In this satirical cartoon of 1774, the ‘Intolerable Acts’ fan the flames ravaging Britain’s American colonies, while King George III looks on
At North American territory to a victorious Britain. The land was the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, France ceded its main renamed the Province of Quebec and, 11 years later, it would lead to the most extraordinary Act of Parliament of the eighteenth century.
Historians have characterised it as commonsense imperial policy, an example of liberal toleration, and a foolish provocation of other North American colonies at loggerheads with the British government. It was all these things and more. The 1774 Quebec Act helped realign Britain’s empire, and became (and remains) a cornerstone of the modern Canadian national identity.
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