Declaration of independence

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This article is about declarations of independence in general. Specific declarations of independence are listed below in alphabetical order. For the painting of this name, see Trumbull's Declaration of Independence.

For the 1938 short film, see The Declaration of Independence (film).

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.

Region	Declaration	Date	Year	Parent	Signatories	First recognising state
Albania	Albanian Declaration of Independence	November 28	1912	Ottoman Empire
United Provinces of South America (Argentina)	Argentine Declaration of Independence	July 9	1816	Spain	Congress of Tucumán
Azerbaijan	Azerbaijan Declaration of Independence	August 30	1991	Soviet Union	Popular Front of Azerbaijan	Turkey
Bangladesh	Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence		1971	Pakistan		India
Belarus	Belavezha Accords	December 8	1991	Soviet Union	Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Turkey
Belgium	Belgian Declaration of Independence	October 4	1830	Netherlands	Provisional Government of Belgium
Brazil	Brazilian Declaration of Independence	September 7	1822	Portugal	Pedro I of Brazil
Central America	Central American Declaration of Independence	September 15	1821	Spain
Chile	Chilean Declaration of Independence	February 12	1818	Spain	National Congress	Portugal
Dominican Republic	Dominican Declaration of Independence	February 27	1844	Haiti
East Timor	East Timorese Declaration of Independence	November 28	1975	Portugal		Morocco
Estonia	Estonian Declaration of Independence	February 24	1918	Russia	Salvation Committee
Estonia	Estonian Confirmation of Independence	August 20	1991	Soviet Union	Congress of Estonia	Iceland
Finland	Finland's Declaration of Independence	December 19	1917	Russia	Parliament of Finland
Georgia (country)	Georgia's Declaration of Independence	April 9	1991	Soviet Union		Germany
Georgia (U.S. state)	Georgia's secession declaration	January 29	1861	United States
Guinea-Bissau	Guinea-Bissau Declaration of Independence	September 24	1973	Portugal
Haiti	Haitian Declaration of Independence	January 1	1804	France	Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Hungary	Hungarian Declaration of Independence	April 17	1848	Austrian Empire
Iceland	Icelandic Declaration of Independence	June 17	1944	Denmark
India	Indian Declaration of Independence	August 15	1947	United Kingdom		United States
Indonesia	Indonesian Declaration of Independence	August 17	1945	Netherlands	Sukarno & Mohammad Hatta	Australia
Ireland	Proclamation of the Irish Republic	April 24	1916	United Kingdom	Irish Volunteers Irish Citizen Army
Irish Republic	Irish Declaration of Independence	January 21	1919	United Kingdom	Dáil Éireann	Soviet Union
Israel	Israeli Declaration of Independence	May 14	1948	United Kingdom	Jewish People's Council	United States
Katanga	Katangan Declaration of Independence		1960	Congo (Léopoldville)
Korea	Korean Declaration of Independence	March 1	1919	Japan
Kosovo	1990 Kosovo declaration of independence	?	1990	Serbia		Albania
Kosovo	Kosovo declaration of Independence	February 17	2008	Serbia	Assembly of Kosovo	Costa Rica
Latvia	On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia	May 4	1990	Soviet Union	Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR	Iceland
Lithuania	Act of Independence of Lithuania	February 16	1918	Germany	Council of Lithuania	Germany
Lithuania	Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania	March 11	1990	Soviet Union	Supreme Council of Lithuania	Iceland
Low Countries (the Netherlands)	Oath of Abjuration	July 26	1581	Spain
Macedonia	Independence of Macedonia		1991	Yugoslavia		Bulgaria
Mississippi	A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union	January 9	1861	United States
Moldova	Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova	August 27	1991	Soviet Union	Parliament of the Republic of Moldova	Romania
Montenegro	Montenegro declaration of independence	June 3	2006	Serbia and Montenegro	Assembly of the Republic of Montenegro
New Zealand	Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand		1835	United Kingdom	Māori chiefs
Northern America (Mexico)	Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America	November 6	1813	Spain	Congress of Anáhuac
Northern Cyprus	Declaration of Independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus	November 15	1983	Cyprus		Turkey
Norway	Constitution of Norway	May 17	1814	Union according to Treaty of Kiel	Constitutional assembly
Pakistan		August 14	1947	India
Peru	Act of the Declaration of Independence of Peru	July 28	1821	Spain	José de San Martín
Palestine	Palestinian Declaration of Independence	November 15	1988	Israel	Palestinian National Council
Philippines	Philippine Declaration of Independence	June 12	1898	Spain	Emilio Aguinaldo
Rhodesia	Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence	November 11	1965	United Kingdom	Ian Smith and the rest of the Cabinet	none
Romania	Romanian Declaration of Independence	May 22	1871	Ottoman Empire	King Carol I
Russia	Belavezha Accords	December 8	1991	Soviet Union	Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
Scotland	Declaration of Arbroath	April 6	1320	England	Scottish leaders
Singapore	Proclamation of Singapore^[1]	August 9	1965	Malaysia	Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore
Slovenia	Slovenian Declaration of Independence	June 25	1991	Yugoslavia		Croatia
Somaliland	Somaliland Declaration of Independence		1991	Somalia		none
South Carolina	Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union	December 24	1860	United States	South Carolinians in Charleston
Southern Cameroons	Southern Cameroons Declaration of Independence	December 31	1999	Cameroon		none
Texas	Texas Declaration of Independence	March 2	1836	Mexico
Texas	A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union	February 1	1861	United States	Texas Legislature
Transnistria	Transnistrian Declaration of Independence	September 2	1990	Soviet Union	Second Congress of the Peoples' Representatives of Pridnestrovie	none
Ukraine	Belavezha Accords	December 8	1991	Soviet Union	Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Poland
United States	United States Declaration of Independence	July 4	1776	Great Britain	Second Continental Congress	France
Uzbekistan	Declaration of Independence	August 31	1991	Soviet Union	Supreme Council of Uzbekistan	Turkey
Venezuela	Venezuelan Declaration of Independence	July 5	1811	Kingdom of Spain	Representatives of the States of Venezuela
Vietnam	Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam	September 2	1945	Japan	Hồ Chí Minh	China

[edit] 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]}.