Self-determination

Self-determination is the principle that a people should choose its political status and determine its collective future, including whether to form, join, or leave a state.

Peace of Westphalia: The 1648 settlements that ended major European wars and reinforced a system of territorially sovereign states. The state-centered order formed after 1648 shaped later debates about who holds political authority.
United Nations Charter: The 1945 treaty that established the United Nations and set out its purposes and institutional framework. It names equal rights and self-determination of peoples among the UN's foundational purposes.
Indian Independence Movement: The political struggle that ended British rule in India and produced independent India and Pakistan in 1947. It joined anti-colonial self-government to partition, whose consequences remain contested.
Territorial Integrity: The principle that a state's territory and political independence should be protected from external force. It can conflict with claims to external self-determination that would redraw state borders.
American Revolution: The colonial rebellion that created the United States between 1775 and 1783. Its claim to independence made popular consent a model for later national movements.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: A 1966 treaty that protects civil and political rights and binds its parties under international law. Its common Article 1 declares that all peoples have the right of self-determination.
Algerian War: The 1954–1962 conflict in which Algerian nationalists fought French rule and secured independence. It demonstrates how a colonial self-determination claim became a protracted armed struggle.
Popular Sovereignty: The principle that a government's legitimacy derives from the people it governs. It concerns the source of political authority, while self-determination concerns a people's collective political status.
French Revolution: The political upheaval that overthrew France's monarchy and transformed its institutions beginning in 1789. Its doctrine of national sovereignty linked political authority to a people rather than a dynasty.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514: A 1960 UN resolution declaring the necessity of ending colonialism and affirming peoples' right to independence. It translated the principle into a clear international demand for colonial independence.

Linked from 110 pages