The Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated by British taxation without representation, specifically objected to the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies. In response, a group of colonists, disguised as Native Americans, boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This act of defiance escalated tensions between Britain and the colonies, contributing to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. It symbolized colonial resistance to British oppression.