Why did Parliament pass the Coercive Acts in 1774?

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Figure false: Tossing the Tea
Figure false: This colored engraving appeared in an English book published in 1789 recounting the history of North America from its earliest settlement to “becoming united, free, and independent states.” This event was not dubbed the “Tea Party” until the 1830s, when a later generation celebrated the illegal destruction of the tea and made heroes out of the few surviving participants, by then in their eighties and nineties. Library of Congress.

CHRONOLOGY

1770

  • – Parliament repeals Townshend duties.

1772

  • – British navy ship Gaspée is burned.
  • – Committees of correspondence begin forming.

1773

  • – Parliament passes Tea Act.
  • – Tea is dumped in Boston harbor.

1774

  • – Parliament passes Coercive Acts.
  • – Powder Alarm shows colonists' readiness.
  • – First Continental Congress meets.

IN THE SAME WEEK as the Boston Massacre, yet another new British prime minister, Frederick North, acknowledged the harmful impact of the boycott on trade and recommended repeal of the Townshend duties. Seeking peace with the colonies and prosperity for British merchants, Lord North persuaded Parliament to remove all the duties except the tax on tea, kept as a symbol of Parliament's power. For nearly two years following repeal of the Townshend duties, peace seemed possible, but tense incidents in 1772, followed by a renewed struggle over the tea tax in 1773, precipitated a full-scale crisis in the summer and fall of 1774. In response, men from nearly all the colonies came together in a special “Continental Congress” to debate the crisis.