1776 · Charters, declarations and treaties

United States Declaration of Independence

United States

The statement by which the American colonies declared themselves independent, setting out the idea that people have equal, inalienable rights and that governments rule by consent.

Why it matters

Its language of natural rights was widely copied, including in France in 1789, and in many later declarations of independence.

Built on

1776

Virginia Declaration of Rights

Virginia (United States)

its opening echoes the language of rights in Mason's draft

Went on to shape

1789

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

France

followed the language of natural rights, with Jefferson's advice to Lafayette

Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 46 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.

Countries in the Legal Families Atlas

United States

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.