The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to collectively punish Massachusetts colonists for the actions of those protesting the Tea Act, a tax measure enacted by Parliament in May 1773, by dumping tea into Boston harbor. In Great Britain and the American colonies at the time, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. The term Intolerable Acts did not arise until the 19th century. Many Massachusetts colonists considered them a "virtual declaration of war" by the British government. They were a key development leading to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.