In an attempt to help the East India Company, the British Parliament significantly lowered the tax paid on this trading company's tea, thus giving it a monopoly in the American market.

The new low tax enabled the East India Company's ships to undercut even those smuggling tea into the new country.

This was seen in the colonies as a tyrannical rule from abroad and, when three British tea ships arrived in Boston Harbour (The Dartmouth, The Eleanor, and The Beaver) they were boarded (on 16th December) by members of the Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawk Indians who proceeded to dump the tea chests into the sea.

As retaliation for this act of aggression (and other acts of destruction against British property), the British Parliament then passed the 'Coercive Acts' which imposed military rule in Massachusetts.