What was the purpose of the Olive Branch Petition?
a) to restore trade between England and the colonies
b) to inform the colonists of Hessian troops coming
c) to the colonies to explain
d) to the king and Parliament why the colonists were fighting the English in Boston

The correct answer is A. The purpose of the Olive Branch Petition was to restore trade between England and the colonies.

Explanation:

The Olive Branch Petition of July 5, 1775 was a final appeal by the Second Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies to King George III of Britain to change the economic and tax policies of the British motherland towards the colonies.

From the 1760s onwards, the British king had tried to draw more income from the colonies due to growing public debt. This led to economic hardship and resentment among the colonists. They believed that only their colonial parliaments, but not the British Parliament, could tax them ("No taxation without representation"). Since the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, disagreements have escalated into open violent conflict; at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 there had already been skirmishes between militias of the rebels and the British colonial army.

The petition emphasized that the signatories' intention was to "avoid further bloodshed" and "avert impending misfortune threatening the British Empire". There was continued loyalty to the king, to whom a ceasefire was proposed until the colonial problems with the "mother country" were resolved.

the authority to tax.

answer; taking up arms to defend the nation;