The Boston Tea Party, which occurred on December 16, 1773, was a political
protest by the American colonists against the British government. They protested the Tea
Act, which allowed the British East India Company to sell surplus tea in the American
colonies at a reduced tax, undermining local merchants. A group of colonists, disguised as
Native Americans, boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston
Harbor. This act escalated tensions between the colonies and Britain, leading to the
American Revolution.