Which Statement Best Describes The Historical Significance of The Declaration of Independence?

The statement which best describes the historical significance of the United States’ Declaration of Independence was written in the Preamble section of it.

So, what the statement is actually trying to mean?

This statement wants to mean something like this:

“God has created all human beings on the planet of the earth with some certain unalienable rights.

No matter what, nobody, even the supreme authority of a nation, can’t ignore or take away these unanimous rights from them under any certain condition.

Primarily these rights include Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

To protect or secure these great blessings, people have been creating governments or authorities since the state of nature (As per John Locke’s theory).

Hence, the argument is useless that divine power has created governments or rulers of a country.

It means the king or rulers are not the representatives of God. But they are just the representatives of their people. 

It is the people who are the real source of the government’s or King’s power, and that’s why they should consider their people as their real god.

King or Governments, whatever may be, need to be always responsible and respectful for protecting these unanimous rights of the people.

Whenever there a time comes that the government, kings, or authorities become destructive of these great ends, it becomes the right of the people of the country to abolish that government (or king or authority) from power and form a new one with much better probabilities.

After abolishing, the people should form their new government with such principles that they always remain responsible for protecting people’s freedom, happiness, and equality.”

Human History And The Birth of Governments

This philosophy evolved from the Enlightenment period philosophers, mainly through John Locke and Thomas Hobbes’s writings.

According to them, at the very beginning of human civilization, physically powerful people became tyrants misusing their power; mainly used to torture & dominate the weak people and kept them under their control.

They used them as their slaves; killing and robbing became a very normal thing.

But as we know, the human being is a progressive animal; finding solutions to problems is one of their main characters.

With the flow of time, human intelligence started progressing.

To get rid of these atrocities, humans have made a social agreement among themselves.

Under this social agreement, they have created authorities and put their power into their hands.

At the same time, they also took the promise of oath from them that they would protect their interests from the dominance of physically powerful tyrants.

Through the process of evolution, over time, these authorities became kings and governments.

If we analyze the complete evolution of governments, we will find that governments get birth only to benefit the country’s people.

Therefore, governments or rulers should always remain responsible and respectful towards their people.

Why People Have The Right To Throw Out Governments From The Power?

Obviously, the people of a country provide the power to the governments for their benefit.

Therefore, it is always the responsibility of the government to protect and develop people’s life, liberty, and ways to pursue happiness.

If the government fails to fulfil that objective properly, it becomes the people’s right to overthrow that government from power and form a new one with much and much better probabilities.

American Revolution And The Statement of The Declaration of Independence

American Revolution fits quite well with the statement given in the Preamble section of the Declaration of Independence.

The British Parliament and King George III started destroying colonists’ rights of living a good life in the 13 colonies of North America.

Therefore, to protect and restore their happiness, colonists started the rebellion against British authority.

Finally, they succeeded to do it as they threw out the British rule from the 13 colonies.

After that, they formed their own democratic government with such principles that it always remains respectful towards their rights.

Gratefully, this government has been protecting the people’s rights much better since its formation.

Democracy And Its Connection With This Statement

The seeds of the development of the democratic governance system are well sown in this statement.

In the current scenario, this statement has a deep connection with the governance system of any democratic country throughout the world, along with the United States of America.

These countries are such as Australia, Isreal, India, Great Britain, French, Italy, Japan, North Korea, etc.

These countries are fully democratic countries of the world.

In these countries, the government can never do any work as per their wish, especially if their work proves contrary to the good of its people.

Here, if the public feels that the government is doing things against their interests, they can throw that government out of power.

And the process which makes it possible is called the ‘Democratic Election’.

Conclusion

Now I hope you have got the answer on which statement best describes the historical significance of the Declaration of Independence.

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