On December 16 1773, the incident we now know as ‘The Boston Tea Party‘ occurred.

This was a protest against the East India Company’s recently legalised trade monopoly and the tax on tea. It was carried out by furious American patriots in Boston Harbor, who, dressing themselves as Mohawk Indians, stormed East India Company vessels and threw more than three hundred chests of tea into the freezing waters.

This famous incident followed the passing of the Tea Act in the British Parliament in London, earlier in 1773. This was designed to aid the supposedly struggling East India Company at the British colonies’ expense — an act which was to have severe and momentous consequences in the long term.

Copyright Francis 2020