Answer: They united the colonies in their fight against the British.
Following the Boston Tea Party (1773), the British monarchy enacted four punitive laws (The Coercive Acts) that aimed at restoring order in Massachusetts and punish colonists for the protest.
As expected, the thirteen American colonies opposed the measures and they decided to meet in their First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to Parliament’s Coercive Acts. The colonies wanted to put a stop to the Crown's abuses and preserve their rights and at the same time, they wanted to reassurance their loyalty to the Crown. However, the British King did not stop their abuses and kept on imposing hard measures, which inevitably angered them even more, and the colonies started to unite in their fight against the British, which eventually led to the American Revolution.