Independence is a condition of a person,
nation,
country, or
state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise
self-government, and usually
sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of a
dependent territory
A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency (sometimes referred as an external territory) is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state, yet remains politically outside the controlli ...
. The commemoration of the independence day of a country or nation celebrates when a country is free from all forms of foreign
colonialism; free to build a country or nation without any interference from other nations.
Definition of independence
Whether the attainment of independence is different from
revolution has long been contested, and has often been debated over the question of violence as
legitimate means to achieving sovereignty. In general, revolutions aim only to redistribute power with or without an element of emancipation,such as in
democratization
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a ful ...
''within'' a state, which as such may remain unaltered. For example, the
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...
(1910) chiefly refers to a multi-factional conflict that eventually led to a
new constitution; it has rarely been used to refer to the
armed struggle (1821) against Spain. However, some
wars of independence have been described as revolutions, such as the ones in the
United States (1783) and
Indonesia (1949), while some revolutions that were specifically about a change in the political structure have resulted in breakaway states.
Mongolia and
Finland, for example, gained their independence during the revolutions occurring in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
(1911) and
Russia (1917) respectively. Causes for a country or province wishing to seek independence are many, but most can be summed up as a feeling of inequality compared to the dominant power. The means can extend from intended peaceful demonstrations as in the case of
India (1947), to a
violent war
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...
as in the case of
Algeria (1962). In some cases, a country may also have declared independence, but may only be partially recognized by other countries; such as
Kosovo (2008), whose independence
Serbia, from which Kosovo has seceded, has
not recognized.
Distinction between independence and autonomy
''
Autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
'' refers to a kind of independence which has been granted by an overseeing
authority
In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''The N ...
that itself still retains ultimate authority over that territory (see
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories h ...
). A
protectorate refers to an autonomous region that depends upon a larger government for its protection as an autonomous region.
Right to independence
During the 20th century wave of
decolonization colonies gained rights to independence through documents such as the 1960
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, but this right remained mostly applicable only to unfree territorial entities, such as colonies.
How much these rights apply to all people has been a crucial point of discussion. The rights to
nationality and
self-determination
The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
allow clarification. The right of self-determination allows
self-governance
__NOTOC__
Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...
, as for example in the case of
indigenous peoples, but is not a right of secession, except in extreme cases of oppression as a remedy from the oppression.
Therefore the
right to secession is generally determined by the legislation of
sovereign states and independence by the capacity to be a state.
Declarations of independence
Sometimes, a state wishing to achieve independence from a dominating power will issue a
declaration of independence; the earliest surviving example is
Scotland's
Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, with the most recent example being
Azawad's declaration of independence in 2012. Declaring independence and attaining it, however, are quite different. A well-known successful example is the
U.S. Declaration of Independence issued in 1776. The dates of established independence (or, less commonly, the commencement of revolution), are typically celebrated as a national
holiday
A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...
known as an
independence Day
An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...
.
Historical overview
Historically, there have been four major periods of declaring independence:
* from the 1770s, beginning with the
American Revolutionary War through the 1830s, when the last royalist bastions fell at the close of the
Spanish American wars of independence;
* the immediate aftermath of the
First World War following the breakup of the
Ottoman,
Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
,
Russian,
German empires;
* 1945 to circa 1979, when seventy newly independent states emerged from the European
colonial empire
A colonial empire is a collective of territories (often called colonies), either contiguous with the imperial center or located overseas, settled by the population of a certain state and governed by that state.
Before the expansion of early mode ...
s and the collapse of the
Nazi German Reich and the
Empire of Japan;
[ David Armitage, ]
The Declaration of Independence in World Context
', Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad inc ...
, ''Magazine of History'', Volume 18, Issue 3, Pp. 61–66 (2004)
* and the early 1990s, following the breakup of the
Soviet Union,
Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia.
Continents
See also
*
Autarky
*
Domestic sourcing
Domestic sourcing is the activity of contracting for goods or services that are delivered or manufactured within the buyer's home country borders. Domestic sourcing is becoming central to the discussion of "Buy American" or the protectionist debat ...
*
Economic nationalism
*
Energy independence
*
Independence constitution
Independence constitution is the name commonly given by African political scientists to originating constitutions (many of which are extant) of former British colonies, primarily in Africa, which gained their independence approximately 1960-1990. ...
*
Independence referendum
*
List of national independence days
An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Many ...
*
List of sovereign states by date of formation
Below is a list of sovereign states with the dates of their formation (date of their independence or of their constitution), sorted by continent.
This list includes the List of sovereign states, 195 states which are currently full member states ...
*
Lists of active separatist movements
*
Secession
*
Special Committee on Decolonization
*
War of Independence
*
Unilateral declaration of independence
*
United Nations list of non-self-governing territories
*
Self Determination
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
{{Authority control
Political theories
Sovereignty
Decolonization