What was the date of the Boston Tea Party and why?

Answer 1

The Boston Tea party occurred on December 16th, 1773, when a group of British colonists, in protest of the Tea Act, threw 342 chests of British Tea into Boston Harbor.

The Tea Act had been passed earlier that same year by British Parliament. It stated that the British government would pay 4/5 of the cost of the voyage for the tea to be shipped to America (the tea came from British India. The British East India Company was badly in need of revenue) so that they could sell the tea there for a lower cost than smuggled tea. The British then taxed the purchase of this tea in the colonies in order to pay for the 4/5 of the voyage.

This did, indeed, make the tea cheaper than the tea currently being sold in the colonies, but the colonists were simply angry at the fact that they were being taxed without representation. This anger was fueled by many taxes imposed by the British during the 1760's, which were originally levied to pay for the great cost the British suffered in the Seven Years' War against France. (The French and Indian War was part of the Seven Years' War.)

Previous to these wars, the colonies imposed their own taxes on themselves to go to the colony, and little tax was paid to Britain itself.