The Boston Tea Party was a planned act of rebellion when the British raised the taxes on tea for the American people in order to prevent the colonists from importing from any country other than Great Britain. The Americans revolted by invading a British ship and throwing all the tea into the ocean; making an already struggling British tea company go even more in debt. This plan to rebel backfired when each citizen had to pay for repairs and clean-up before shipments of any kind could be received.