The excerpt below from the Declaration of Independence describes the natural rights that all people have and the circumstances that justify people overthrowing their government. Answer both following questions in paragraph form. Support your ideas with facts from the unit. Be sure to answer in complete sentences.

Were the South American revolutionaries justified in fighting wars for independence?
How successful were the new nations in protecting individual rights?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . . life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government. . . . Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. . . . But when a long train of abuses . . . [shows an intent] to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."