The Boston Tea Party was a campaign by the Boston sons of liberty against the British tax policy and the India Company that controlled the importation of tea. On December 1773, some colonists boarded and demolished the tea after Boston officials declined returning the taxed shiploads of tea (Burgan 23).
The Tea party was termination of a resistance progress in British America against the Tea Act that the British government had passed in 1773. Colonists rejected the Tea Act since they thought that it desecrated the Englishmen rights to taxation. Protesters successfully prohibited those who unloaded the taxed tea in other colonies. In Boston, Thomas Hutchinson, the governor objected the movement of tea to Britain (National History Day 11).
The Boston Tea Party was chief incident in the American Revolution. In 1774, Parliament created coercive acts that terminated Boston’s business and the self-government in Massachusetts. The colonists responded by creating additional protest acts and summoning a continental congress that implored the British Monarch to retract the protest acts. This resulted to a crisis that brought the American war in 1775 (National History Day 11).
Two issues led to the Boston Tea Party. One issue is the British East Indian Company had financial constrains, and there was a continuous dispute regarding the authority of the parliament against the British American colonies. The North ministry tried to resolve the challenges (National History Day 11).
While the Europeans promoted drinking of tea, other people established competing companies that got tea from China. In England, East India Company (EIC) was a monopoly of tea importation in 1698. When tea got popular in the British colonies, parliament eradicated competition from foreigners by creating the 1721 act that obligated the colonists to get tea from Great Britain. The EIC (East India Company) did not sell its tea to the colonies (Kroll, Steven, and Peter 26). EIC had to sell its tea as a wholesale at England Auctions. British companies bought the tea and sold to the colonies, where it was resold to New York, Charleston, Boston and Philadelphia merchants.
In 1767, the EIC (East India Company) paid a tax that amounted to 25 percent tea sold in Great Britain. Parliament had to impose extra taxes on the tea sold in Britain. The extravagant taxes meant that British Americans and Britons could purchase tea that was smuggled in Germany at a lower cost. The company that represented the market with the highest illegal sale of tea was England (Doeden et al. 17). In the 1970s, the EIC lost almost 400, 000 pounds to British smugglers. Additionally, the Dutch tea had significant quantities of tea smuggling.
In 1767, Parliament passed an act of Indemnity to assist the EIC in competing with the tea smuggled by the Dutch. This act reduced the tax on tea that the British consumed and offered the EIC a twenty five percent duty refund on the re-exported tea (Edwards, Pamela and Henry 53). To assist in reducing the loss, the Parliament made the Act of the Townshend Revenue that imposed new taxes to the colonies. This act did not solve the problem; rather it brought controversies regarding the tax rights to colonies.
When the Parliament decided to tax the colonies directly, there were numerous controversies amongst the colonies and Great Britain. Some colonists were against the new taxation saying that it violated the constitution of Great Britain (Kroll, Steven, and Peter 26). However, the Parliament insisted that it had all the right to make laws on the colonies. Later in 1770, the Parliament made a response to the protesters by cancelling the Townshend taxes. This terminated the 1770 non-importation campaign.
Works Cited
Burgan, Michael. The Boston Tea Party. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2000. Internet
resource.
Doeden, Matt, Charles Barnett, and Dave Hoover. The Boston Tea Party. Mankato, Minn:
Capstone Press, 2005. Print.
Edwards, Pamela D, and Henry Cole. Boston Tea Party. New York: Putnam, 2001.
Print.
Kroll, Steven, and Peter M. Fiore. The Boston Tea Party. New York: Holiday House, 1998.
Print.
Labaree, Benjamin W. The Boston Tea Party. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1979.
Print.
National History Day. Transforming Your Classroom with National History Day. Web. January
2013.
Available at:
< http://www.nhd.org/>
Burgan, Michael. The Boston Tea Party. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2000. Internet
resource.
With this resource, I gained information about the colonists and their reasons for destroying the tea in Boston. The colonists were angered by the British officials since the British officials refused to return the tax shiploads of tea.
Doeden, Matt, Charles Barnett, and Dave Hoover. The Boston Tea Party. Mankato, Minn:
Capstone Press, 2005. Print.
This resource gave me information regarding the significance of the Boston tea party. The Boston tea party was a highly significant event in the history of America. The parliament had to pass several laws regarding the Boston Tea Party.
Edwards, Pamela D, and Henry Cole. Boston Tea Party. New York: Putnam, 2001.
Print.
I was able to get the idea behind the commencement of the Boston Tea Party. There were two critical reasons. The first reasons was that East Indian Company was facing financial constrains. The second reason was that there was a dispute in the parliamentary authority.
Kroll, Steven, and Peter M. Fiore. The Boston Tea Party. New York: Holiday House, 1998.
Print.
I got information that Tea was a highly popular drink in Europe. The popularity of tea made the parliament to pass acts to reduce competition from foreign companies. This resource was easily accessible.
Labaree, Benjamin W. The Boston Tea Party. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1979.
Print.
This is a website that has information about American national history. The website has got links to different historical events. I got a lot of significant information about the Boston Tea Party from this website.
National History Day. Transforming Your Classroom with National History Day. Web. January
2013.
Available at:
< http://www.nhd.org/>
This is an internet resource that gave me information about the East India Company (EIC). I also got information about the Boston sons of liberty, and why they had to campaign. This resource was easily accessible since it is online.
