The incident that has been termed the Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773, when government officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed-imposed tea to Britain. A group of colonists boarded the ships in disguise and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor (BTPHS). The Tea Act of 1773 essentially allowed one of Britain’s greatest commercial interests of the day, The East India Company, a monopoly over tea imports to all British colonies. Due to increased competition from the Dutch and the already high tax the Crown placed on tea, the East India Company had a surplus of tea. The solution that King George III and Parliament came up with was to force this tea on the colony (Knollenberg 93). Basically, a captive market was created for British products by the British Government. There was fear amongst the colonists that this could extend to products other than tea. The colonists’ actions and the government reaction widened an already growing chasm between Crown and colonists (Larabee 106).…