What was the name of the December 1773 protest in Boston Harbor against British tea policies?

The December 1773 protest in Boston Harbor against British tea policies was the Boston Tea Party.

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

The Tea Act actually enabled the East India Company to sell tea more cheaply in the colonies, but it preserved the controversial Townshend duty and granted the company a powerful trading advantage. Many colonists feared accepting the tea would acknowledge Parliament’s authority to tax them.

The British government answered with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures restricted Massachusetts self-government and closed Boston’s port, helping unite colonial resistance before the Revolutionary War. The event was initially called “The Destruction of the Tea”; the familiar name became popular later.