How did the Declaration of Independence affect American history?

The Declaration of Independence is the document that declared our freedom from the crown, and stated the we were separating from Great Britain and creating our own country. This created a need for a document to guide this new country. The Articles of Confederation preceded The Constitution, but gave so much power to the individual states that it became as if we were actually 13 separate countries, each colony having their own currency, laws, taxes, etc. This created the need for a more centralized federal government and from this need our Constitution was born and adopted on September 17, 1787. At 225 years old it is the oldest document that governs a nation to this day.