Both the statements are individually true, but statement II is not the correct explanation of statement I. The Coercive Acts, passed throughout 1774, were a series of laws that restricted trade and increased British control in Boston and the rest of Massachusetts. The Coercive Acts were designed to scare and silence the colonists, but they actually brought the colonies closer together and closer to outright rebellion. The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British government.