The Declaration of Independence,

By issuing the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress
on July 4, 1776, the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to
Great Britain. The Declaration summarized the colonists’ motivations for seeking
independence. By declaring themselves an independent nation, the American
colonists were able to confirm an official alliance with the Government of
France and obtain French assistance in the war against Great Britain.

The Declaration of Independence

Throughout the 1760s and early 1770s, the North American colonists found
themselves increasingly at odds with British imperial policies regarding taxation and
frontier
policy. When repeated protests failed to influence British policies,
and instead resulted in the closing of the port of Boston and the declaration of
martial law in Massachusetts, the colonial governments
sent delegates to a Continental Congress to coordinate a colonial boycott of British
goods. When fighting broke out between American colonists and British forces in
Massachusetts, the Continental Congress worked with local groups, originally
intended to enforce the boycott, to coordinate resistance against the British.
British officials throughout the colonies increasingly found their authority
challenged by informal local governments, although loyalist sentiment remained
strong in some areas.

Despite these changes, colonial leaders hoped to reconcile with the British
Government, and all but the most radical members of Congress were unwilling to
declare independence. However, in late 1775, Benjamin Franklin, then a member of
the Secret Committee of Correspondence, hinted to French agents and other
European sympathizers that the colonies were increasingly leaning towards
seeking independence. While perhaps true, Franklin also hoped to convince the
French to supply the colonists with aid. Independence would be necessary,
however, before French officials would consider the possibility of an
alliance.

Throughout the winter of 1775–1776, the members of the Continental Congress came
to view reconciliation with Britain as unlikely, and independence the only
course of action available to them. When on December 22, 1775, the British
Parliament prohibited trade with the colonies, Congress responded in April of
1776 by opening colonial ports—this was a major step towards severing ties with
Britain. The colonists were aided by the January publication of Thomas
Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense, which
advocated the colonies’ independence and was widely distributed throughout the
colonies. By February of 1776, colonial leaders were discussing the possibility
of forming foreign alliances and began to draft the Model Treaty that would
serve as a basis for the 1778 alliance with France. Leaders for the cause of
independence wanted to make certain that they had sufficient congressional
support before they would bring the issue to the vote. On June 7, 1776,
Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion in Congress to
declare independence. Other members of Congress were amenable but thought some
colonies not quite ready. However, Congress did form a committee to draft a
declaration of independence and assigned this duty to Thomas
Jefferson.

Thomas Paine

Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
reviewed Jefferson’s draft. They preserved its original form, but struck
passages likely to meet with controversy or skepticism, most notably passages
blaming King George III for the transatlantic slave trade
and those blaming the British people rather than their government. The committee
presented the final draft before Congress on June 28, 1776, and Congress adopted
the final text of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

The British Government did its best to dismiss the Declaration as a trivial
document issued by disgruntled colonists. British officials commissioned
propagandists to highlight the declaration’s flaws and to rebut the colonists’
complaints. The Declaration divided British domestic opposition, as some
American sympathizers thought the Declaration had gone too far, but in
British-ruled Ireland it had many supporters.

The Declaration’s most important diplomatic effect was to allow for recognition
of the United States by friendly foreign governments. The Sultan of Morocco
mentioned American ships in a consular document in 1777, but Congress had to
wait until the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France for a formal recognition of
U.S. independence. The Netherlands acknowledged U.S. independence in 1782.
Although Spain joined the war against Great Britain in 1779, it did not
recognize U.S. independence until the 1783 Treaty of Paris. Under the terms of the treaty, which ended the
War of the American Revolution, Great Britain officially acknowledged the United
States as a sovereign and independent nation.