What was the Boston Tea Party?
The first tea exported from Asia to Europe was brought to Holland by the Dutch East India Company in about 1610. By 1650, tea had reached the new world, again with the help of the Dutch, who introduced the exotic medicinal beverage (and their customs of imbibing it) to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (later renamed New York after taken by the British). In 1767, Britain passed the Townshend Act, which set the tax on tea at 3 pence per pound. In 1773, the Tea Act appeared, which did not repeal the 3 pence tax, but allowed surplus tea to be imported directly to the colonies at a lower price. To the colonists, however, it was still “taxation without representation”. In Boston, three British ships in the harbor were prevented from unloading their cargo of tea. On the night of December 16, 1773, colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the ships, broke open over 300 chests of tea and proceded to dump the contents overboard. Similar “tea parties” ensued in other parts of the colonies. Fo
The first tea exported from Asia to Europe was brought to Holland by the Dutch East India Company in about 1610. By 1650, tea had reached the new world, again with the help of the Dutch, who introduced the exotic medicinal beverage (and their customs of imbibing it) to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (later renamed New York after taken by the British). In 1767, Britain passed the Townshend Act, which set the tax on tea at 3 pence per pound. In 1773, the Tea Act appeared, which did not repeal the 3 pence tax, but allowed surplus tea to be imported directly to the colonies at a lower price. To the colonists, however, it was still “taxation without representation”. In Boston, three British ships in the harbor were prevented from unloading their cargo of tea. On the night of December 16, 1773, colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the ships, broke open over 300 chests of tea and proceded to dump the contents overboard. Similar “tea parties” ensued in other parts of the colonies. Fo
