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10,000 BCE
Discovery of Cereal Grains and Their Uses
People settled and hunted in the Fertile Crescent because of its products. It was an ideal living environment for wild sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs, and was rich in wild wheat and barley. People discovered that these cereal grains could be stored for months or even years. This led to the development of tools to harvest, process and store grain. Sickles, baskets, stone hearths, and underground pits were created, and people used the grains in the development of beer, -
Period: 9000 BCE to 4000 BCE
Neolithic Revolution in Mesopotamia and Egypt
The Neolithic Revolution was a major shift in the course of history where people began to leave their nomadic and hunting/gathering ways in exchange for agriculture. People settled in one location instead of traveling in search for more food. As a result of their newfound discovery of farming, grains were planted and beer was created. Worldwide, lifestyles and diets changed. -
5000 BCE
First Civilizations
The two earliest examples of civilization are in Mesopotamia and Egypt at around 5000 BCE. People developed cities and lived in them to be near religious or trading centers and have good security. Both civilizations were the result of an agricultural surplus, particularly grain, since they were both located on the Fertile Crescent. Grain became used as somewhat of a currency and a "national diet" in both the forms of bread and beer. -
3400 BCE
Start of Written Language
Beginning in Sumer, writing was developed to record collection and distribution of bread, beer, grain, and other goods. In Egypt, writing was originally used to record business transactions and travels and tales of kings in Egypt. Over time, writing developed into books and articles for the people to read with topics about beer and religion. -
2500 BCE
Construction of Pyramids
The pyramids of Egypt began construction in 2500 BCE. They were built by state employees and possibly during the flood season when the fields were underwater. Beer was used to pay the workers who would receive eight pints, and three or four loaves of bread. The engineering and architecture techniques used in the construction of the pyramids influenced other regions as well. -
870 BCE
King Ashurnasirpal II's Feast
King Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria held a grand feast in 870 BCE to mark the completion of his palace in Nimrud. The feast went on for ten days with nearly 70,000 people in attendance. People from across the empire as well as people who worked in the palace came. Though he served beer at the feast, he served wine as well. Wine became a much more impressive display of wealth than beer due to the expensive transportation of the beverage. -
Period: 600 BCE to 400 BCE
Golden Age of Greece
During the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, Greece went through a period of relative peace and prosperity where the Greeks developed democracy. Wine production increased due to the cultivation of grapevines and olives. Wine was apparent with the Greek religion with Dionysus, the god of wine, theatre, and art. -
323 BCE
Death of Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great was a strong leader who created a strong empire with a Hellenistic civilization. He was said to be a heavy drinker of unmixed wine, which the Greeks believed to be uncivilized. He died a mysterious death in 323 BCE with some evidence of the involvement of heavy drinking. -
146 BCE
Fall of Carthage and Corinth
When the cities of Carthage in northern Africa, and Corinth in Greece fell, Rome became the leading wine-producing region. The most amount of wine was produced on the Italian peninsula. By 70 CE, there were over 80 types of Roman wine, 2/3 of which were produced in Italy. -
570
Prophet Muhammad is Born
The prophet Muhammad was born in 570 CE, and about forty years later, he experienced visions from Allah that introduced him to the Islamic religion. By the time of his death, Islam was the dominant faith in most of Arabia, and his followers conquered all of Persia, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria, Egypt, the rest of the northern African coast, and most of Spain about a century later. Muslims believed that alcohol was Satan's temptation. As Islam spread, the prohibition of wine also spread. -
1368
Fall of the Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire stretched from Hungary to Korea and down to Vietnam at the height at its power. Instead of drinking tea like the dynasties before them did, the Mongols drank koumiss, a drink made by churning and fermenting mare's milk in a leather bag to turn the lactose to alcohol. When the Mongol Empire fell in 1368, old traditions such as tea drinking emerged as the Ming dynasty was established. -
1400
Emergence of Slavery
Slavery began to emerge in the islands of Madeira, the Azores, and the Canaries as a result of the Age of Exploration. Slaves worked on sugar plantations. By 1500, Madiera became the largest exporter of sugar worldwide. Thousands of slaves were shipped to the New World and brandy was used to negotiate their prices. -
Period: 1400 to
Age of Exploration
During the Age of Exploration, people sought to find better trade routes but inevitably found the New World. Explorers wanted to bring alcohol along on their voyages, so they brought distilled alcohol. Distilled drinks were a durable and compact form of alcohol on ships and had many other uses. They generated a lot of money from sales and taxes and allowed people to have control over the economy, and they were also found to have medicinal purposes. -
1440
Invention of Printing Press
In the 1430s, Johannes Gutenberg developed the idea of the printing press. This invention drastically changed life during this period. Books, news, and ideas were printed and spread around the area. Books about distillation were very popular, and aqua vitae became a popular recreational drink as a result of these books. -
Growth of the British East India Company
The British East India Company started as a trading company in 1600 but grew to be much more than that when tea grew in popularity. King Charles II married Catherine of Braganza who brought tea drinking to England with her. As a monopoly with the BEI Company and tea formed, the company gave the king gifts, who gave the company power in return. The company was able to acquire territory, issue currency, have an army, form alliances, declare war, make peace and dispense justice. -
Period: to
Fall of Arabian Coffee Monopoly
The Arab World was the birthplace of coffee and it was mostly grown there because of ideal climate conditions and how heavily it was used in their religion. People drank it to stay awake during overnight ceremonies. Because of this, a monopoly formed, but it was later broken when the Dutch stole cuttings of Arab coffee trees and sold them for themselves. -
Influence of Coffeehouses on Future Life
The first coffeehouse opened in 1652. Coffeehouses were places where people could go if they wanted to socialize with others, discussing literature and current events. Coffeehouses also became places where people would go to pick up their mail, the predecessor to our modern-day post offices. Today, there are millions of coffeehouses worldwide where people still go to socialize. -
Publication of "The Principia" by Sir Isaac Newton
"The Principia" by Sir Isaac Newton is a book that influenced math and science worldwide. His inspiration for writing the book came from a coffeehouse. After a coffeehouse discussion with Christopher Wren, Edmond Halley, and Robert Hooke. Halley asked Newton if an inverse-square law of gravity would give rise to elliptical orbits. Newton did not have any proof, so he dedicated his life to find an answer. Discovering the law of gravity in the process, he published "The Principia" in 1687. -
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was a time period in which new ideas and experiments came about. As people began to question religious ways and reject blind faith without experimentation, coffee gained popularity over alcoholic beverages. Coffee promoted sharpness and clarity of thought, rather than the unclear thoughts caused by alcohol. The quality and quantity of people's work improved as a result of the caffeine. -
Opium and Tea Trade
China outlawed the use of opium when it was found to be addictive. In return for the tea Britain was buying, China demanded silver. Silver was more expensive than tea, so the British gave China opium instead. The BEI Company produced opium that was bought from Indian based country firms. These firms made deals with Chinese merchants, who smuggled the illegal opium into China. -
Molasses Act
When the British had control over the American colonies, they passed the Molasses Act, creating a tax on molasses. Colonists did not agree with this law because it deprived them of rum. The colonists ignored this rule and continued to smuggle molasses. This act sparked the idea of independence. -
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution started around 1760. Textile factories were developed and the factory workers were given tea breaks as a perk to their jobs. The caffeine in the tea led to more productive workers and made the workers healtheir due to tea's antibacterial properties. -
Production of Carbonated Water
In 1767, Joseph Priestley was able to produce soda water with fixed air. His invention led to different drinks such as artificial mineral water. In 1809, soda fountains were created by Joseph Hawkins. Soon, soda water was able to be produced and bottled via machines developed by John Matthews in 1877. -
Beginning of the Society of Lloyds
In the late 1680s, Edward Lloyd opened his own coffeehouse. He studied information from financial meetings in his cafe and added reports from foreign writers to form it into a newsletter. His coffeehouse became the most common place for shipowners and their insurers to meet. Some underwriters rented booths at Lloyd's, and the Society of Lloyds was formed. Today, it is the world's leading insurance market. More coffeehouses started to form as stock markets and the London Stock Exchange emerged. -
Boston Tea Party
When the British East India Company borrowed money from the government and became a monopoly for tea, people became smuggling tea and selling it for cheaper prices. The British government was not getting money from tea, so they taxed the American colonists. The colonists were angered by this and boycotted the tea. This led to the Boston Tea Party, an event where the colonists dressed up as Mohawk Indians and dumped tea from ships into the ocean. This prompted the Revolutionary War in 1775. -
Affects of Grog on the British Ships
The British ships and Royal Navy became much stronger than that of other nations with the introduction of grog. Grog is made with lemon or lime juice, providing vitamin C in the crews' diets and diminishing scurvy dramatically. Meanwhile, the French navy drank wine and eau-de-vie on board their ships, reducing their resistance to scurvy. -
Coca-Cola
The creation of carbonated water, soda fountains, and the machines that produced and bottled the water led to the creation of Coca-Cola in 1886 by John Pemberton. The original Coca-Cola contained cocaine and was used for medicinal purposes. In 1898, Coca-Cola became more of a refreshment rather than medicine. By 1916, Coca-Cola was bottled and available everywhere in the United States. -
Global Expansion of Coke
America was brought into WWII when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The military gave the soldiers Coke for 5 cents while they were fighting and it became spread worldwide. By 1950, 1/3 of Coke was sold outside the U.S. -
Coke Moves into the Middle East
Coke wanted to set up a bottling plant in Tel Aviv, but the Arabs boycotted the beverage. The plant was built in Israel instead because the company knew that they would gain more money. In 1991, Coke sent refrigerated trucks with Coke for troops in the Gulf Wars. During the Iraq War in 2003, Muslims thought that Coke was "too American" and favored their own colas, but when the Americans took over Saddam Hussein's palace in Baghdad, they celebrated with American food, including Coca-Cola. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
While the Berlin Wall was up, it separated the communist and democratic sides of Germany and prevented people from crossing it. When the Berlin Wall finally fell in 1989, communism fell with it. Since Coca-Cola did not want to be involved with communist countries in the past for fear of being seen as supporting communism, Coca-Cola was finally able to spread into ex-communist countries.
