How Did The Boston Tea Party Affect America

Now as I mentioned before, England was up to its neck in debt from Dutch and British banks, and England didn’t have enough income to pay it off. So why not tax the colonies? After all the war happened because of the colonies and it was all on colonial soil. It would keep the British people happy and no one thought it would matter much taxing the colonies more strictly. So the first Act the British government put into place was the Sugar Act of 1764 which put stricter taxes on the molasses and sugars that were imported through the colonies. The funny part is that there was a tax originally of six cents per gallon on these goods, but now it was cut down to three cents. The only difference was now the tax was actually enforced instead of the colonists …show more content…
The real problem was that at this time in American history tea was as important a commodity to colonists as it was to the people of England and it felt like Britain wad over stepping it grounds. If England could tax something so important to society such as tea, then it set a standard that they could tax anything and no one could stop them. It was outrageous to the colonists and even to smugglers and tea merchants whose profits would lessen because of the cheaper tea given to them. This is way, as I mentioned before, the Boston tea party happened. The Boston tea party was essentially a bunch of radical revolutionaries dressed up as Indians that were so feed up with the Tea Act that at Boston harbor they dumped what would be today four-million dollars worth of tea into the harbor. It was at the time, the biggest act of direct defiance against the English government and a huge stepping stone in the revolution of the colonies. The Boston Tea party showed other colonists and even people today that you shouldn’t be afraid to stand up against unfair power and rules, and that even the smallest actions can make a difference. It was truly an iconic action that sparked bravery into the hearts of …show more content…
What truly angered the colonists was the lack of respect for their liberties that Britain had. Right after the French-Indian war there was the Treaty of Paris that restricted the colonist’s ability to settle further West which is an obvious lack of respect of their liberties. It would be like if you were a farmer and there was some of rich farm land right next to your property, but the government told you it’s not for you. These new taxes and laws put into place by the British government were pretty farfetched for some colonists because for almost a hundred years the different colonies had used their own legislature to make their own set of taxes and laws. A very common saying at the time which is still very applicable to modern day governments is “No taxation without representation”. It was obviously applicable at the time because officials in England were making decisions for the colonies’ taxes and laws, but none of them had actually ever been to the colonies or had the colonies best interests at heart. The colonies had none of their own politicians to represent them in parliament and this was problem since they had new taxes and reinforcements all around the colonies that almost everyone hated. As was already covered, the Sugar Act made it so that there was an actual enforcement of the tax. The reason this tax wasn’t enforced at first was