<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Intolerable Acts were the American Patriots' term for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party . They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance of throwing a large tea shipment into Boston Harbor in reaction to changes in taxation by the British to the detriment of Colonial goods . In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts . </P> <P> The acts took away Massachusetts' self - government and historic rights, triggering outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies . They were key developments in the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775 . </P>

Laws passed by parliament to punish the colonists for the boston tea party