Most children are taught in school that America fought a revolutionary war to free itself from Great Britain and while on the surface that might seem correct, it wasn't the correct perspective at that time, as we can discern from the reading of our Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence is America's seminal document, as it was this document that our Founding Fathers risked their lives, their honor, and their fortunes upon, to which, defeat for any or all of these men, would mean ruin, or death. At the time of our declaration, Great Britain was the superpower, the sole empire of the world, to which the sun never set upon its vast territories, and it was this country that the colonists had the audacity to rise up against.
Jefferson's appeal in our declaration to the opinions of mankind was absolutely sincere, and this appeal was not for revolution, but for the dissolving of our political bands as well as a formal separation from this great empire. Further to this point, Jefferson went above the divine right of the king, a right which presupposed that the king's right to rule his subjects came via the will of God, to turn that on its head by stating that all men are first created equal, and are subsequently equally endowed with unalienable rights gifted to us by Nature's God, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Jefferson went on to say that to secure these rights; governments are instituted amongst men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that when such a form of government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. Jefferson then went on to list the usurpations and injuries suffered by the people by the tyranny of the present king, unjustly ruling over the colonists. Jefferson wanted the world to know that the colonists were the ones' wronged and further to the point, Jefferson wanted the world to know that our unalienable rights came not from kings or government, but by our Creator, and those that would subvert or take away such rights had no legitimacy or right to rule. This meant that our declaration of independence, set forth to the world at large, was a carefully crafted instrument that laid out the unalienable rights of men in which their natural state was life, liberty, and happiness to which governments are instituted amongst men by the consent of these same men to secure those basic civil rights.
The colonists wished to be independent from Great Britain, because Great Britain had demonstrated repeatedly that they were destructive to the unalienable liberties of the colonists, in addition to the fact that Great Britain had demonstrated over a lengthy period of time that they were intractable in such behavior towards the colonists. This meant that in order to be free from the chains of such oppression and tyranny, that the colonists would have to unite and to fight against the empire of Great Britain, and our Declaration of Independence as signed by the fifty-six signatories to it, was a commitment that these men would, if necessary, sacrifice all so as to become an independent nation or die trying.
Our Declaration of Independence meant war with Great Britain, and the fundamental purpose of that document, was to declare the legitimacy of the colonists position as opposed to the tyranny represented by Great Britain, and the signatories appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world, was an appeal that justice, liberty, and truth would be the foundational blocks forged in the birth of this great new nation.