What 1773 protest involved colonists dumping tea into Boston Harbor?

The 1773 protest involving colonists dumping tea into Boston Harbor was the Boston Tea Party.

On December 16, 1773, members of Boston’s Sons of Liberty boarded ships carrying East India Company tea and threw 340 or 342 chests into the harbor. The protest opposed the Tea Act and Parliament’s authority to tax the colonies without colonial representation.

The Tea Act actually lowered the legal price of tea, but it allowed the East India Company to sell directly in the colonies while retaining a tax. Protesters saw this as accepting Parliament’s right to tax them. Some participants disguised themselves as Mohawks, although the event was organized by colonial activists rather than Native Americans.

Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures intensified resistance and helped create the political crisis that led to the American Revolutionary War. The Boston Tea Party is therefore an important prelude to the independence celebrated by America250.