Declaration_of_independence

This article is about declarations of independence in general. Specific declarations of independence are listed below in alphabetical order.

A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state. Not all Declarations of independences were successful and resulted in independence for these regions.

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 declarations\' validity.

List of Declarations of Independence

See also

• Independence Day
• Separatism
• Thomas Jefferson
• The Thirteen Colonies

Independence without a declaration

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 their respective national parliaments. One notable example of the importance of a formal declaration is the fact that if Taiwan declared itself independent of the People\'s Republic of China, China would use force against Taiwan^{[citation needed]}.

The political status of Taiwan remains controversial; the position of many advocates of Taiwan 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, there is therefore no need to formally declare Taiwan independent. However, opponents of Taiwan 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^{[citation needed]}.

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