-
9000 BCE
Neolithic Revolution
Before 9000 BCE humans were hunter gatherers. After the discovery that cereal grains could last for years it made people start to settle down, but after the discovery that beer could be made from these cereal grains people made permanent houses and started to farm these grains in order to get beer. People gradually settling down and farming started the Neolithic revolution that would change the world. (pg 20-21) -
9000 BCE
Discovery of beer
The people of Mesopotamia ate cereal grains as one of they're major food sources. The people discovered that you could store cereal grains for multiple years and people started to do that. Later somebody discovered that if gruel, a food made from water and cereal grains, was left out for a couple of days it would transform into a slightly fizzy drink that could intoxicate you. That drink is known as beer, and it would later go on to be consumed by everyone and change the world. (pg. 14-15) -
5400 BCE
Discovery of wine
It's not actually known how wine was discovered but it is probable that it was discovered on accident after the invention of pottery. The people most likely tried to store grapes or grape juice in pottery for a long time, and it would have turned into wine. The oldest known evidence of wine is a red residue in a pottery found in Hajji Firuz Tepe. (pg. 47) -
3400 BCE
Creation of writing
The Sumerians wanted to be able to record the collection and distribution of grain, beer, bread, and other things so they created a way of writing it down. It started out as using tokens of different shapes in church to show what the people used to pay tax to the church, and one of the items you could pay tax with was beer. Eventually it went to pictograms which were carved into the clay and the pictograms would mean a certain item, and that would be the first form of writing. (pg. 30-32) -
3150 BCE
Leaders liking of wine
After one of Egypt's earliest rulers, King Scorpion I died in 3150 BCE, he was buried with seven hundred jars of wine. This cost the southern Levant, which was a very significant wine producing area in this time, a lot of money. That helped to get the pharaohs to start drinking wine, and they would establish private vineyards in the Nile Delta. (pg. 48) -
2035 BCE
Beer used as currency
In Egypt and Mesopotamia the people used beer and other goods to pay tax to the temple. Also, beer was used to pay people for public works.The workforce was paid every day in rations of beer differentiating on how high your job position was. People would also use beer to tip messengers and scribes. (pg. 35) -
1550 BCE
Beer used for medicine
In Egypt and Mesopotamia they used beer for medicine. We found a cuneiform tablet that shows that beer was used in many medical recipes, and that is the oldest record that proves the use of alcohol in medicine. Beer could be mixed with herbs to help cure constipation or cure indigestion, or also help labor pains. Also, beer was a lot safer to drink than water since it was used by boiling water and some ingredients dissolve easier in it, causing it to be a very healthy option. (pg. 38) -
870 BCE
King Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria's feast
To mark the inauguration of the king's new Capital at Nimrud he threw one of the greatest feasts in history. The feast lasted ten days and 69,574 people attended. The king served thousands of different foods but the much more interesting thing was that the king served wine at the feast. Beer was much more common and was also served, but wine was only available in Mesopotamia in very small quantities. Serving wine at his feast turned it into a much more common drink with his people. (pg. 43-47) -
430 BCE
Wine trade
After hearing all about it the people of Mesopotamia started to also want wine, but it could not be grown there, so people would have to trade for it. Since wine was easy to parish traders would have to travel down the Tigris and Euphrates river to get to the people, because traveling on land was much slower. Wine was very expensive, since it couldn't be grown in Mesopotamia, so mostly the rich would be the only ones to buy it. (pg. 50) -
Sep 1, 600
The Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad was the founder of the Islamic religion. After he died he had made Islam the dominant faith in most of Arabia. After Muhammad had a fight with two of his disciples at a drinking party he decided that Islamic people would have to avoid wine. He said that Satan would create hatred through the use of wine, and anybody that broke this rule would receive forty lashes. This rule was followed by a lot of Muslims and it created a ban on wine. (pg.86-87) -
Sep 1, 780
The Classic of Tea
During the Tang dynasty tea was getting very popular. It already had a tax, and Lu Yu (a celebrated Taoist poet) teaches how to prepare, and serve tea in great detail. In the book it lists the stages of boiling water, and when the water is boiled at the best point. It talks about the different types of leaves to use and where to get the best water. This book turned tea into more than just a drink, it became a part of culture and sophistication. (pg.180-181) -
Sep 1, 1300
Spirits used in medicine
It was discovered that if you boil wine you could greatly increase the alcohol content of it and you could create distilled wine. This new drink was found to be a very good medicine. It could be consumed into the body or be administered externally to the part of the body that needs healing. It was believed that distilled wine could preserve youth, improve memory, revive the heart, and do many more things. It was even used to save kings and rulers. (pg. 97-98) -
Sep 1, 1440
Trading of slaves
The Portuguese started to buy slaves form the west coast of Africa. The Europeans and other slave buyers could buy slaves with a large range of different things but the most used item to buy slaves was alcoholic drinks. Alcohol imported from Europe was very valuable to them. At first wine was used, but it was later discovered that brandy would do even better, because it has a high alcohol content so it would be less likely to spoil on long voyages to Africa. (pg. 102-104) -
Jun 2, 1511
Banning of coffee in Mecca
Muslim leaders in Mecca wanted to ban coffee, like how they banned alcoholic drinks. The governor of Mecca put coffee on trial, and after a discussion with legal experts about its intoxicating effects on the mind, coffee was banned. The sale and consumption of coffee was prohibited, coffee was burned in the streets and coffee vendors and their customers were beaten. But, after a few months higher authorities took back the law, and coffee could be consumed again. (pg.138) -
The first coffee houses
During Oliver Cromwell's rule in London coffee houses began. At first they were just more respectable alternatives to taverns, they were well lit with good furniture and books with bookshelves. But, after Cromwell's death coffeehouses became centers for political debate. Charles II who was the new king had supporters that met during Cromwell's rule, and he noted that if it wasn't for the gatherings at the coffee house he might not have gained the throne. (pg.142) -
Attempt to ban coffee in England
After the citizens were debating over whether coffee was good or bad, the King took a stand on this topic. He was worried about how much freedom of speech the people had in coffee houses, and the availability for the people to hatch plots against him, so he made a law that if coffee sellers payed 500 pounds they could stay in the business for 6 months. The people outraged and they ignored it, so the king dropped the law in return that no spies were allowed in the shops. (pg.145) -
The Principia
One night in 1684 Hooke, Halley and Wren (scientists) were having a discussion at a coffee house. Halley started wondering out loud about planets and their orbit, and he gave a theory that him and hooke could not prove. A few months later Halley was talking to Isaac Newton, and he told him about his theory and asked if Newton could prove it. He couldn't, but he was encouraged to do a lot of work on that and it led to him creating one of the greatest books in Science, the Principia. (pg.160-161) -
The trading of Tea
The British East India Company had been trading tea, but it wasn't until the company established trading posts in China that tea became easily accessible. Tea was dominating very quickly, by 1718 tea displaced silk for the most imported item from China. By 1721 imports had reached five thousand tons a year, and in 1744 a writer noted that the price of tea was so low that even the poorest man could afford it. At its peak it represented 10 percent of the British government's revenue. (pg.192) -
The Molasses Act
New England started to import it's molasses, which is used to make rum, from France. However Britain was losing money in the sugar industry since the colonists weren't buying from them, so Britain enacted a new law called the Molasses Act. This levied a prohibitive duty of sixpence per gallon on molasses imported from foreign countries. That was supposed to get the colonists to buy molasses from Britain, but the colonists didn't follow the act. (pg.117) -
Introduction of rum to the colonists
In the first years of America the colonists would barely get any alcohol. The beer from the supply ships would have already been mostly drunk, or it would have spoiled. This greatly decreased the moral of the colonists, because they only had water to drink and they got sick of it. At the second half of the 17th century rum was introduced. This made the colonists very happy and it kept the people warm through the winters, and it greatly reduced the dependence on the imports from Europe. (pg. 115) -
The industrial revolution
As the industrial revolution was going underway in Britain the workers in these new factories needed something to help keep them awake, and tea would be used for that. Unlike beer which slightly dulled the brain tea would sharpen it, because of caffeine in the drink. It kept the workers alert, and that was necessary because these workers had long tedious shifts and they couldn't take breaks. Tea had helped the workers to successfully keep the factories running smoothly. (pg.200) -
The Boston Tea party
The Tea Act of 1773 allowed the British East India Company to only have to pay the American duty fee, it gave the company a monopoly on tea, and it gave the rights to tax the colonists for tea. This angered the colonists, so they started to boycott British goods and refused to pay taxes. After the act came into force and the company's ships arrived the colonists prevented the people from unloading, and they dressed up as Mohawk Indians and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. (pg.204-206) -
The French Revolution
In France after King Louis XVI fired Jacques Necker, the only member of the government trusted by the people, tensions started to rise. Crowds gathered in the gardens of the Palais Royal and revolutionaries warned the people that the army was coming to massacre the crowd. At a cafe a man named Camille Desmoulins jumped onto a table wielding a pistol and shouting "To arms, citizens! To arms!" this caused Paris to erupt into chaos and, days later the Bastille was stormed by an angry mob. (pg.170) -
The Whiskey Rebellion
A law was passed in March 1791 that forced distillers to pay an extra tax on alcohol they were going to sell, this angered the colonists. Many farmers refused to follow this law. Congress then appealed the law, but Hamilton realized that this threatened the authority of the federal government, he sent marshals to Pennsylvania to force farmers to pay. The farmers fought the marshals, and later president Washington sent the army there. Once the army arrived the rebellion failed. (pg.124-126) -
The Opium War of 1839-42
The British government had been illegally trading Opium with Chinese smugglers to get money to buy tea from China. China sent Lin Tze-su to put an end to the trade. Lin set fire to the smuggler's supply, they ignored it and continued trading, so they were arrested. Two British sailors murdered a Chinese man in a fight, Britain didn't hand over the sailors so China expelled the British from Canton. This outraged the British government so they declared war on China and won. (pg.208-211) -
Coca-Cola on trial
After Coca Cola had become more famous and children had started drinking it a scientist named Harvey Wiley had put Coca Cola on trial because it contained caffeine. The trial went on for a month, in the end the case came down to whether the Coca Cola company had let it's customers know that caffeine was in it. Since Kola was in the name and that contained caffeine Coca Cola won the case but they had to reduce the amount of caffeine in the drink by half. (pg.244-245) -
World War II
America had been in a state of isolationism, listening to George Washington's advice in 1796, but after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor America joined the allies in World War II. As the soldiers crossed the seas to join the war so did Coca Cola. The drink was cheaper for the soldiers, and it was good because it wasn't intoxicating so it became the main drink for the soldiers. Coca Cola greatly improved the morale of the soldiers and it reminded them of home. (pg.251-252) -
The Cold War
As tensions were rising between Russia and America Coca Cola became associated with freedom, democracy, and free-market capitalism. Communist sympathizers in France tried to outlaw Coca Cola because they believed it was poisonous, and they overturned the company's trucks in protest but all that did was give the company free publicity. After the Berlin wall was torn down East Germans were greeted with things they couldn't have like Coca Cola. The drink became the face of Capitalism. (pg.256-260) -
The Gulf War
During the Gulf War Coca Cola sent in trucks to supply the American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. But, since Pepsi had five factories already in Saudi Arabia Coca Cola could not compete. Pepsi played a big role and a can of it could even be seen on TV next to General Norman Schwarzkopf, an American commander, while he signed the cease fire. (pg. 262) -
The Iraq War
After the Iraq war started people showed anti-Americanism through pouring Coca Cola on the ground. Coca Cola was not bought in the Middle East, and locally made colas became popular there instead. One locally made cola sold 4 million cans in the first week. Once the American troops had taken Saddam Hussein's palace in Baghdad they threw a barbecue and Coca Cola was there, to represent Americanism. (pg. 262-263)
