Declaration of independence
A
declaration of independence is a proclamation of the
independence of an aspiring
state or states. Such states are usually formed from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the parent state.
Declarations of independence are typically made without the consent of the parent state, and hence are sometimes called
unilateral declarations of independence (UDI), particularly by those who question the validity of the declarations.
In
international politics, unilateral declarations of independence are generally frowned upon, since preservation of territory is one of the few things that most countries of the world agree upon.
In
international law, there are multiple schools of thought regarding the creation of
statehood. One of these, the
declarative theory of statehood holds that a self-declared state that meets certain criteria is indeed a state, even if not recognized by any other nation. Conversely, the
constitutive theory of statehood requires that a self-declared state receive at least a minimal level of acknowledgement (but not formal recognition) by existing states.
Declaring independence or supporting such a declaration is seen as a hostile act that may easily lead to
war. Money is often an important factor when one state attempts to succeed another, with control of important resources such as ports, oil fields or strategic towns or geographic features leading to dispute. If a government has extremely large debts to other organizations, there may be international pressure for these debts to be taken over by successor governments, even if the original governmental organization is disbanded.
Many states have come into being through a Declaration of Independence. The legality of a Declaration of Independence is often the subject of debate and unsurprisingly the previous government typically asserts that a Declaration of Independence is illegal. Often, international bodies and other countries decline at first to accept the legitimacy of the declared state and its government. If the declared state becomes a functioning entity, it may gain diplomatic recognition over time and a form of retrospective recognition. Not all declarations of independence result in actual states and those governments that do result from Declarations of Independence do not always survive and are often rivaled by the previous government. A significant number of unilaterally declared governments collapse or otherwise give way, with control returning to the previous government or shifting to a further, successor government.
Many declarations of independence, including those of
Texas (now part of the
United States),
Rhodesia, and
Vietnam have been modeled on the United States declaration.
*
Declaration of Arbroath (
Scotland, 1320) - The first known formal declaration of independence in which Scottish leaders declared Scotland's independence from
England on behalf of the Scottish people.
*
Oath of Abjuration (
Low Countries, 1581) - The
Plakkaat van Verlatinghe was the formal declaration of independence on
July 26,
1581 of the independence of the northern
Low Countries from
King Philip II of
Spain.
*
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (
May 20,
1775 in North Carolina) - Declared
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina independent of Great Britain a year before the US Declaration of Independence.
*
United States Declaration of Independence (
July 4,
1776) - Made by thirteen of Great Britain's North American colonies. In 1778, the
Treaty of Alliance and the
Treaty of Amity and Commerce were signed by the
United States and
France signaling the first official recognition of the new country. The
Kingdom of Great Britain formally recognized the new country in the
Treaty of Paris of 1783.
*
Haiti's Declaration of Independence (1804) On January 1, 1804, Jean Jacques Dessalines declared
Haïti a free republic and joined the United States as the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere.
*
Brazilian Declaration of Independence (1822) -
Brazil was declared independent from
Portugal on
September 7 by then regent Pedro de Bragança e Bourbon, who was then crowned
Emperor Peter I of Brazil.
*
Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand (1835) - This was a declaration of the independence of the
Māori tribes.
*
Texan Declaration of Independence (1836) -
Texas declared its independence from
Mexico as the
Republic of Texas.
*
Dominican Declaration of Independence (1844) Dominican Republic declared independence from Haiti, its neighbor on the island of Hispaniola. The date traditionally named the Dominican Republic's independence day is February 27, 1844
*
Hungarian Declaration of Independence (1849) -
Hungary declared independence from the
Austrian Empire and deposed the
Habsburg dynasty on
April 14,
1849. The Hungarian Revolution was later suppressed with Russian help and the country gained full independence only after World War I on
November 16 1918.
*
Philippine Declaration of Independence (1898) - The
Philippines was declared independent from
Spain by
Emilio Aguinaldo on
June 12,
1898 when the
Spanish-American War was still under way. However, neither Spain nor the United States recognized the declaration. Official Philippine independence was finally granted by Congress on
July 4,
1946 after 48 years of United States colonial rule.
*
Easter Proclamation (
Ireland, 1916) - During the
Easter Rising in
Dublin Irish rebels proclaimed, on behalf of the Irish people, the establishment of an independent Irish republic. Unlike the later Declaration of Independence of 1919, the Proclamation of the Republic was not issued by an elected body and was not followed by the establishment of any
de facto political institutions.
*
Finland's declaration of independence (1917) -
Finland declared its independence from
Russia shortly after the
October Revolution, on 6th December.
*
Irish Declaration of Independence (1919) - The
Irish Republic, encompassing the whole island of
Ireland, was declared by
Dáil Éireann (a revolutionary parliament setup by the vast majority of elected representatives of Ireland) in 1919. By the declaration the Dáil ratified the earlier Easter Proclamation. The new Irish Republic was recognized by no country except the
Russian SFSR and was rivaled by the administration of the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland during the
Anglo-Irish War. It was superseded by the
Irish Free State in 1922.
*
Korean Declaration of Independence (1919) -
Korea declared independence from the
Japan on
March 1,
1919. Japanese government brutally cracked down the
independence movement. Leaders of the movement fled to Shanghai of China and founded
Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.
*
Icelandic Declaration of Independence (1944) -
Iceland declared its independence from
Denmark, following a
plebiscite of the local population, on
June 17,
1944. The Danish
King Christian X, whose country was under
Nazi occupation at the time, had urged Iceland to wait until the end of the war before making any such move but otherwise did nothing to prevent it (and was unable to do so in any case as Iceland was under U.S.
military occupation).
*
Indonesian Declaration of Independence (1945) -
Indonesia declared independence from the
Netherlands on
August 17,
1945. Its independence was soon recognized by the
United States and
Australia, but not by the Netherlands until 1949.
*
Indian Declaration of Independence (1947) -
India declared independence from the
United Kingdom on August 15th 1947.
*
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (1948) - The declaration was made on
May 14,
1948 (the day in which the British Mandate over Palestine expired) by the
Jewish People's Council.
*
Katangan Declaration of Independence (1960) -
Katanga, a former a province of the
Belgian Congo, attempted to secede by means of a Declaration of Independence in 1960, when Congo was granted its independence. The attempted secession was ended by the implementation of the
United Nations supervised
National Conciliation Plan in January, 1963.
*
Rhodesian Declaration of Independence (1965) -
Ian Smith's white minority government declared independence from the
United Kingdom in 1965. Few states accepted this declaration's legitimacy. The UDI Rhodesian state was ultimately replaced under the
Lancaster House Agreement by a restored British regime under a governor:
Lord Soames. Within a short time, a new, much more widely recognized independent state,
Zimbabwe, came into existence.
*
Declaration of Independence of Bangladesh (1971) -
Bangladesh (East Pakistan) declared independence from the
Pakistan in 1971. Pakistan sent its military and brutally killed liberation fighters (Mukti Bahini). India supported the Mukti Bahini who fought against West Pakistan's military for nine months and this eventually led to the 1971 Indo-Pak War, a result of which,
Bangladesh gained independence and was recognised as a country by the world within a year.
*
Declaration of Independence of Guinea-Bissau (1973) -
Guinea-Bissau, formerly Portuguese Guinea, declared independence from
Portugal in 1973. The declaration was recognized by many countries. Portugal formally granted independence in 1974.
*
East Timorese Declaration of Independence (1975) -
East Timor, formerly
Portuguese Timor, declared independence from Portugal on
November 28. The declaration was recognized by several Communist (
Marxist-Leninist) and
Third World nations, including the
People's Republic of China, but not by neighboring
Australia,
Portugal or
Indonesia. Indonesia invaded on
December 7,
1975, and annexed East Timor as its 'twenty-seventh province' on
July 17,
1976.
*
Declaration of Independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (1983) - The
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was proclaimed in northern
Cyprus in 1983. The area had been occupied by Turkish forces since a Turkish invasion in 1974. The state has only received international recognition from
Turkey and the
Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
*
South Africa On adopting the 1996 constitution[
1][
2], the government of South Africa declared that people of South Africa did not have to ask the
Westminster Parliament to pass legislation to make the new constitution legal [
3][
4]. See also
Constitutional Court of South Africa and
Statute of Westminster 1931 .
*
Palestinian Declaration of Independence (1988) - The
Palestinian Liberation Organization proclaimed the
State of Palestine in 1988. The PLO had no control of any territory at the time and a
de facto state has yet to come into existence.
*
Somaliland Declaration of Independence (1991) - With Somalia sliding down into total anarchy, the former colony of
British Somaliland, which became a
constituent state of the newly independent Somalia in 1960, reasserted its independence. Despite the non-recognition of
Somaliland by the international community, Somaliland has enjoyed stability and economic growth.
*'''
Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam, was proclaimed by
Ho Chi Minh in
Hanoion
September 2, 1945
*Recent self-declared states include:
Chechnya,
Puntland,
Nagorno-Karabakh,
South Ossetia,
Abkhazia, and
Transnistria.
In many cases, independence is achieved without a declaration of independence but instead occurs by bilateral agreement. An example of this is the independence of many components of the
British Empire, most parts of which achieved independence through negotiation with the United Kingdom government.
Australia and
Canada, for example, achieved full independence through a series of acts of the respective national
parliaments of the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.
One notable example of self-government in the absence of a formal declaration of independence is
Taiwan, which is administered by the
Republic of China (ROC). The
People's Republic of China (PRC) has stated that a formal declaration that Taiwan is independent of
China would be one of the conditions under which they would use force against Taiwan.
The
political status of Taiwan remains controversial; the position of many advocates of
Taiwanese independence has been that since Taiwan has never been a part of the PRC, and the governing institutions of the ROC function as an independent and sovereign state and there is no need to formally declare Taiwan to be independent. However, opponents of Taiwanese independence and supporters of
Chinese reunification on Taiwan, also see no point in a declaration of independence in that they argue that Taiwan is and should be part of a greater cultural entity known as
China, and a new proposed "
Republic of Taiwan" would only bring about a change in name at the cost of an invasion of Taiwan, which it could not afford.
*
Independence Day*
SeparatismShi, David E and George Brown Tindall. America: A Narrative History (Sixth Edition). New York: W.W Norton & Company, Inc. 1984. 2004.
