dec 16, 1773 - Tea Act/ Boston Tea Party (event 8)

Description:

Colonists were boycotting British tea and were smuggling in tea from Holland. Because of this British tea companies were losing money in America. Parliament passed the Tea Act in order to save British tea merchants. The Act mandated that the East India Company be the exclusive tea sold to America.

Colonists were angered by the Tea Act because Parliament was yet again interfering by restricting the economy of the colonists. They saw this law as another means of "taxation without representation" because it meant that they couldn't buy tea from anyone else, including other colonial merchants, without spending a lot more money and essentially forced them to buy the “taxed tea” from Great Britain. Protests against the Tea Act took place throughout the colonies. This lead to the Boston Tea Party