Advanced Placement US History (AP US History) Practice Exam

The incident where colonists dumped a shipment of tea into Boston Harbor is known as the Boston Tea Party. This act of defiance occurred on December 16, 1773, and was a response to the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies and imposed taxes that the colonists opposed. The Boston Tea Party was significant because it symbolized colonial resistance to British taxation without representation and helped galvanize colonial opposition to British rule, ultimately leading to the American Revolution.

While the Tea Act was the catalyst for the event, it was the act of rebellion itself—dumping the tea into the harbor—that established the Boston Tea Party as a pivotal moment in American history. The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws passed afterward in response to the Boston Tea Party, and the Currency Act regulated colonial currency but was not directly related to this event. Understanding the Boston Tea Party within the broader context of colonial dissatisfaction and resistance helps highlight its importance in the path toward independence.