Independence

From Latin in- (not) + dependere (to hang from, depend on). Entered English in the 17th century. Its modern political meaning — a state's sovereignty from another — was cemented by the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and successive independence movements through the 19th and 20th centuries.

Designates the legal-political status of self-governance. Independence Day is celebrated in dozens of countries marking liberation from colonial rule. The word can mask actual conditions — formal political independence often coexists with economic dependence and foreign influence. Postcolonial scholarship has interrogated this gap.