What led to the start of the American Revolution?

The Boston Tea Party is widely recognized as a critical event leading to the start of the American Revolution because it symbolized the growing resentment among the American colonists toward British taxation and governance. In 1773, colonists protested against the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies and imposed a tax on tea without colonial representation in Parliament.

During the Boston Tea Party, a group of colonists, disguised as Native Americans, boarded British ships and dumped an entire shipment of tea into Boston Harbor as a direct act of defiance against British authority and taxation. This event galvanized public opinion and increased tensions between the colonies and Britain, ultimately contributing to the outbreak of armed conflict in the years that followed.

In contrast, the other options listed are not direct causes of the Revolutionary War. The signing of the Constitution happened after the war, the Virginia Plan was related to the creation of a framework for the United States government, and the signing of the Bill of Rights occurred after the war to ensure individual liberties. None of these events provoked the immediate revolutionary sentiment as effectively as the Boston Tea Party.