At first Great Britain owned the 13 colonies The British government forced many taxes and laws onto the colonists Colonists thought these taxes and laws were unfair They wanted to be their own country They fought the British This war was called the American Revolution It was fought from 1775 to 1783 The American colonists won They became the United States of America The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16 1773 It was an important event It led to the war The British government needed money It had fought in wars It tried to make money by taxing the colonists It passed the Tea Act It did this in 1773 4 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
FLasH FaCT Colonists fought against the Stamp Act Vocabulary colonies KAH-luh-neez areas controlled by another country colonists KAH-luh-nists people who live in colonies revolution rev-uh-LOO-shuhn an overthrow of a government act AKT law 5
FLasH FaCT The colonists dumped enough tea to fill 18 8 million tea bags Vocabulary protested PROH-test-id objected strongly to something liberty LIB-ur-tee freedom docked DOKD anchored a ship near land 6
The Tea Act forced colonists to buy tea only from the East India Company This meant that Boston’s tea sellers wouldn’t make any money Colonists also had to pay taxes They were upset They didn’t like laws being passed without their say They refused to obey the law They protested Some colonist leaders formed the Sons of Liberty This is a group that fought for freedom Three ships docked in Boston They had 90,000 pounds 40,823 kilograms of tea Colonists dressed up like Native Americans They got on board the ships They chopped open 342 boxes of tea They threw the tea into the water This took about 3 hours This event became known as the Boston Tea Party 7
