The Arabian Peninsula was the birthplace of coffee cultivation and trading. Coffee was grown in Yemeni Arabia by the 15th century, and by the 16th century, it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. Coffee was imported to New Amsterdam, which was renamed New York by the British, in the mid-1600s. Though coffee establishments sprouted up quickly, tea remained the preferred beverage in the New World until 1773, when colonists revolted over King George III's hefty tax on tea. The Boston Tea Party revolution would forever transform the American drinking preference to coffee.