The document summarizes the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party in 3 key parts. It first discusses how a tea tax in Britain led to smuggling and loss of profits for the East India Company. It then explains how the Tea Act of 1773 granted the East India Company direct sales to the colonies, provoking protests. Finally, it describes how on December 16, 1773, a group of men disguised as Native Americans boarded ships and dumped hundreds of chests of tea into Boston harbor in an act of defiance that helped spark the American Revolutionary War.