What 1773 protest in Boston Harbor helped spark the American Revolution?

The Boston Tea Party was the 1773 protest in Boston Harbor that helped spark the American Revolution.

On December 16, 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty boarded ships and threw East India Company tea into Boston Harbor. The protest opposed Parliament’s Tea Act and the broader principle of taxation without colonial representation.

The Tea Act did not simply raise the retail price of tea. It allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonies, while retaining a tax that Parliament had imposed. Many colonists saw the arrangement as an attempt to make acceptance of parliamentary taxation unavoidable.

Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures restricted Massachusetts self-government and closed Boston Harbor until compensation was made. The resulting crisis helped unite colonial resistance and preceded the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. The protest is sometimes confused with the Boston Massacre, which occurred in 1770 and involved soldiers firing on a crowd.