The "Boston Tea Party" was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated by British taxation without representation, especially the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales, organized the protest. Disguised as Mohawk Indians, they boarded three British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor as a direct challenge to British rule. This act of defiance fueled tensions between Britain and the colonies, ultimately contributing to the American Revolutionary War and embodying the spirit of resistance among the colonists.