The significant event involving the Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a direct protest by American colonists against British taxation without representation. In response to the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, colonists, including the Sons of Liberty, disguised themselves as Native Americans. They boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. This act of defiance escalated tensions between Britain and the colonies, leading to punitive measures from Britain and ultimately contributing to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.