The major protest against British taxation in 1773 was the Boston Tea Party. This event was a direct response to the Tea Act imposed by the British Parliament, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, angering colonists who saw it as yet another example of taxation without representation. On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists, disguised as Native Americans, boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This act of defiance escalated tensions between Britain and the American colonies, ultimately contributing to the American Revolution.