The East India Company and the United States

American and British schoolchildren are taught about the infamous Tea Act of 1773, which led to the rebellious Boston Tea Party. But exactly why the Boston colonists threw thousands of pounds of tea into Boston Harbor may be less clear. It's actually due to collusion between the government and the East India Company.

Boston Tea Party
Life Pictures/Mansell/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
A depiction of the Boston Tea Party, a result of the Tea Act which favored the East India Company and
punished competitors.

The Tea Act was designed by Parliament specifically to help the EIC unload the millions of pounds of unsold tea in its English warehouses. The Americas were the designated recipients (like it or not) of the surplus tea. The act was meant to enforce the EIC's monopoly on tea in the colonies. It would be like the United States government forcing all of today's Americans to purchase Apple computers only. Ultimately, the Tea Act allowed the EIC to drive its competition out of business. Colonists deemed this an unfair practice -- government was supporting one business's interests at the expense of the liberty -- and it gave rise to the famous slogan "no taxation without representation" [source: Hartmann].

Rather than agree to this corporate/government collusion, about 150 colonists dumped the EIC's new shipment of tea into Boston Harbor. The English government showed its allegiance to the East India Company when Parliament demanded that colonists reimburse the company for the nearly $1 million (in 21st-century dollars) worth of tea [source: Hartmann]. To enforce this demand, the British Navy was called in to blockade the harbor. The tension created by this situation directly led the colonists into the Revolutionary War.

India ­also staged revolutions to buck the yoke of imperialism. Their efforts were focused on thwarting the East India Company and the British government. Read about India under EIC rule on the next page.