Patriots VS Terrorists

Last class, we had a socratic seminar about the boston tea party. The colonists disguised as mohawk indians and went onto the ship to destroy the most valuable tea of the british. They wanted to protest although in the end, it didn't make the british change their mind. In my opinion, I think the suitable term to describe them would be "patriots" because the colonists were just fighting for their independence. They couldn't live with all the high tax anymore. They disliked that they needed to buy goods only from the mother country. This kind of protesting event is also similar to the news about the citizens complaining to Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad in 2011. Bashar al-Assad made cruel laws such as getting punishing/torture/kill if they go against the government. The Arabs couldn't agree with this harsh law and they wanted there independence so a huge amount of Arabs protested about this. Therefore, I think the colonists would be called patriots because they just wanted more rights and the boston tea party didn't effect a lot to the British. They love their country and they want to have freedom.