What protest took place in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773?

The Boston Tea Party took place in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.

Members of the Sons of Liberty boarded merchant ships and threw tea belonging to the East India Company into the harbor. They were protesting British taxation and Parliament’s attempt to regulate colonial commerce without colonial representation.

The Tea Act did not create a new tax on tea for colonists, but it allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly in the colonies while retaining an existing duty. Many colonists viewed the arrangement as a dangerous assertion of Parliament’s authority.

Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures punished Massachusetts and helped encourage colonial cooperation. The protest is distinct from the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which British soldiers killed five colonists during a confrontation.