Answer:On April 19, 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord initiated armed conflict between Great Britain and the 13 North American colonies (the nucleus of the future United States of America).
At that time few of the colonists consciously desired to separate from Britain. But as the American Revolution proceeded during 1775–76, Britain undertook to assert its sovereignty by means of large armed forces, making only a gesture toward conciliation.
Increasingly, the majority of Americans came to believe that they must secure their rights outside the British Empire.
The losses and restrictions that came from the war greatly widened the breach between the colonies and the mother country.
Moreover, it was necessary for the colonies to assert independence in order to secure as much French aid as possible.
Effects
The Declaration of Independence put forth the doctrines of natural rights and of government under social contract.
The document claimed that Parliament never truly possessed sovereignty over the colonies and that George III had persistently violated the agreement between himself as governor and the Americans as the governed.
When the Declaration was adopted, racing horsemen and the noise of cannon fire carried the news far and wide. General George Washington had the document read to the army, and its ringing sentences strengthened the morale of his troops.
The Declaration helped unify the colonies so that they all fought together instead of trying to make separate peace agreements with Britain.
Declaration of Independence: National Archives
Declaration of Independence: National Archives
Hisham F. Ibrahim/Getty Images
Some of the phrases of the declaration have steadily exerted profound influence in the United States, especially the proclamation, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Although the meanings of these phrases, together with conclusions drawn from them, have been endlessly debated, the declaration has served to justify the extension of American political and social democracy.
The Declaration has also inspired revolutionary movements outside the United States.
The document remains a great historical landmark in that it contained the first formal assertion by a whole people of their right to a government of their own choice.
The Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the United States, was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. It explained why the Congress on July 2 “unanimously” (by the votes of 12 colonies, with New York abstaining) had resolved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States.”
On August 2, 1776, roughly a month after the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, an “engrossed” version was signed at the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia by most of the congressional delegates (engrossing is rendering an official document in a large clear hand). Not all the delegates were present on August 2. Eventually, 56 of them signed the document. Two delegates, John Dickinson and Robert R. Livingston, never signed.
Since 1952 the original parchment document of the Declaration of Independence has resided in the National Archives exhibition hall in Washington, D.C., along with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Before then it had a number of homes and protectors, including the State Department and the Library of Congress. For a portion of World War II it was kept in the Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
In the 1920s the Declaration of Independence was enclosed in a frame of gold-plated bronze doors and covered with double-paned plate glass with gelatin films between the plates to block harmful light rays. Today it is held in an upright case constructed of ballistically tested glass and plastic laminate. A $3 million camera and computerized system monitor the condition of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
Step-by-step explanation: