The timing on the next pair of decisions is almost funny.

As previously noted, in the beginning of February 1775, Parliament in England had lost patience with the pesky colonials in Boston and had declared them to be in open rebellion. A ship bearing this decision set sail for America, and would arrive in Massachusetts sometime in early April, which would empower Royal Governor Thomas Gage to arrest rebels, confiscate materials, and shoot anyone suspicious on sight.

But Parliament wasn’t done. News had recently arrived in London that the colonies had organized a Continental Congress back in October – see how long it takes for news to cross the Atlantic Ocean? – and that the Americans had agreed to a trade boycott of all British goods in America. Their goal was to get Parliament’s attention, have it address American grievances, and perhaps repeal the hated Intolerable Acts.

They got Parliament’s attention alright, and Parliament was not amused. Folks in London long suspected that the boycott and the whole American situation was being led by Massachusetts, and was limited to the northern colonies. So on March 30, 1775, they issued the “New England Restraining Act,” which would limit New England’s trade to only Great Britain and no other nations as of July 1, and bar New England fishing boats from the productive waters of the North Atlantic as of July 20.

But then, in early April, evidence was piling up that all the American colonies had joined the boycott. So Parliament doubled down and re-issued their decision to cover all the colonies, as the new-and-improved, all-encompassing, more universally nasty “Restraining Act.” So there!

Parliament must have thought this get-tough strategy would bring Massachusetts, and the rest of the American colonies, back into line. Unfortunately, while the ship bearing the news of the Restraining Act is slowly bobbing its way across the Atlantic, something will happen in April, in the fields of two villages just west of Boston, that will be heard around the world, and that will change everything.