The fourth intolerable Act, a replica of the Quartering Act, which was abolished, permitted the requisition of unoccupied buildings to house British troops. The Intolerable Acts ( ), also known as Coercive Acts, evoked a wave of outrage in colonies. Quebec Act The Quebec Act passed by the British government in awarded the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the province of Quebec. The colonial governments of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia were angered by the unilateral assignment of the Ohio lands to Quebec, which had been granted to them in their royal charters.
By permitting French Civil Law and the Roman Catholic religion in the newly carved out area, Britain also provoked the protestant colonies. The Intolerable Acts of became the justification for convening the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The representatives of all the colonies, except that of Georgia, demanded the repeal of the Intolerable Acts. The Congress decided to boycott the British goods until then.
They sent a representation with an olive branch (peace proposal) to the British King George III. This was known as the Olive Branch Petition. The king however refused to buy peace. Outbreak of War In the meantime, in , at Lexington in Massachusetts, farmers fought the British and then marched on Boston to besiege the British garrison at Bunker Hill.
On July , all the thirteen colonies declared independence from Britain. The declaration of independence was essentially the work of Thomas Jefferson which marked the beginning of the history of an independent country called the United States of America. Thomas Jefferson Exchequer in Britain, brought this act into force and hence came to be called Townshend Act. Boston Massacre ( ) In , Lord North, the new prime minister of England, abolished taxes on products except tea.
This was retained to assert that the British Parliament had a right to tax the colonies directly as well as indirectly. When the British forces marched on the streets of Boston, Americans criticised the British. This angered the British forces who fired against the people. This Boston Massacre brought to light the