Intolerable Acts
Also known as the Coercive Acts, these acts were passed in 1774. Together they closed the port of Boston, reduced colonial self-government, permitted royal officers to be tried in other colonies or in England, and provided for the quartering of troops in the colonists' barns and empty houses. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for the Boston Tea Party, but the colonists saw these acts as a violation of the rights of Massachusetts.