Declaration of independence

"Unilateral declaration of independence" redirects here. For the specific Rhodesian document, see Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

This article is about the type of document. For the first document to be generally called such, see United States Declaration of Independence. For the short film, see 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 independence are successful and result in independence for these regions.

Such declarations are typically made without the consent of the parent state, and hence are sometimes called unilateral declarations of independence (UDIs), particularly by those who question the declarations' validity.

List of declarations of independence

Region	Declaration	Date	Year	Parent	Signatories	First recognising state
Albania	Albanian Declaration of Independence	November 28	1912	Ottoman Empire
United Provinces of South America (present day Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia)	Argentine Declaration of Independence	July 9	1816	Spain	Congress of Tucumán	Kingdom of Hawaii
Armenia	Democratic Republic of Armenia	May 28	1918	Russian Empire	Armenian Congress of Eastern Armenians Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF Dashnak)	Russia
Azerbaijan	Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan	May 28	1918	Russian Empire		Ottoman Empire
Bangladesh	Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence	March 26	1971	Pakistan		Bhutan
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
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnian Declaration of Independence	March 1	1992	Yugoslavia		Bulgaria
Brazil	Brazilian declaration of independence	September 7	1822	Portugal	Pedro I of Brazil	United States
Bulgaria	Bulgarian Declaration of Independence	September 22	1908	Ottoman Empire	Ferdinand of Bulgaria and the Government of Bulgaria	Russian Empire (5 February 1909)
Republic of Carpathian Ruthenia	Carpathian Ruthenia Declaration of Independence	October 25	2008	Ukraine	Congress of Carpathian Ruthenians
Catalonia	Declaration of the Catalan Republic as a state of the Iberian Federation	April 14	1931	Spain	Francesc Macià, Generalitat Government of Catalonia
Catalonia	Declaration of the Catalan state within the Federal Republic of Spain	October 6	1934	Spain	Lluis Companys, Generalitat Government of Catalonia
Central America	Central American declarations of independence	September 15	1821	Spain
Chile	Chilean Declaration of Independence	February 12	1818	Spain	National Congress	Portugal
Colombia	Colombian Declaration of Independence	July 20	1810	Spain
Croatia	Croatian Declaration of Independence	June 25	1991	Yugoslavia		Iceland
Dominican Republic	Dominican Declaration of Independence	February 27	1844	Haiti
East Timor	East Timorese declaration of independence	November 28	1975	Portugal		Morocco
Egypt	Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence	February 28	1922	United Kingdom	Unilateral grant of independence by the British government	United Kingdom
Estonia	Estonian Declaration of Independence	February 24	1918	Russia	Salvation Committee	Russian SFSR
Estonia	Estonian Reconfirmation of Independence	August 20	1991	Soviet Union	Congress of Estonia	Iceland (reconfirmed earlier recognition)
Finland	Finnish Declaration of Independence	December 6	1917	Russia	Parliament of Finland
Florida	Florida's Constitution of 1861	January 10	1861	United States	Florida Legislature
Georgia	Georgian declaration of independence	April 9	1991	Soviet Union		Germany
Georgia (U.S. state)	Georgia's secession declaration	January 29	1861	United States
Greece	Greek Declaration of Independence	January 1 OS	1822	Ottoman Empire	First National Assembly	Haiti (1822)
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		United States
Iraq	Iraq Declaration of Independence	October 3	1932	United Kingdom		United Kingdom
India	Indian speeches about independence	August 15	1947	United Kingdom
Indonesia	Proclamation of Indonesian Independence	August 17	1945	Netherlands	Sukarno & Mohammad Hatta	Egypt
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	Russian SFSR
Israel	Israeli Declaration of Independence	May 14	1948	United Kingdom	Jewish People's Council	United States
Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus	Northern Epirote Declaration of Independence	February 28	1914	Albania	Provisional Government of Northern Epirus
Katanga	Katangan Declaration of Independence		1960	Congo (Léopoldville)
Korea	Korean Declaration of Independence	March 1	1919	Japan
Republic of Kosovo	Kosovo Declaration of Independence	February 17	2008	Serbia
Republic of Lakotah	Republic of Lakotah declaration of independence	December 19	2007	United States of America	Lakota Freedom Delegation
Latvia	On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia	May 4	1990	Soviet Union	Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR	Iceland
Liberia	Liberian Declaration of Independence	July 16	1847	American Colonization Society	Liberian Constitutional Convention	United Kingdom
Lithuania	Act of Independence of Lithuania	February 16	1918	Germany, Russia	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
Republic of Macedonia	Independence of the Republic of Macedonia	September 8	1991	Yugoslavia		Bulgaria
Federation of Malaya (present day Malaysia)	Proclamation of Malayan Independence	August 31	1957	United Kingdom	Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaysia	United Kingdom[1]
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
Mexican Empire (present day Mexico)	Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire (real independence)	September 28	1821	Spain	Supreme Provisional Governmental Board	United Kingdom (January 4, 1825)[2]
Moldova	Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova	August 27	1991	Soviet Union	Parliament of the Republic of Moldova	Romania
Morocco	Moroccan Declaration of Independence	January 11	1944	France	Istiqlal Party
Montenegro	Montenegro declaration of independence	June 3	2006	Serbia and Montenegro	Assembly of the Republic of Montenegro	Iceland
Moskitia	Moskitia declaration of independence	August	2009	Nicaragua
Netherlands	Act of Abjuration	July 26	1581	Spanish Empire	Union of Utrecht
New Zealand	Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand	October 28	1835	—	Māori chiefs	United Kingdom[3]
Northern America (present day Mexico)	Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America	November 6	1813	Spain	Congress of Anáhuac
Turkish Republic of 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	Qarardad-e-Pakistan (Declaration of Independence)	August 14	1947	United Kingdom, British India	Pakistan Muslim League
Palestine	Palestinian Declaration of Independence	November 15	1988	Palestinian territories	Palestinian National Council	Arab League
Papua New Guinea	Independence Day	September 16	1975	Australia/United Kingdom	First Prime Minister: Michael Somare
Peru	Act of the Declaration of Independence of Peru	July 28	1821	Spain	José de San Martín
Philippines	Philippine Declaration of Independence	June 12	1898	Spain	Emilio Aguinaldo, Katipunan	United States
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	1877	Ottoman Empire	King Carol I
Russia	Belavezha Accords (de-facto) Officially never declared "independence", to become successor to the Soviet Union.	December 8	1991	Soviet Union	Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
Kingdom of Scotland	Declaration of Arbroath	April 6	1320	Kingdom of England	Scottish leaders
Serbia	The Proclamation (Proglašenije/Проглашеније)	February	1809	Ottoman Empire	Karađorđe Petrović and Serbian MPs
Singapore	Proclamation of Singapore[4]	August 9	1965	Malaysia[5][6]	Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore	United Kingdom (confirmed earlier recognition)[7]
Slovenia	Slovenian Declaration of Independence	June 25	1991	Yugoslavia		Croatia
Somaliland	Somaliland Declaration of Independence	May 18	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
Sri Lanka	Declaration of Independence of Sri Lanka (Then known as "Ceylon")	February 4	1948	United Kingdom		none
Texas, Republic of	Texas Declaration of Independence	March 2	1836	Mexico		France
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
Tibet	Tibet's Declaration of Independence		1913	China	13th Dalai Lama	none
Turkmenistan	Declaration of independence		1991	Soviet Union	none	Turkey
Ukraine	Declaration of Independence of Ukraine	August 24	1991	Soviet Union	Verkhovna Rada	Poland
United States	United States Declaration of Independence	July 4	1776	Great Britain	Second Continental Congress	Morocco[8]
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	Soviet Union
Lower Canada	Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada	February 22	1838	Great Britain	Robert Nelson	none

See also

• Florida and the Declaration of Independence
• List of countries by Independence Day
• List of countries by statehood
• List of sovereign states by formation date
  • List of European sovereign states by date of achieving sovereignty
• Separatism

References

1. ^ Federation of Malaya Independence Act 1957
2. ^ "Inglaterra: primer país que reconoce la Independencia de México" (in Spanish). Memoria Politica de México. http://www.memoriapoliticademexico.org/Efemerides/1/04011825.html. Retrieved September 18, 2011. 
3. ^ The Lord Glenelg (25 May 1836), "EXTRACT of a DESPATCH from Lord GLENELG to Major-General Sir RICHARD BOURKE, New South Wales", written at London, Documents > Declaration of Independence, Christchurch: Waitangi Associates, http://www.waitangi.co.nz/declarationindependence.htm#Extract, retrieved 22 May 2010 
4. ^ Singapore was forced out of Malaysia by the Malaysian parliament, and the proclamations were then agreed by the two governments. See the Independence of Singapore Agreement 1965 (1985 Rev. Ed.) and the Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
5. ^ Agreement relating to the separation of Singapore from Malaysia as an independent and sovereign state
6. ^ Agreement relating to the separation of Singapore from Malaysia as an independent and sovereign state/proclamation of singapore
7. ^ Singapore Act 1966
8. ^ Congressional Record. United States Congress. 20 June 2000. pp. 11461. http://books.google.com/books?id=cT1BOgQ2Ys8C&lpg=PA11461&dq=%22Whereas%20Morocco%20was%20the%20first%20country%20to%20recognize%20the%20independence%20of%20the%20United%20States%22&pg=PA11461#v=onepage&q=%22Whereas%20Morocco%20was%20the%20first%20country%20to%20recognize%20the%20independence%20of%20the%20United%20States%22&f=false. Retrieved 28 April 2011.