DECLARATION OF

INDEPENDENCE

Valerio Senigagliesi Brizi 4ACL

 HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE
After the shocking events that took place in the
Seven Years War, England by increasing taxes in the
various colonies caused great discontent, mainly in
the American colonies, where they felt betrayed by
the motherland.
Since the settlers had fought with the British during
the war and expected an award for their sacrifices
in the war, instead they found some additions in the
taxes that made trade very difficult and for this they
started some small rebellions.

Until the great Boston tea party rebellion, which

occurred on Thursday December 16, 1773, in
Boston harbor, in response to the continuing tax
hike, promoted by the UK government.
After a period of tension, the real event that
triggered the revolution and brought the British
armed forces to American soil was the
stipulation of the declaration of independence,
during the night of July 4 1776 in the
Philadelphia Congress Hall, to which all the
American colonies accepted.
 CREATORS AND CONTENT

The statement was written by the so-called

Commission of Five, made up of Thomas
Jefferson, who was the principal editor of
the first draft, then John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger
Sherman.
Although two days earlier, on Tuesday 2
July, the Second Continental Congress had
voted to approve the resolution of
independence proposed by Richard Henry
Lee.
The document was formally ratified on
hemp paper on the evening of Thursday 4
July 1776 in the congress hall of
Philadelphia.
In the following days five hundred
delegates of the second continental
congress, called Founding Fathers, to put
their signature next to that of the
politician John Hancock, the first signer of
the charter.
 TEXT

It can be divided into three parts: a

declaration of principles relating to
human rights and the legitimacy of the
revolution, a list of specific substantiated
allegations against King George III of
England, and a formal declaration of
independence.
In the first part there are some references to
the Enlightenment and natural law principles,
including the reference to "natural and divine
law" and to the principle of equality: "All men
were created equal", and immediately after the
reference to "inalienable rights" ". Reference is
also made to the right of the people to rebel
against established authority theorized by
Locke: "it is the right of the people to modify
or destroy it".
The second part is composed of accusations
made against King George III of England, in
which his inconsistency of administration of
the colonies is exposed, in fact after a very
bloody war one could expect from the king a
merit for the service given, but he beyond not
to do so, he raised his taxes, making a real
betrayal of his people and in fact the events
that occurred which were considered
unacceptable by the settlers and which caused
the war of independence are exposed.
In the final part we find the intentions of the
settlers, who declare their independence, and
expose the wrongs suffered by the motherland
and affirm united, in front of the Supreme
Judge of the Universe, their independence
from the British crown and the liberation from
any political and economic duty towards
England and its king.
 REBEL COLONY
Discussion about Algerian war for independence
 ANCIENT TENSIONS
France in 1830 conquered the largest country
in the Arab world, snatched from the
centennial possession of the Ottomans and
maintained its influence until after the Second
World War, where about 9 million natives and
about a million "Frenchmen of Algeria”, called
pieds-noirs.
Paris in fact considered Algeria as “own
home“, so much that formalize the union of the
country to the French territory. Soon after,
however, a vast crisis against domination
erupted, and involved to the creation of many
independence movements, like the Front de
Libération Nationale (FLN)
 CASUS BELLI

The casus belli of the war is a series of revolts

that took place in November 1, 1954, the day in
which there were a series of attacks against the
French leadership in the territory, but some
civilians were also subjected for a total of ten
deaths, these attacks were animated by the
Algerian independence sentiment and later
France responded strongly.
 DIRTY WAR

France in 1956 after having arrested many

commanders of the FLN, including Ahmed Ben
Bella, the main promoter of the revolution,
implemented a strategy to contain the revolt
that we can define as a dirty war, given that
shortly before they had lost the colonies in
Indochina the government of Paris absolutely
did not want to lose even this great territory
rich in large oil fields.
And this led to an increase in ALN guerrilla
operations and a strong French response.
France responded with violent roundups,
frequent use of torture and countless rapes
against Algerian women, and many settlers
created militias for the sole purpose of finding
and capturing the rebels. General Jacques
Massu supervise the repression, which hit the
bases of the FLN with various terrorist attacks,
and in the February 8 1958 Massu bombed a
base camp of ALN killed 70 person, mostly
civilians and numerous children.
He also built barriers along the border with
Morocco and Tunisia - from where support for
the rebels continued to come - and
concentrated millions of Algerians in rural
areas in "grouping camps", under close
surveillance.
 THE NEW REPUBLIC

After this series of tensions and the increase of

revolts and in addition a coup d'état in Algiers,
France summoned the only person capable of
putting an end to the conflict, Charles de
Gaulle, the hero of the French resistance
against Nazism. In fact he created the new
French republic in the October 8,1958, giving
life to the fifth republic (today's one).
In this new republic de Gaulle granted new
electoral rights but it was not enough for the
FLN rioters, and after they established a
provisional government in Tunis.
With de Gaulle the course of the wars was
very different, in fact, despite the effectiveness
of the French military campaigns, the
international community increased the
opposition to the conflict, both for the large
number of soldiers involved (more than
400,000) and for the revelations on torture,
both for the belief that European colonialism
had come to an end and that peoples had the
right to choose their own destiny.
In fact, after some strong protests in 1960 and a
coup d'etat made by the OAS (Organization de
l'Armée Secréte), or colonial extremists, who
tried to make a putsch in 1961 which soon
ended with an intervention on live television
by de Gaulle, putting an end to the putsch.
 FREEDOM

Soon the French representatives tried to

negotiate with the representatives of the FLN
and on March 18, 1962, in the French town of
Evian-les-Bains, they signed a peace treaty,
and the war, after having claimed almost a
million victims (especially Algerian) was over.
Later a referendum was held on April 8, 1962
in France and confirmed by a vote on July 1,
1962 in Algeria sanctioned the country's
independence. Later the pieds-noirs returned
to their homeland and the following year Ben
Bella was proclaimed the first president of the
newly formed Republic of Algeria.
The declaration of independence was made on
July 3 and was celebrated on July 5 to
commemorate the French colonial conquest of
1830
This is the text of the referendum which
asked for the approval of the people for
the independence of their country.

"Do you want Algeria to become an

independent state cooperating with
France under the conditions defined by
the declarations of March 19, 1962?”

"99.72% of the votes cast in favor of "Yes".

The July 1 referendum is a plebiscite and
the turnout is 91.88% of those registered.
Mohand ou-Lhocine’s, famous Algerian poet declared this sentence:
• “Ikecm-ed Urumi di ṣṣif
Ad iffeɣ s essif
Di ṣṣif
Qbel lexrif”

• «I Francesi sono arrivati d'estate e ripartiranno con la forza, d'estate senza attendere
l'autunno»

• “The French arrived in the summer and will leave again by force, in the summer
without waiting for the autumn”.

• "Les Français sont arrivés l'été et repartiront de force, l'été sans attendre l'automne"

and 60 years after his death his prophecy it happened.

 SIMILARITIES OF THE EVENTS

I wanted to talk about this chapter of modern

history because it reminded me of what
happened in America during the 1700s, that is
a colony that is betrayed and that tries to
obtain freedom, in fact we can find various
similarities in both events, from repression
English towards the Americans and the French
towards the Algerians and the revolutionary
movements characterized by the sole
objective of obtaining peace and freedom
from the oppressor, a battle between David
and Goliath revived in a modern key.
I chose this event also because the ideals of
freedom of the people and the decision of a
people to have a government chosen by the
people who make up that state, are unwittingly
underlined the ideologies of Locke and the
Enlightenment that inspired the struggle for
independence. American also of Algerian
independence and of many other nations
oppressed by states that oppress and rob the
territorial assets of the populations.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://archives.ecpad.fr/lindependance-algerienne-juillet-1962-a-travers-les-archives-de-
lecpad/
http://archives.ecpad.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Independance_algerie.pdf

https://www.infoaut.org/storia-di-classe/5-luglio-1962-lindipendenza-dellalgeria
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_luglio_(Algeria)
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_di_giacimenti_petroliferi

https://app.nimia.com/video/1276765/206691094-algerian-war-charles-de-gaulle-speech-fr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGmNxCVj26o
( ho utilizzato per le informazioni riguardo alla guerra algerina principalmente un libro di Focus
Storia in cui si trattava di quest’evento)

(per i discorsi mi sono aiutato con il dizionario, spero di non aver fatto errori ☺ )