Answer: Over the decade following passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, a series of unpopular British laws met with stiff opposition in the colonies, fueling a bitter struggle over whether Parliament had the right to tax the colonists without the consent of the representative colonial governments.
The Declaration of Independence was written for two reasons. First, as the name suggests, it was intended to declare the independence of Britain's North American colonies from their mother country. This, the document explains, is why the colonists took up arms, and why they are declaring independence.