Final answer:
The colonies justified independence through the Enlightenment concepts that governments should protect people's rights, people are born with rights, and that when a government fails, people have the right to abolish it and create a new one.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ideas used by the colonies to justify independence were primarily rooted in the Enlightenment philosophy of natural rights and the social contract. Notably, one of the strongest justifications for independence was the idea that government exists to protect people's rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This idea was eloquently expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which emphasized that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. When a government fails to protect these rights, the Declaration asserts that the people have the right to abolish and replace it. Another important concept was that legitimate governments are created by the people, who hold sovereignty. Thus, the correct answers to which ideas were used by the colonies to justify independence are B) The purpose of government is to protect people's rights, D) People are born with rights, F) When a government fails to protect people's rights (or tramples them!), the people have the right to abolish and replace it, and G) (Legitimate) governments are created by the people.