The Boston Tea Party was prompted by colonial resistance to the Tea Act of 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonies, bypassing local merchants and imposing what many colonists viewed as unfair taxation without representation. The act angered colonists, who saw it as a violation of their rights. In protest, on December 16, 1773, American colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. This act of defiance escalated tensions between the colonies and British authorities, leading to the American Revolution.