Quebec Act

The Quebec Act of 1774, formally known as the British North America (Quebec) Act 1774, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 14 Geo. III c. 83) setting procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec. The Act's principal components were:

The 1774 Act had wide-ranging effects, in Quebec itself, as well as in the Thirteen Colonies. In Quebec, English-speaking immigrants from Britain and the southern colonies objected to a variety of its provisions, which they saw as a removal of certain political freedoms. French Canadians varied in their reaction; the land-owning seigniors and ecclesiastics were generally happy with its provisions although the populace resented their loss of liberties.

In the Thirteen Colonies, the Quebec Act, which had been passed in the same session of Parliament as a number of other acts designed as punishment for the Boston Tea Party and other protests, was passed along with the other Intolerable Acts, also known as the Coercive Acts. The provisions of the Quebec Act were seen by the colonists as a new model for British colonial administration, which would strip the colonies of their elected assemblies. It seemed to void the land claims of the colonies by granting most of the Ohio Country to the province of Quebec. The Americans were especially angry that the Act established Catholicism as the state religion in Quebec. The Americans had fought hard in the French and Indian War, and now they were angry that the losers (the French in Quebec) were given all the rewards including western lands claimed by the 13 colonies.

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