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What events led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773?

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Neatly planted rows of green tea bushes stretch across rolling fields with Mount Fuji, capped with snow, rising in the background in Japan. — tea Rows of tea (*Camellia sinensis*) growing in Japan, with Mount Fuji in the background.

The Boston Tea Party was primarily driven by colonial opposition to "taxation without representation" and the perceived monopoly granted to the British East India Company.1

The conflict originated with the Townshend Acts of 1767, which imposed duties on various imports, including tea. Although most duties were repealed in 1770, Parliament retained the tax on tea to assert its right to raise colonial revenue without local approval.12

Tensions escalated in 1773 when Parliament passed the Tea Act. This legislation aimed to assist the financially struggling East India Company by granting it a monopoly on tea exports to the colonies and allowing it to bypass independent merchants. By underselling local competitors, the act threatened the livelihoods of colonial traders and deepened political resentment.1

When royal governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow tea-laden ships to leave Boston Harbor without paying the required duties, the Sons of Liberty took direct action on December 16, 1773, destroying the cargo to protest these policies.1