The Boston Tea Party refers to a political protest that took place on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated by British taxation without representation, disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded British ships. They proceeded to dump 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor as a defiance against the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies. This act of rebellion galvanized anti-British sentiments and contributed to the rising tensions that ultimately culminated in the American Revolution.