What Do Hot Beverages Have to Do With Politics?

Before the American Revolution, our country was under English rule. The colonists had to rely on England to import a lot of goods, and tea was one of those goods. The East India company was a large trading company. They were having financial problems and in danger of going out of business, which would have a devasting effect on England's economy. England decided to solve the problem by placing huge taxes on goods that were shipped to the American colonies.

The Americans were already angry about taxation without representation, which meant that they paid taxes to England, but they were not represented in the British government, called Parliament. They did not feel that they were treated as tax-paying citizens. They felt disrespected.

At the time, there was an underground, or secret, resistance group called the Sons of Liberty. They were led by Samuel Adams, and membership included Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, John Adams, and John Hancock. To some, the Sons of Liberty were heros; to others, they were terrorists.

The American Colonists were already paying heavy taxes on printed materials, sugar, textiles, and other goods, but the final straw came when England enacted the Tea Act, which gave the East India Company a monopoly on all British colonies, including America. This meant that colonists were not allowed to buy tea from anyone else.

Other colonies simply refused to allow the tea to be unloaded from the ships, and allowed them to sail off to other colonies. In the Massachusetts colony, however, they not only refused to allow the tea to be unloaded, but they would not allow the ships to leave Boston Harbor. On the night of December 16, 1773, a group of colonists, led by the Sons of Liberty, boarded the ships and threw all of the tea into Boston Harbor.

In response to "The Boston Tea Party," England closed the port of Boston and declared that the colony would pay for the tea that was destroyed. They took complete control of the Massachusetts colony, basically declaring martial law. Colonists were even expected to provide room and board for occupying British troops.

This chain of events led directly to the organization of the Continental Congress and the American Revolution. If you'd like to know more, plenty of information is available online or at your local library!

So what does the Boston Tea Party have to do with the modern Tea Party we've been hearing about on the news? The Tea Party, is not a "real" political party, but more of a movement. It's made up of a group of people who support tax cuts, less government spending, and lowering the national debt and the federal deficit, and they believe that Washington is not serving their interests. Most Tea Party supporters are conservative Republicans, and Sarah Palin is one of their main public figures. Their name connects them to the Boston Tea Party, because they have adopted a Sons of Liberty phrase as one of their slogans: "No taxation without representation.

The Coffee Party arose in response to the Tea Party. Although the Coffee Party is mostly made up of liberal, or progressive, democrats who want to separate big business from politics, they are a more diverse group of people. There are even some conservatives who support the Coffee Party. The group is also interested in environmental, energy, and immigration issues. They encourage all Americans to become involved citizens.

History - Watergate in a Nutshell

It all started in 1972 when a security guard at the Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in Washington, DC, was making his rounds. He discovered several doors with tape over the locks. He removed the tape and moved on. When he came back an hour later, he found more tape over the locks. He called the police.

Five men were arrested for burglarizing an office on the 6th floor. The office belonged to the National Democratic Party. After much investigation, it was discovered that the burglars had ties to the Committee to Re-Elect the President, also known as CRP, or jokingly, CReeP. Many prominent people in Washington were allegedly involved, not only in the conspiracy to commit the burglary, but also in the resulting cover-up. These included some of the president's top aides and advisors, as well as people in the Justice Department, the FBI, and the CIA.

The Watergate Break-In quickly became known as the Watergate Scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. Nixon maintained his innocence to the end, but the Republican Senate voted to remove him from office. Nixon decided to resign rather than be impeached.

Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, uncovered much of the story with the help of an anonymous source who went by the name of Deep Throat. Deep Throat's identity remained secret until 2005, when it was revealed that he was the former Deputy Director of the FBI. Woodward and Bernstein wrote a book about the Watergate Scandal called All the President's Men. It was published in 1974. In 1976, All the President's Men was made into a movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.