The committees of corresponence were bodies organized by the local governments of the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution for the purposes of coordinating written communication outside of the colony. These served an important role in the Revolution, by disseminating the colonial interpretation of British actions between the colonies and to foreign governments. The committees of correspondence rallied opposition on common causes and established plans for collective action, and so the group of committees was the beginning of what later became a formal political union among the colonies.