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10,000 BCE
Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution occurred about 12,000 years ago. Since the emergence of the first anatomically similar humans about 150,000 most were hunter-gatherers, where people hunted and gathered food and migrated with their food supply. Now, however, humans started to learn how to grow crops and domesticate animals which, in turn, led to new technologies, cities, and a new drink, safer and tastier than water, beer. -
Period: 7000 BCE to 5000 BCE
Farming Spreads
From around 7000 BCE to 5000 BCE, farming spread dramatically around the Middle East. Reaching areas such as Egypt and Mesopotamia led to new irrigation techniques. These areas also led to new plants and animals being domesticated, which meant more food and new grains for new beers. These areas would soon become known as the greatest early river valley civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and the Nile of Egypt. -
6000 BCE
Pottery
The first remnants of pottery was found in 6000 BCE, and it was a great invention, as we still use it today. Before pottery there was no real way to store drinks. After, however, pottery was one of the biggest "industries" in the time of ancient Greece and Rome. The reason for this was due to the fact pottery had made a way for people to store wine, a delicate at the time. Pottery made it so that people could ship wine, sell it in certain quantities, and use it as a cup. -
Period: 4300 BCE to 2000 BCE
Mass Population Increase
Ever since the Neolithic Revolution began, people started banding together to form villages. It was only until around 4300 BCE that villages started banding together into cities and, eventually, city-states. With the banding together of villages, this meant there was more people, and more people means more food. With the rise of citizens in a village, they could make more food with more labor, and this meant eventually it led to a surplus of food and beer, which led to a higher population count. -
3400 BCE
Early Writing Systems
The emergence of writings were first seen around 3400 BCE, and mostly was just simple characters. This was a huge accomplishment, as now the people can record trades, taxes collected, wages, and many more things. The first piece of writing was dated back to 2700 BCE titled "The Epic of Gilgamesh". This and other works at the time helped us to further our knowledge on what the culture was like, such as learning that you weren't considered "human" unless you drunk beer. -
2500 BCE
The Pyramids of the Giza Plateau
The great Egyptian pyramids known worldwide today were built about 4,500 years ago. We know this because records found n the area are date back to around 2,500 BCE. These records were simple wage lists, in which we learned that workers were paid with three or four loaves of bread and two jugs containing about 8 pints of beer. The pyramids help us see how advanced the Egyptians were in architecture and engineering. -
2100 BCE
Medical Advances
The oldest medical text ever found dates back to around 2100 BCE in the Sumerian city Nippur. Most of the medical recipes in the list were based on beer. Later in Egypt, beers use as a sedative was found and taken advantage of in medical recipes. In 1550 BCE, "The Ebers Papyrus" was created which described many herbal remedies for illness and sores. Many of the remedies were based off of beer, as it was mainly a gathering of other previous documents compiled into one. -
1737 BCE
The First Cup Of Tea
The origins of tea aren't certain, but legend has it in 1737 BCE Emperor Shen Nung came across some tea leaves and used them as fuel for some water, but wind came ad blew some leaves into the water. The result was the first cup of tea. Although not very revolutionary at the time, this drink would later spark many events in the future. Tea, also, is one of the biggest influences of culture in China and Japan, and many traditions and rituals involve tea. -
479 BCE
The Greco-Persian Wars
The Greco-Persian was fought under the rule of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE. Ultimately, the Greeks won and as a result called them different from, and superior to the Asians. Greece was definitely true in being different, but being superior could be debated. The Greeks always thought of non-Greeks as inferior, and this is shown through their love of wine. For example, the way they drink their wine was seen as perfect, and those who drank beer/wine incorrectly were "barbarians." -
161 BCE
Sumptuary Laws
In fear of the poor rebelling, many sumptuary laws were passed. These laws limited the wealthy to only being able to spend X amount of money a day on food and entertainment, what foods and clothing they could buy and wear, and even where their windows had to be placed. These laws showed how people recognized the poor and set laws so they wouldn't feel like the lowest of the low, and so the wealthy didn't go around showing off to the poor and brag about themselves. -
146 BCE
Greece's Fall, Rome's Rise
After civil wars in Greece, the empire was eventually drawn to sever weakness, and as a result was taken over by the Romans. The Romans, for the most part, were very similar to the Greeks, taking almost every aspect of Greco culture and making it their own. Gods, wine parties, and their language was very similar to the Greeks. The rise of the Roman Empire led to even more technologies and advancements in the arts. -
570
The Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad the founder of the Islamic religion was born around 570 CE and died 632 CE. By the time of his death, Islam had become the dominant religion in most of Arabia. The practice of Islam was a big revelation in history, as this was the start of the rivalry between Christians and Muslims. Although having similar beliefs, there are key differences as Islam does not allow the Christian sacred alcoholic beverage, wine. -
1430
The Printing Press
Developed by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1930's, the printing press allowed Europeans to make books quicker and easier than ever before. Although created centuries earlier in China, the printing press opened up a whole new world to Europeans, as now they easier access to books and education. The first book about distillation was written in 1478 by Micheal Puff von Schrick. -
1440
The Slave Trade Begins
After Europe took control of some of the sugar plantations in the Arab World after the Crusades, the Portuguese decided to use African slaves to work them, as many Europeans lacked experience with sugar. African traders would give the Portuguese slaves in return for European goods, such as spirits. Reasons for taking Africans as slaves were because of reasons such as saving them from worshiping false idols, them not being qualified as fully human, and even that they were the "children of Ham." -
1470
Coffee Is Adopted By The Islamic World
The Islamic scholar, Muhammad al-Dhabhani, was the first to brew coffee berries into a drink. The result was a beverage that allowed many Muslims to stay awake during nocturnal rituals. Although debated and put on trial, coffee ultimately was allowed for the Muslims, as it did not intoxicate, but rather the opposite. As coffee spread, it lead to more people staying awake with sharp focus, unlike alcoholic beverages many drank that dulled the mind. -
The Slave Trade Spreads To The America's
After the first Englishmen arrived on Barbados in 1627, they decided to start to grow tobacco, like their fellow farmers did up north in Virginia. This didn't work out to well, as the tobacco grown in Barbados was horrible. What they did find, however, was that using the by-products of their sugar-making process and distilling it created a very strong drink known as "kill-devil", or rum. The popularity of this drink eventually led to slave being brought to America to make this popular drink. -
Coffee reaches Europe
London's first coffeehouse was opened in 1652 by Pasqua Rosee. The drink quickly gained popularity, and eventually became more popular than the alcoholic beverages before it. Along with coffee came coffeehouses, each one unique in it's own way. Many of which were centers of debate and news, covering topics such as politics, science, and math. -
Tea Reaches Great Britain
As we all know, British love their tea. But where did it start? Well, when King Charles II married the Portuguese princess Catherine, her love of tea almost caught on immediately with the people. Tea would become a big role in a some major future events, most of which were caused by the British over their love of tea. -
Scientific Revelations
After a heated discussion in a coffeehouse, Edmond Halley, Hooke, and Christopher Wren all were debating about if an inverse-square law of gravity wold give rise to an elliptical orbit. Halley eventually asked the question to Isaac Newton, in which he replied he had already proved that, but failed to show any evidence. Then, months later, he sent Halley his proof, and expanded upon this even further when he wrote Mathematical principals of nature philosophy, also known as Principia. -
The Coffee Market
After being introduced to coffee, some European countries tried to make coffee themselves. First, the Dutch had cut off branches of a coffee tree, and successfully grown them in a greenhouse. Having knowledge of this, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu developed a plan to steal a branch from the royal coffee tree and bring it to Martinique to be harvested. The plan turned out as a success, and France soon became rich from it. This shows us how much coffee had become popularized as a global drink. -
The Molasses Act
The American colonies, being ruled by Britain, were using French molasses to make their rum, and this made Britain angry. The result was the Molasses Act, which put a levy all molasses shipped to the colonies, except for ones brought in from the British sugar islands. The colonists grew furious as not only was French molasses superior, but the islands didn't supply enough molasses for the colonies. The resulting rebellion was a step towards the colonies' eventual separation from Britain. -
The Tea Act
The Tea Act of 1773 was a tax act to help both the people and East India company by both lowering the price of tea, and taxing the people to help pay off company debt. The result didn't turn out that way, for many colonists started to boycott British goods completely. Then, on December 16, 1773, a group of protesters boarded a company ship and tipped all 342 chests of tea into the water. This, along with a couple other factors, was the ultimate decision for the colonies to rebel against Britain. -
The French Revolution Begins
With a big financial crisis rising, an Assembly of Notables met to try and sort out this crisis, however they failed. Later, King Louis XVI of France had to convene the States-General. With this a meeting at Versailles was held, and ultimately led to the sacking of Jacques Necker (the only person the people trusted). This was the ultimate cause of the French Revolution, which got put in motion at Café de Foy. The Revolution literally began at a coffeehouse, and this would change France forever. -
The Whiskey Rebellion
After the Revolutionary War, America had a vast national debt, and so to help diminish it, they decided to create a law that would try to cut back the amount of spirits people were drinking. Many farmers refused to pay up to the levy the law made, and as a result the law was amended in 1792 and 1794. The people complained that the law was making America no better than Britain, and this could later come into play as America lets business run without intervening (laissez faire). -
Period: to
America's Isolation
With George Washington stating in his farewell address that the US should stay out of foreign affairs, WWI and WWII put an end to this once and for all. First, WWI was agreed by some American's to be a mistake, but when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in WWII ,the US' isolation ended. They could no longer sit around and watch from afar, and marching in with coca-cola in hand, won WWII ending isolation and emerging as one of the biggest superpowers in history. -
Tea In India
With the British dangerously relying on tea, and the East India Company losing it's monopoly with China in 1834, they decided to try and cultivate tea in India. Little did they know there were already tea trees there. This plan would help both Britain, by giving them a more reliable source of tea, and the Indians, many of whom lost their jobs when industrialization took over. The plan was ultimately successful, and brought in profits to both companies and countries alike. -
The Opium War
The British love of tea was so great that, eventually, they had to trade opium with China for it. Seeing as how China wasn't interested in European goods, and only silver, Britain decided to trade opium for silver and then silver for tea. This led China to go to war over Britain for trading them opium, however Britain crushed China and forced them to hand over Hong Kong and other concessions. This ultimately foreshadows China being split by other countries into "Spheres of Influence." -
Coca-Cola's Takeover
With soda water growing popularity, making small business' tried to make a living by creating remedies to be infuse with soda water. However, after the prohibition of alcohol in 1886 it was very hard for people to do. One man, John Pemberton, had used a formula he previously created, except took out the alcohol and added sugar. This new drink, coca-cola (named after it's main ingredients coca and kola), was a huge success, which helps show us how much of a superpower the US had become. -
America's Early Rise
Although having roots in Britain, industrialization and consumerism flourished in the US. The reason for this is the US separated manufacturing from assembly, which made it easier to mass produce and market goods, such as coca-cola. Along with this, the railway and telegraph system set up during the Civil War made it easier to transport products throughout the country. All these factors made it so America's economy was better than Britain's, becoming one of the strongest countries in the world. -
Coca-Cola's Middle Eastern Catastrophe
After not doing business in Israel, many companies started to boycott Coca-Cola, as they thought of the company as Anti-Semitic. This, along with the Arab Market's boycott forced it to back down from the Middle East. Later, however, as the boycott began to crumble, Coke started to set foot in the Middle East, namely Saudi Arabia. This did not succeed, as Pepsi already had 5 factories there and the American commander Norman Schwarzkopf was seen with Pepsi by his side when signing a cease-fire. -
The Berlin Wall Falls
With the Cold War eventually coming to a thaw in Eastern Germany, the people were allowed to cross the countries borders. Along with this came the fall of the Berlin Wall. While most of the Soviet Union despised America, they were only allowed to drink Pepsi. However, after they broke down the wall, many were greeted with Coke, and so the switch from Pepsi to Coca-Cola helps symbolize the fall of the Soviet Union and communism. -
The Iraq War
As America's power grew, many places began to hate everything about American culture. For example, during the Iraq War knock-off brands such as Zam Zam Cola and Star Cola started to emerge in Iraq and the Middle East as a way of showing Anti-Americanism. Eventually, when Americans occupied Saddam Hussein's palace, they held a barbecue and ate hamburgers, hot dogs, and (of course) Coca-Cola.
