<P> The Boston Tea Party was a political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston , Massachusetts , on December 16 , 1773 . The target was the Tea Act of May 10 , 1773 , which allowed the British East India company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts , thus undercutting local tea merchants : Demonstrators , some disguised as Native Americans , destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company . </P>
what kind of pressure did the colonists apply when they carried out the boston tea party
political and mercantile