The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773, helping set the stage for the revolutionary era celebrated by America250.
That night, colonists boarded ships in Boston Harbor and destroyed 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company. The protest opposed the Tea Act and the broader principle of taxation and political control without colonial representation.
The protest was not the American declaration of independence and did not begin the Revolutionary War. Instead, Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, which closed Boston Harbor and changed Massachusetts government. Those measures encouraged other colonies to cooperate.
The First Continental Congress met in 1774 partly in response to this escalating crisis. The battles of Lexington and Concord, which began open fighting, occurred later, on April 19, 1775.