Question

What was the unintended effect of the British handling of the Gaspée incident in the American colonies in 1773?

Answer 1

Answer:

The unintended effect was that semiofficial links formed among the colonial governments.

Explanation:

The Gaspée incident was one of the key acts of defiance against British authority that would eventually lead to the American Revolution. The Gaspée was a British cutter that was in pursuit of a smuggling ship when it ran aground in shallow water. Rhode Islanders boarded the vessel and attacked the crew and burned it in Narragansett Bay. Despite concerted British efforts to bring the culprits to justice, the raiding party was never punished. It is an example of the way the colonists were growing tired of British restrictions and taxes and how England was trying to reassert its authority and impose tax burdens on the colonies in these tumultuous times, in part to help finance the wars it was engaged in with other European powers like France.