The Coercion Acts, formally Protection of Person and Property Acts were Acts of Parliament to respond with force to popular discontent and disorder.

London

In December 1816, a mass meeting took place at Spa Fields

Spa Fields riots

The Spa Fields Riots were mass meetings that took place at Spa Fields, Islington, England on 15 November, 2 and 9 December 1816 between revolutionary Spenceans against the British government. The Spenceans had planned to encourage rioting at this meeting and then seize control of the British...

 near London due to the discontent of the sans-culottes

Sans-culottes

In the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were the radical militants of the lower classes, typically urban laborers. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars...

. The Coercion Act of 1817 was an act of Parliament

Act of Parliament

An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 that suspended Habeas Corpus

Habeas corpus

is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...

 and extended existing laws against seditious gatherings in Britain. The Coercion Act was the result of this mass meeting.

Ireland

The Protection of Person and Property Act 1881 was the first of over a hundred such Acts that aimed to supress the increasing discontent in Ireland with British rule. England was seen in Ireland as responsible for having turned the failures of the potato crop into the Great Famine and the loss of 20% of its population. The Irish National Land League

Irish National Land League

The Irish Land League was an Irish political organization of the late 19th century which sought to help poor tenant farmers. Its primary aim was to abolish landlordism in Ireland and enable tenant farmers to own the land they worked on...

 and the Fenian Brotherhood

Fenian Brotherhood

The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish republican organization founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. It was a precursor to Clan na Gael, a sister organization to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Members were commonly known as "Fenians"...

 were part of the disent in Ireland in the years from the Famine to the Irish War of Independence.