Until this great work is completed, our dominion is little more than a geographical expression - Sir John A. Macdonald

Travel through the eras of  history and the development of the various nations that make up Canada today.

Royal Proclamation | Quebec Act | American Revolution | Loyalists | Attack on Quebec

 

The Quebec Act which was passed by the British Parliament on June 22, 1774 had major implications for the 13 colonies and the future of British North America. The immediate provisions of the act allowed Roman Catholic participation in daily social and civil affaires. A test oath in the act did not include religious issues, religious freedom was guaranteed, the seigneurial system was maintained, French civil law was accepted in the colony of Quebec and the territories of Quebec were vastly expanded.

The new territories of Quebec included the Ile d'Anticosti, Iles de la Madeleine,  Labrador and the Indian territory between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to the south of the Great Lakes. This was area was where the inhabitants of the13 colonies were looking to expand into. This led the 13 colonies to include the Quebec Act in their list of "Intolerable Acts" which eventually helped led those colonies to revolution against Britain. Edmund Burke felt that this act would help maintain Quebec as a British colony with increased loyalty to King George rather then continue to look back to the old days of French rule.