The Boston Tea Party took place in 1773 as a protest against British taxation and colonial trade policies.
On December 16, 1773, colonists in Boston boarded three ships and threw 342 chests of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor. The protest targeted the Tea Act, which allowed the financially troubled company to sell tea directly to the colonies while retaining a tax that many colonists rejected.
The demonstrators objected to taxation without colonial representation in Parliament and feared that the Tea Act would let the East India Company gain a monopoly. The event was organized by resistance groups including the Sons of Liberty. Participants tried to avoid damaging other cargo and reportedly cleaned spilled tea from the ships.
Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. Those measures punished Massachusetts and intensified conflict between Britain and the colonies. The Boston Tea Party therefore became an important immediate cause of the crisis that led to armed fighting in 1775.