The Boston Tea Party: An Event Caused by Tea

When we talk about ‘British’ culture, it is impossible not to think of “drinking tea”. Yet these tea leaves were one of the key sparks that led to the “American Revolution”, the beginning of a country that would later become a great power…
.
First, some background. In the 18th century, North America was still divided into colonies of European powers such as Britain, France and Spain. War later broke out between Britain and France, and in the end Britain won and took over all of France’s colonial territory. So almost all of North America came under British colonial rule.
.
However, the problems from the war that had just ended, plus the control of more colonial territory, left Britain in serious financial trouble. As a result, Britain set up measures to collect taxes from the colonies to help ease the burden of the British Empire’s expenses.
.
This made the colonists begin to feel unhappy, and even more so when Britain passed the “Stamp Act”, which required printed matter in the colonies, along with all sorts of items such as legal documents, newspapers, magazines, certificates and even playing cards, to carry a tax stamp (wow, how sweet of them).
.
However, Britain later repealed this act to ease the tension between the colonies and the empire.
.
But within just a few years, Britain still had not given up trying to tax the colonies, and passed the “Townshend Acts”, which taxed imported goods such as glass, lead paper, paint and tea leaves. The colonists were unhappy and resisted by boycotting all of the taxed imports, and once again Britain gave in and repealed the taxes on imported goods.
.
But the tax on “tea leaves” was still kept. This showed the colonies that Britain still held power over all of them. As a result, American merchants smuggled in tea from Dutch merchants to sell instead, which made things even worse for the East India Company, already in financial trouble from the earlier boycott.
.
So Britain countered by passing the “Tea Act”, to help the East India Company import tea without paying additional taxes to Britain, making tea cheaper and allowing it to be sold to the colonies in full.
.
But the game seemed to turn, because this Tea Act favoured only the East India Company’s trading agents. It was a trade restriction, and it also undercut the American merchants who sold tea bought from Dutch merchants.
.
This event angered the American colonists, especially the merchants. But this time the resistance was different from before, because the “Sons of Liberty”, a group that opposed Britain’s violations of taxation and defended the rights of those living in the colonies, took part in the protest.
.
About 50 of them disguised themselves as Native Americans, secretly boarded three British ships docked at Boston Harbour, and opened the chests and poured all of the tea, about 340 chests or roughly 46 tons of tea leaves, into the sea to float away with the water. This became the event many people know as the “Boston Tea Party”, which does not mean a party at all…
.
The British were furious over this and issued the “Coercive Acts”, which the colonists called the “Intolerable Acts”, revoking the colonial charter of Massachusetts and closing Boston Harbour until all damages were repaid to Britain.
.
Britain’s response made the American colonists resist ever more fiercely, leading to the “American Revolution” in 1775…

#TWCRerun #TWCHistory #TWCEngland #TWCAmerica