Intolerable Acts, also called Coercive Acts, (1774), in U.S. colonial history, four punitive measures enacted by the British Parliament in retaliation for acts of colonial defiance, together with the Quebec Act establishing a new administration for the territory ceded to Britain after the French and Indian War (1754–63).
The cumulative effect of the reports of colonial resistance to British rule during the winter of 1773–74 was to make Parliament more determined than ever to assert its authority in America. The main force of its actions fell on Boston, which seemed to be the centre of colonial hostility. Angered by the Boston Tea Party (1773), the British government passed the Boston Port Bill, closing that city’s harbour until restitution was made for the destroyed tea. Second, the Massachusetts Government Act abrogated the colony’s charter of 1691, reducing it to the level of a crown colony, substituting a military government under Gen. Thomas Gage, and forbidding town meetings without approval.
The third, the Administration of Justice Act, was aimed at protecting British officials charged with capital offenses during law enforcement by allowing them to go to England or another colony for trial. The fourth Coercive Act included new arrangements for housing British troops in occupied American dwellings, thus reviving the indignation that surrounded the earlier Quartering Act, which had been allowed to expire in 1770. Passed on June 2, 1774, the new Quartering Act applied to all of British America and gave colonial governors the right to requisition unoccupied buildings to house British troops. However, in Massachusetts the British troops were forced to remain camped on the Boston Common until the following November because the Boston patriots refused to allow workmen to repair the vacant buildings General Gage had obtained for quarters.
The Quebec Act, under consideration since 1773, removed all the territory and fur trade between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from possible colonial jurisdiction and awarded it to the province of Quebec. By establishing French civil law and the Roman Catholic religion in the coveted area, Britain acted liberally toward Quebec’s settlers but raised the spectre of popery before the mainly Protestant colonies to Canada’s south.
The Intolerable Acts represented an attempt to reimpose strict British control over the American colonies, but, after 10 years of vacillation, the decision to be firm had come too late. Rather than cowing Massachusetts and separating it from the other colonies, the oppressive measures became the justification for convening the First Continental Congress later in 1774.
Learn More in these related articles:
More about Intolerable Acts
- opposition of Concord (in Concord (Massachusetts, United States))
- response to Boston Tea Party (in Boston Tea Party) (in United States: Constitutional differences with Britain)
- support by Dartmouth (in William Legge, 2nd earl of Dartmouth)
- Adams (in Samuel Adams: Commitment to American independence)
- Continental Congress (in Continental Congress)
- Suffolk Resolves (in Suffolk Resolves)
External Links
Britannica Web sites
Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Intolerable Acts - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
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AdvertisementThe Intolerable Acts (also called the Coercive Acts) were harsh laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774. They were meant to punish the American colonists for the Boston Tea Party and other protests. Like the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, the Intolerable Acts pushed the colonists toward war with Great Britain.
- Intolerable Acts - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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Four punitive measures on the American colonies enacted by British Parliament in the spring of 1774 were the Intolerable Acts, also called the Coercive Acts. The British government was responding to the rebellious behavior of the colonists who participated in the Boston Tea Party. On Dec. 16, 1773, a group of Bostonians threw 342 chests of tea from British ships into Boston Harbor to retaliate against a tea tax imposed by Parliament.
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