What did the Declaration of Independence do?

Why this is the answer

The Declaration of Independence announced that the thirteen colonies were free from Great Britain. USCIS lists three ways to say it, announced our independence, declared our independence, or said that the United States is free, and they are interchangeable. Pick the wording that comes most naturally to you. The heart of the document is its last paragraph. There the Continental Congress declared that the united colonies were, and had the right to be, free and independent states, released from all allegiance to the British Crown, with every political tie to Great Britain dissolved. As independent states, the text says, they could make war and peace, form alliances and conduct trade, the powers any nation has. Before reaching that conclusion, the Declaration explains itself. Its opening says that respect for the opinions of mankind requires a people breaking away to state their reasons, and Thomas Jefferson, its author, did exactly that: he set out the idea that all people are created equal and hold rights no government can take away, then listed the colonists' complaints against the King of England. The argument rests on consent of the governed. A government is legitimate when people agree to it, and the British government had lost that claim by failing to respect the colonists' rights. Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, which is why the United States celebrates Independence Day on that date. With it, the thirteen colonies became the thirteen original states. Where applicants go wrong is crediting the Declaration with things it did not do. It did not set up the government or create the three branches; that came eleven years later with the Constitution. A helpful way to keep the two apart is by their verbs. The Declaration declared, a one-time act of separation, while the Constitution built the government that still runs the country.