On 16 December 1773 a group of American colonists, protesting the British Parliament’s Tea Act passed earlier that year, boarded three British tea ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston harbour. The Tea Act had given the British East India Company both a tax discount and virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. Many Americans saw this as another example of British tyranny.
The American separatists had been disguised as Mohawk Indians when they carried out the protest. The British government responded with the Intolerable Acts, which led to further American resistance and escalating conflict. This would result in the Declaration of Independence of July 1776 and the outbreak of war.
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