The Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, the Townshend Acts and the Intolerable Acts are four acts that contributed to the tensions and unrest between settlers that eventually led to the American Revolution. Their objection was that not all Bostonians were involved in this Tea Party. So there was no reason for the British government to try to punish everyone in this way. Unfortunately for England and King George III, the plan backfired, as Burke had suggested. Instead, the colonies became more united by their common hatred of the British, calling the new laws “Intolerable Acts.” After years of actions to control settlers who aspired to freedom and sovereignty, the Intolerable Acts continued to strengthen the zeal of the settlers and eventually led to the “shot heard throughout the world.” The Intolerable Acts were five acts passed by the British Parliament against American settlers in 1774: Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Administration of Justice Act, Quartering Act and Quebec Act. These acts were intended to punish the settlers for the Boston Tea Party, where a group of settlers threw hundreds of boxes of British tea into Boston Harbor to protest the British Parliament`s tax hike. Intolerable Acts, also known as coercive Acts, (1774), in the colonial history of the United States, four punitive measures adopted by the British Parliament in retaliation for colonial contempt, as well as the Quebec Act, which established a new administration for the region ceded to Great Britain after the French and Indian War (1754-63). The leaders of the 13 colonies feared that the law would lead to religious clashes in the coming decades. The Intolerable Acts of 1774 – Committees of Correspondence The communication network in the colonies, operated by the Committees of Correspondence, had been established to warn each other against British actions and future plans such as the Intolerable Acts, which harmed colonial America. This system allowed the colonies to plan a plan of action and colonial resistance. The colonies were able to unite against the British government and the provisions of the Intolerable Laws. In response to colonial resistance to British rule in the winter of 1773-74, Parliament was determined to restore its authority in America and passed four laws known as coercive laws in Britain, but described by the colonists as intolerable laws. As Boston had been the center of the resistance, the acts were directed in particular against Boston and Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts Government Act sparked even more outrage than the Port Act because it unilaterally stripped Massachusetts of the charter and placed it under the control of the British government. According to the provisions of government law, almost all positions in the colonial government must be appointed by the governor, parliament or king. The law also severely limited Massachusetts city conventions to one per year, unless the governor requested one. Settlers outside Massachusetts feared that their governments would now be changed by the legislature`s legislative fiat. They believed that if the perpetrator was taken to another location, the person who would become a victim of this crime would not receive justice. The cumulative effect 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 their actions fell on Boston, which seemed to be the center of colonial hostility. First, the British government, angered by the Boston Tea Party (1773), passed the Boston Port Bill, which closed the port of that city until the destroyed tea was compensated. Second, the Massachusetts Government Act repealed the Colonial Charter of 1691, reduced it to the status of a Crown colony, replaced the elected city council with an appointee, expanded the powers of the military governor, General Thomas Gage, and prohibited town hall meetings without permission. Third, the Administration of Justice Act was intended to protect British officials accused of capital crimes during prosecution by allowing them to travel to England or another colony for trial.
The intolerable fourth act included new provisions for the placement of British troops in occupied American homes, reviving outrage over the old Quartering Act, which was allowed to expire in 1770. The new Quartering Act, passed on 2 June 1774, applied to all of British America and gave colonial governors the right to requisition uninhabited buildings to house British troops. In Massachusetts, however, British troops were forced to camp on Boston Common until the following November because the Boston Patriots refused to allow workers to repair vacant buildings that General Feee had received for their quarters. Coercive laws, dubbed the intolerable laws by American settlers, were passed by Parliament in 1774 in response to colonial resistance to British rule. The four laws were (1) the Boston Port Bill, which closed Boston Harbor; (2) the Massachusetts Government Act, which replaced the elected local government with a government of appointment and expanded the powers of the military governor; (3) the Administration of Justice Act, which allowed British officials accused of crimes punishable by death to be tried in another colony or in England; and (4) the Quartering Act, which allowed for the confiscation of unoccupied buildings to house British troops.
