00:00The Boston Tea Party was a political revolt in Boston, the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Province.
00:05against the British Parliament in 1773.
00:08This is a significant event of the American Revolution, preceding the American War of Independence.
00:13Historical context: the Seven Years' War completely emptied the coffers of the British Crown.
00:18The United Kingdom was then facing serious cash flow problems, and to offset its losses, King George
00:23III decides to significantly increase trade taxes against the colonies.
00:27Parliament therefore decided to pass several laws, such as the Stamp Act in 1765 and
00:33the Townsend Act, Townsend ACTS, of 1767.
00:37Great Britain can therefore tax its 13 American colonies.
00:41This decision is very poorly received by the inhabitants of the colonies, as they are not represented in the Parliament of
00:46Westminster
00:46and intend to uphold the principle that an unrepresented territory cannot be taxed, no taxation without
00:52representation.
00:54One of the owners was John Hancock, and in 1768 his small corvette, Liberty, was seized and he was
01:00accused of smuggling.
01:01He was then defended by John Adams, who would later become the second president of the United States, and the case
01:07The case was closed without further action.
01:08Tea, one of the products subject to the most exorbitant taxes, has become a symbolic point of contention.
01:13between the metropolis and its colonies.
01:15Hancock organized a boycott of Chinese tea sold by the English East India Company, whose sales in
01:20the colonies go from 145,000 kg, 320,000 pounds, to 240 kg, 520 pounds.
01:26From 1773 onwards, the company had significant debts and enormous stocks of tea, but few opportunities
01:32to sell them off because of smuggling that evades taxes.
01:35The British government then passed the Tea Act, which authorized the company to sell
01:41tea in the colonies without paying taxes, this measure allowing him to sell his tea cheaper than others
01:45importers and other smugglers.
01:48It causes the ruin of independent merchants and the anger of English colonists in America.
01:52In New York, posters for The Alarm are plastered all over the place.
01:55She criticizes the British East India Company and campaigns for American trade freedoms.
02:01John Dickinson called for a boycott of the company; sailors attempting to unload the tea were subjected to torture.
02:06tar and feathers.
02:08In total, six ships loaded with tea arrived in the ports of the colonies.
02:11One in New York, one in Philadelphia, one in Charleston, and the other three in Boston.
02:16The colonists prevented the cargoes from being unloaded, and the ships had to return to England with all their tea.
02:21except for ships anchored in Boston.
02:24Governor Thomas Hutchinson forbade ships to leave until they had unloaded their cargo.
02:28On December 16, 1773, 60 Bostonians known as the Sons of Liberty boarded the three ships, the Dartmouth,
02:36the Eleanor and the Beaver,
02:37dressed as Native Americans from the Agnier tribe because the latter inspired terror at that time.
02:42Silently, between 6 and 7 p.m., they opened the barrels and threw 342 crates of tea overboard.
02:4942 tons, 92,000 pounds, of tea, worth 9,659 pounds, are destroyed.
02:58Subtitling by Radio-Canada
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