Quebec Act
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| Long title | An Act for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America. |
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| Citation | 14 Geo. III c. 83 |
| Territorial extent | |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 22 June 1774 |
| Commencement | 1774 |
| Repealed | 1791 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Constitutional Act 1791 |
| Relates to | Coercive acts |
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Status: Repealed
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Quebec Act of 1774 (French: Acte de Québec), 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. Canadiens varied in their reaction; the land-owning seigneurs and ecclesiastics for example were generally happy with its provisions.
In the Thirteen Colonies, the Quebec Act 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, which the American Patriots collectively termed the "Intolerable" or "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 also interpreted the Act as an "establishment" of Catholicism in the colony The Americans had fought hard in the French and Indian War, and they now saw the provisions given to the former enemy as an affront.
After the Seven Years' War, a victorious Great Britain and a defeated France formalized the peace with the 1763 Treaty of Paris. Under the terms of the treaty, the Kingdom of France ceded New France to Britain, choosing instead to keep the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique for their valuable sugar production. Canada (New France) was considered less valuable, as its only significant commercial product at the time was beaver pelts. The territory found along the St. Lawrence River, called Canada by the French, was renamed Quebec by the British, after its capital city. Non-military administration of the territories acquired by the British in the war was defined in the Royal Proclamation of 1763.
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