History
17
The Boston Tea Party grew out of mounting colonial anger as people in the American colonies, who considered themselves British subjects entitled to the same rights and privileges as those in England, faced laws, regulations, monopolies, and taxes imposed by England without representation in Parliament. After the Seven Years War, known to Americans as the French and Indian War, Britain sought help from the colonists to cover the staggering cost of keeping 10,000 troops stationed in North America, a policy backed by Prime Minister George Greenville. In 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act to replace the largely evaded Molasses Act of 1733, extending taxes to molasses and other products while enforcing them more strictly, and new trade regulations further disrupted the colonial economy by requiring certain goods to be exported only to Britain. Resistance arose not only from economic hardship but also from constitutional principles, as colonists questioned whether taxation without legal representation reduced them from subjects to tributary slaves.
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Boston, Massachusetts · United States
