60. Things go south under Lord North

It’s time for that exciting moment in American (and British) history, the Boston Tea Party. But tea, as well as being a commodity deeply rooted in the British soul, is also a wonderful link between the two wings of Britain’s growing Empire, India and North America.

In India, of course, power was still being exercised by the East India Company. That had disastrous results in the subcontinent, and a corrupting effect in Britain. But the government found itself powerless to do anything about it, while the Indian people, especially of Bengal, suffered tragically.

As for North America, that was where the East India Company, then going through lean times, was hoping that exports would help it rebuild its fortunes. Tea was to be the product that would do the trick. But in fact, it only led to another grinding step downwards in relations between mother country and colonies, one that brought closer the approaching disaster (for Britain).

Illustration: Boston Tea Party. Original uploader was Cornischong at lb.wikipedia - Source:W.D. Cooper. ‘Boston Tea Party’, The History of North America. London: E. Newberry, 1789.Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Transferred from lb.wikipedia

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License