The Coercive Acts were a series of punitive laws that were passed by the British Parliament in 1774 to punish the American Colonies after the Boston Tea Party. The Acts were both an effect of colonial actions and a cause of colonial action.
They were an effect because the British Parliament passed them as a retaliation for the Boston Tea Party as a way to punish and shut the rebels of the American Colonies. The Act also became a cause of colonial action because after they were imposed the thirteen colonies became even more rebelled which eventually triggered the American Revolutionary War.