The Quebec Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1774, significantly altered the political and territorial landscape of the province of Quebec. It expanded Quebec’s territory southward into the Ohio Valley, a region also claimed by the American colonies. Furthermore, it granted religious freedom to Roman Catholics and reinstated French civil law, while maintaining British criminal law. The act also established a government without a representative assembly.
This legislation is significant because it fueled tensions between Great Britain and its American colonies, contributing to the outbreak of the American Revolution. Colonists viewed it as a direct affront to their own territorial ambitions and representative governance. The expansion of Quebec’s boundaries was perceived as a threat to their westward expansion, and the toleration of Catholicism was seen as a sign of British support for “popery,” a deeply held anti-Catholic sentiment at the time. The absence of a representative assembly in Quebec further highlighted the differences in governance between Quebec and the increasingly self-governing American colonies.
