The attempt to resolve these issues by the North Ministry resulted in a revolution. (The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence (2001), Library of America, 880pp) During the 17th century, the Europeans acquired a taste for tea which rival companies were created to import the tea from China. The Parliament in England, gave the East India Company the control of the importation of the tea in 1968. The Tea became very popular in the British colonies which caused the Parliament to remove foreign competition by passing a Tea Act in 1721 which required that colonies to import their tea from Great Britain and nowhere else. By law, the East India Company did not export the tea to the colonies.
In 1773 was the dumping of tea in the Boston Harbor and in June of 1774 the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, were created which frustrated the colonists. The way the English had so much rule over them was one of the main reasons why they wanted to declare independence. The battle at Lexington and Concord was April 19, 1775 with the formation of the Second Continental Congress being in 1775. John Dickinson, the author of the document, was a delegate in both the First and Second Continental Congress. He was an esteemed writer who helped Thomas Jefferson write a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, and also wrote Olive Branch Petition, an appeal to King George III to resolve the dispute.
In the early 1770s, the patriot movement was slowly gaining steam in the colonies. People like Samuel Adams were looking for ways to bolster the movement and resist what they saw as English tyranny. The Boston Non-Importation Agreement — in which area merchants pledged not to buy certain goods from Great Britain, including tea — had collapsed. Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson, whose salary as Governor was augmented by bribes for allowing the smuggling of tea in addition to the British Parliament-imposed tax on tea, wanted to capitalize on the tea business even more. Estimates at the time indicated Americans consumed between 3 million and 6.5 million pounds of tea each year.
The Boston Tea Party happened in 1773. It all started when the British decided to start taxing the colonists in many ways, including a tea tax, as a way to get back their war costs. The colonists refused to pay some of these taxes and therefore England had to retract the taxes; all the taxes were taken back except for the tea tax. Parliament decided to get their tea from somewhere else rather than from where their tea was being taxed. This plan, however, backfired when the ships at the harbor were to have their tea goods sent to a warehouse where it was stored for three years.
The Colonists thought if they complained loudly enough that Parliament would get rid of the taxes. But any taxes Parliament repealed were soon reinstated with other taxes or duties. England was trying to raise money to pay for the French-Indian war and was heavily taxing the Colonists. Things got really bad when the British taxed the favorite drink of the Colonist’s, tea. Tea was really popular at that time, kind of like coffee is today.
Reason being, is because the British army was not need. They have already defeated the French and pushed the Indians far west, so the colonists would be paying for protection against nothing. Agents for tea cancelled the orders of tea because of the tax, but still there was ships that came into harbor and they demanded that the colonists pay for all this tea, with the tax. On December 16th, 1773, a group of people dressed like Indians and boarded the ships with tea and threw all the tea over board into the water. This act is now famously known as the Boston Tea Party.
When they won the French and Indian War, England had to make a few reforms. King George III declared the Proclamation of 1763, which forbid American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains in an effort the stabilize relations with the Native Americans. However this angered many colonists who had land grants there and in turn, the Proclamation Line was ignored. This was the start of a series of disagreements between the two lands, as the American citizens began to gain a stronger taste for independence. Enlightenment writers such as John Locke, who patented the idea that it
The Boston Tea Party The liberation of America was not based on one specific event, but the accumulation of many significant events that lead to the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party was a political protest against the British government and East Indian Company that took place in Boston, Massachusetts on December 16, 1773. American patriots disguised themselves as a Native American tribe called the “Mohawk,” and boarded a ship belonging to the British East Indian Company, dumping 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. Many say it was an act of vandalism and disrespect, but in reality it was one of the many stepping-stones that led to the American Revolution. The event that started as a revolt against the tax policy on tea became an iconic event in American history and led to major tension between the Americans and Europeans.
Although communication between the King’s representatives and the Crown was slow Britain did react forcefully to the colonist rebellious actions. The Boston Tea Party was considered one of the earliest rebellious actions taken against the Crown. In 1767 the British government enacted the Indemnity Act, which did not last long and was replaced by the Townshend Act. The Townshend Act placed taxes on lead, glass, paper and tea. The most signification of which was the tax on tea; because the colonist drank approximately 1.2 million pounds of tea each year.
The colonists believed that they should have separate laws from Britain because they are not directly represented in parliament. When the colonists continued to disobey the new laws, Britain enforced a harsher set of laws, known as the intolerable acts, to show the colonies that Britain was angry for the Boston Tea Party. This further angered the colonists and caused them to rethink the idea of a rebellion. The colonies as well violated the rights they were fighting for, by