The Boston Tea Party

The colonies didnt want to pay the levies required by the Townsend Acts, because they thought they had no obligation to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they had no representation. So the  Parliament decided to stop taxing  with the exception of a duty on tea. In May of 1773 Parliament had a clever plan. They gave the struggling East India Company on the importation of tea to America. Additionally, Parliament reduced the duty the colonies would have to pay for the imported tea. The Americans would now get their tea at a cheaper price than ever before. However, if the colonies paid the duty tax on the imported tea they would be giving Parliament's right to tax them. Tea was like a must to have in colonial life  it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than deny themselves the pleasure of a cup of tea.
The colonists were not fooled by Parliament's plan. In Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis came  on December 16, 1773. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty. A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor. The Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment of the duty. The committee reported back to the mass meeting and a mess erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group of about 200 whopping war chants, the crowd marched two by two to the wharf, descended upon the three ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.
Most colonists applauded the action while the reaction in London was swift and vehement.