Why Did the Boston Tea Party Happen - Free Essay Example

Will before that question is answered we first have to ask what made the colonists angry of the fact that tea is now being taxed along with other taxes that they didnt want. The colonist saw that they had to pay taxes on tea was unfair for them because of the cause of the French and Indian war. Another fact was parliament also taxed them to control the colonies overall power. This is the main reason why the colonists got angry but there is more to the fact that parliament is now taxing for other reasons that the colonists may not have agreed with when they first arrived. When the war of France and England happened King George III wanted to pay off the large debt that they have accumulated with taxing the colonies and England itself. He decided to put taxes on tea and convinced that people would rather not give up drinking tea. The tea was also a way for England to control the colonies and make sure that their allegiance belonged with their home continent. Soon after the sugar act was passed and made several items taxed. The Prime Minister wanted to add a direct tax on the colonists in order to raise revenue instead of taxing them at ports. The stamp act was another outrage that colonists did not like that they thought was unfair for them to have because of the distance of where they are from England and never agreed on having taxes set on them. What the stamp act was supposed to do was have an official seal in order to sent off to England and sent those taxes directly to the crown but was eventually repealed. Soon after the sons of liberty formed in order to boycott with violence and looting in order to stop the parliament from taxing without their consent. By 1767 the Townshend act was passed which replaced to the stamp act with imported goods being taxed instead of getting an official seal. This did not fix the problems that colonists had and only made things worse. In turn, the parliament fixed the overpriced tea in the colonies creating a monopoly with replacing it on taxing them at the ports bu t still did not fix how they had to pay for such money. When the Indemnity act was passed; they lowered the tax on tea but the colonists still protested knowing this only because they didnt want to pay any kind of tax placed on them without their consent. Taxes on tea were never removed for the colonists so what they did was smuggle in tea from other areas for a cheaper price. John Hancock was involved with the smuggling as well and made profits for his efforts. The Sons of liberty also made violence making for British troops to be involved and deployed at Boston, this only made matters worse creating a huge problem called the Boston Massacre. The name may seem as if there was a huge massacre but only left three injured and five died the only reason this was a huge problem was that this was the start to the Boston Tea Party. The colonists were angry at the fact that the Boston Massacre happened and nothing changed with the Townshend act. What Britain later decided on was to drop the price on tea until the prices on smuggled tea were more expensive and made those who gained profit to not worry about saving and continue to buy tea for the colonies right to taxation without representation. Colonist on Philadelphia and New York refused to accept boats stop at seaports and at Charleston officials seized all tea because the people became out of control. The Inde mnity Act has expired by the year of 1772 leaving the Townshend Act to continue with taxing. Even though the East India Company was failing they continued to import higher-priced tea; Parlament didnt give up regarding their rights to tax the colonies. The Boston Tea Party soon got closer with the biggest shipment to arrive at the ports of Boston on the date November 29, 1773. Thomas Hutchinson, the royal governor forced the ships to dock at the ports of Griffen Wharf he did not let any colonist make the ships go back to England. Due to boycotting the workers refused to unload the ship despite the payment they would get for doing so. The colonists decided to hold a meeting on December the sixteen about the consideration of expediting the landing of the tea. Governor Hutchinson was appointed to show up at the meeting by five pm in order to request him to inform the people what it would take to satisfy them on the object of the meeting. He promised to answer the townsfolk by that time but when that time came up he was nowhere to be seen so they closed the meeting. At that night over a hundred people including the Sons of Liberty disguised as Indians just like how the soldiers of the French and Indian war armed with hatchets, axes, and pistols waiting to sneak onboard the ship. There were three ships with tea so in order for them to take over they had to split each other into three different groups. No knew each other so in order for them to lead each other several men were in charge of the attack. Upon boarding the conspirators where in strict orders not cause any harm so they demanded the captain for the keys to the hatch to be able to access the cargo of tea. Once that happened the men threw all the tea that they could carry overboard the ship. Some of the men tried to steal bottles of tea but the Sons of Liberty were around to catch them, some got away with it some did not and no harm was caused. Over a hundred thousand pounds of tea worth $1.5 million in todays economy was wasted and became known as the Boston Tea Party.