Republicanism is a political ideology that supports the establishment of a republic, a form of representative democracy in which the people elect their leaders and demonstrate their popular sovereignty. Republicanism originated in Greece and Rome, but the fall of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC would ensure that republicanism would not be a major ideology during the Middle Ages, apart from some Italian and German merchant states. The Renaissance saw a rebirth of republicanism in Florence, Poland, and the Netherlands, and the American Revolutionary War and the US Declaration of Independence in 1776 would lead to a wave of republican revolutions that would occur over the course of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Republicanism was associated with liberalism in many of Europe's nations, as conservatives in Europe tended to support the status quo (in this case, a monarchy), but the United States, Mexico, and other republics in the Americas had liberal, conservative, and even reactionary political factions. By the 21st century, the vast majority of the world's nations were republics, forged through revolution and the sacrifice of the people for the sake of liberty, equality, and fraternity.