Story Highlights
- Historical event
- 27 April 1773
- The unusual reason for the American War of Independence was the issue of import of tea. The new law, which was introduced by the British, favored the giant British East India Company, which had large stocks of tea in its London warehouses.
On this day the British Parliament passed a law that would cause a revolt among the population of the American colonies.
Specifically, according to that law, the American colonies were allowed to import tea only from the British East India Company.
The aim of this law was to favor the company and make the American colonists pay taxes to the British government. Namely, till that time the Americans were mainly importing tea from the Dutch, paying no taxes.
The British East India Company was a world giant, which owned almost half of India territory as private property (in the movies Pirates of the Caribbean the company plays a major role through the main villain Lord Cutler Beckett).
In its London warehouses, the company piled up huge stocks of tea. Placing these stocks on the U.S. market would bring them a huge profit.
However, residents of the American colonies refused to buy expensive taxed British tea. They dumped the tea that the British broughtinto the sea, in the famous event called “Boston Tea Party”.
The conflicts that emerged after this event eventually grew into the American War of Independence.
