Americans are celebrating a major anniversary this year.
Not because Columbus discovered America in 1492, or because the famous Civil War brought an end to slavery in 1865.
It is because the American Declaration of Independence was signed on 4 July 1776, making the United States an independent nation.
The declaration took time to complete. Its sentences were refined, its wording repeatedly revised, and the text was sent back and forth between the the founding fathers before it was finalised.
And this is where one of the most famous passages in American history took its final form: '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, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.'
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"This was the first time in history that the word happiness was given such a central place in the founding of a new nation," says Terje Joranger. He is a professor of history at the University of Inland Norway.
But did the concept of happiness mean the same thing in 1776 as it does today? And what actually happened 250 years ago, when the United States became an independent country?
High taxes and no right to vote
Along the eastern coast of the vast North American continent lay 13 colonies in a row.
They were governed by the British. Although the population was a diverse mix of Germans, Dutch, Scots, Irish, Swedes, Britons, enslaved Africans, and Indigenous peoples, they still had to obey the British king.
“They had to pay taxes to the king, and those taxes kept increasing, especially after the Seven Years’ War, which had taken place a few years earlier. This created discontentment,” Joranger tells Science Norway.
At the same time, they had no right to vote.
“They had no representation in the British Parliament and their voices were not heard,” says Joranger.
This led to the War of Independence, in which people from the colonies fought to break away from England.
The conflict, also known as the American Revolution, lasted from 1775 to 1783.
All 13 colonies were located along the east coast of North America.(Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Rejecting the king
The Declaration of Independence was written during the first year of the war.
It completely rejected monarchy as a form of government.
“The founding fathers were inspired by European philosophers such as Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Locke,” Joranger explains.
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They championed reason, science, and liberty over tradition and religion. These ideals reflected the spirit of the Enlightenment that was sweeping across Europe at the time.
"The American founders put into practice what European philosophers had been discussing for a long time," says Joranger.
They sought to rid themselves of King George III and establish a nation without a monarch as its head of state.
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Here he is portrayed in a painting by Rembrandt Peale from 1800.(Painting: Rembrandt Peale / Wikimedia Commons)
France vs. Britain
But not everyone wanted to break with the British monarchy. Many remained loyal to Great Britain, and a number of them fled to Canada. To this day, Canada remains a constitutional monarchy which the British monarch as its head of state.
The French, on the other hand, sided with the colonists. They formed an alliance in 1778, and together they fought against the British forces.
"That created a strong bond between France and the USA," says Joranger.
The Spanish and the Dutch did the same.
"As a result, the conflict became both a struggle among Europe's great powers and a colonial war fought across several continents," says Joranger.
Indigenous peoples were also drawn into the war, but they were divided. Most allied themselves with the British, while others fought alongside or cooperated with the colonists.
The right to life, liberty, and property
In the spring of 1776, well before the war had been won, the American founders came together to work out how the new nation should govern itself once British rule had ended.
Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers, wrote most of the Declaration of Independence.
He was inspired by the English philosopher John Locke, who argued that every individual possesses natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
He also drew on the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was written the same year. It stated that people possessed natural rights such as life, liberty, and property.
But the word property does not appear in the Declaration of Independence.
Terje Joranger is an expert on American history and has, among other things, researched the Norwegians who emigrated to the USA in the 19th century.(Photo: Marte Dæhlen)
“That was probably because Thomas Jefferson wanted to include all free Americans in a possible war effort against the British,” says Joranger.
Any call to military service would also have needed to include people who owned no property, and there were many of those.
Jefferson replaced the word property with happiness, or the pursuit of happiness. But what did he actually mean by that?
Carlin N. Conklin is an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri. She has written an entire book about the word happiness in the Declaration of Independence.
Conklin argues that, in the 18th century, happiness was not understood simply as personal or emotional well-being, as it often is today.
Instead, it was more about duties and rights.
'To live in harmony with “the law of nature and of nature’s God” as it was phrased in the Declaration, was to fulfill one’s end, the purpose for which one was created. The result was human well-being in the classical sense of eudaimonia,' she writes in an essay.
This meant that private rights and public responsibility were inseperable.
She further writes that the pursuit of happiness therefore referred to security, rights, and society's ability to enable people to flourish.
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, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Declaration of Independence (1776)
Not everyone was included
The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal and possess fundamental, inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"The idea that the new states should guarantee their citizens these unique rights was unprecedented," says Joranger.
But who, exactly, counted as citizens at the time?
"We have to remember that Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner," the historian says.
Everyone who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence belonged to a social elite. Most were Protestant men of British descent.
They were not Catholics, Indigenous peoples, African Americans, or women.
Joranger explains that there was a clear social hierarchy in the new states. At the top were Anglo-Americans, those who originally came from Great Britain. Then came Germans, followed by Scandinavians, Eastern and Southern Europeans, Asians, Indigenous peoples, African Americans, and finally Latin Americans.
"The rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness didn't seem to apply to everyone," says Joranger.
Joranger in front of the Amerikalinjen hotel in Oslo.(Photo: Marte Dæhlen)
Property and religious freedom
Following independence, the United States became a powerful draw for Europeans seeking the opportunity to pursue their own happiness.
That included Norwegians.
"The Revolution created a new system that provided opportunities to at least part of the population," says Joranger.
Norwegians were drawn to the United States by the prospect of land ownership and religious freedom.
The Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 during the War of Independence. The painting is from 1786.(Painting: John Trumbull / Public Domain)
To mark the 250th anniversary, Americans reenacted the Battle of Bunker Hill in Gloucester, Massachusetts.(Photo: Charles Krupa / AP / NTB)
Were any Norwegians involved in the war?
The first Norwegians arrived in the United States in 1825, several decades after the War of Independence.
"But we do know that there were Norwegian sailors who signed on to American ships before then," says Joranger.
No one knows for certain whether any of them took part in the war.
"But it certainly isn't impossible," says Joranger.
Historians also know that tens of thousands of Norwegians emigrated to the Netherlands during the 17th and 18th centuries.
"Between the 1620s and the 1670s, we know of a number of Norwegian-born individuals who crossed the Atlantic with the Dutch to their North American colonies. They may have had descendants who later fought for American independence," says Joranger.
The Declaration of Independence vs. Donald Trump
Joranger believes it's important to view the Declaration of Independence and the emerging democracy it helped create in light of current developments in the United States.
"What has democracy actually achieved?" he asks. "It's now being reversed, even though they have the same system of government."
Joranger points to how the current president has challenged freedom of speech, the electoral system, and the courts in the USA.
"These are rights that were established with the drafting of the US Constitution in 1787 and the subsequent constitutional amendments," he says.
This is also what lies behind the ‘No Kings’ demonstrations that began in 2025. Americans protested against what they perceived as an authoritarian turn in American politics after Trump came to power.
In other words, they did not want to return to the time before the War of Independence, when America was ruled by a king.
"It's crucial to examine how the current administration is rolling back freedoms for certain groups in society in light of the rights that generations have fought to secure," says Joranger.
