What Happened After The Boston Tea Party?

After the Boston tea party, two major effects came out. These two effects led the entire struggle to the American Revolutionary War.

So, the first and immediate response came out from the British side, where they started taking some tough legal action against the American colonists and patriots.

And then, as a response to the British’s legal actions, colonists became more rebellious and tried to exterminate the British rule from the 13 colonies of North America.

Now, let’s try to dig a little deep so that everything gets crystal clear.

The British Side Response After The Boston Tea Party

After the Boston tea party, the British authority went tougher to impose more dominating policies on the American colonists, especially on Bostonians, in Massachusetts.

After the incident, the British Parliament passed the infamous Coercive Acts or Intolerable Acts in 1774. The acts included 5 laws, fully against the American people’s interests.

Britishers actions through the acts came out something like this:

1. Boston Port Act: The very first among the five Intolerable Acts was the Boston Port Act (1774). Under this law, the British Parliament closed all trade that happened through the Boston harbor.

Their decision was – this port would remain closed until the colonists pay compensation to the East India Company for the loss during the tea party.

Either way, parliament demanded colonists apologize to English King George III for that sin. The decision of the British parliament made the common people of Boston quite angry.

They rationalized– not all the people of Boston were involved in that incident. So, punishing all was quite an unfair decision. They considered it a big tragedy. 

2. Massachusetts Government Act: Under the Massachusetts Government Act of 1774, the English parliament fully abrogated the Massachusetts Charter of 1691. 

The act tried to take away the rights of the local people in the participation of Massachusetts’ local governance system.

The act decided – the rule of the colony would be fully controlled by the British authority. In Massachusetts, almost all important administrative positions would be appointed by the governor, parliament, and king of Great Britain.

Even the law provided the royally appointed governor with so much power that he could dissolve the locally elected assembly without any difficulty and at any time.

The British authority’s main purpose through the law was to contain the growing unrest within the land segment of Boston. Because after the Boston tea party, the city transformed into the center of growing unrest in the 13 colonies.

British knew, if the unrest would get spread to the other parts of the 13 colonies, then it would become difficult for them to calm it down again.

3. Quartering Act: The British parliament re-imposed the Quartering Act to all the colonies. Here colonists were now bound to provide British troops shelter in their own private homes.

The American people were already against this law since the Quartering Act of 1765. Therefore, when the British re-implemented it in 1774, colonists widely flared up against the British government.

4. Administrative of Justice Act: Under the Administrative of Justice Act, they encouraged English royally appointed officials to commit crimes in the colonies and run away to any other part of the British Empire. Leaders like George Washington named it Murdering Act.

5. Quebec Act: Through the Quebec Act, they expanded the land area of Canada’s Quebec province towards the Midwest direction of the present-day’s United States.

Under this law, the British tried increasing religious distances between Christian Catholics and other communities (mainly Protestants).

These decisions of the British Government enraged the American colonists too much, which resulted in something like this:

Americans’ Response To The British’s Actions

Americans viewed the Intolerable Acts as a foe to their liberty and natural rights. In response to the British’s actions, in 1774, from September 5th to October 26th, 12 of the 13 colonies (Georgia didn’t participate) united in a meeting in Philadelphia.

In history, the meeting is popular as the First Continental Congress. We can say, this meeting was the start of the birth of the United States of America.

Here they took an important decision to impose an economic boycott on British trade. And again, they decided that the boycott would remain until they repeal all the cruel acts (Intolerable acts).

However, it made no significant impact on Great Britain. Eventually, on April 19th, 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord kicked off the American revolutionary war.

In 1775 on May 10th, all 13 American colonies came together in the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Here they decided to prepare for more major battles and get freedom from the cruel British rule. All 13 colonies decided that they would set up their own militias and try to get help from external powers.

Of course, you know, which foreign powers came further to help them?

Yes, they were France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Especially, France Empire played the main role here. Finally, as a result, the 13 colonies declared independence on July 4th, 1776.

So, now I hope you have got your answer on what happened after the Boston tea party.