Locke also thought that the divine right of the King, and kings holding absolute power because they were placed on the throne by God, was wrong and that the people had the right to govern themselves. Indeed, innumerable revolutions at home and abroad occurred citing this theory within the Declaration of Independence and used it as justification for why they were