a red building sitting next to a body of water

The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that took place on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts, during which American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing "taxation without representation," dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company, into the Atlantic Ocean. This event was a turning point in the American Revolution, as it fueled the colonists' desire for independence from Britain and paved the way for the Declaration of Independence in 1776.