Tea Party Key Event in Revolutionary War

We have already cited in these blogs the fact that tea has played an important role in historical events. The Boston Tea Party is another example of this.

According to Wikipedia, the Boston Tea Party was a direct act of civil disobedience against the British government and played a key event in the development of the American Revolution. On December 16, 1773, in response to the British government's decision to raise the taxes on tea imported by the British East India Company, a group of colonists boarded ships carrying tea and destroyed it by throwing it into the Boston Harbor.

Colonists objected to taxes on tea for a variety of reasons. In particular, Americans felt it to be unconstitutional because they believed it violated their right to be taxed only by their elected representatives.

After the Boston Tea Party, British Parliament responded by introducing the Coercive Acts of 1774, which among other things closed Boston's Harbor to commerce until the British East India Company had been compensated for the destroyed tea. American colonists responded by committing additional acts of protest and by convening the First Continental Congress. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.