Six Drinks that Shaped Human History

History of the World in Six Glasses essay The author of History of the World in Six Glasses proves that what we drink can affect history so much or than you then you think. The author shows us that beer caused nomads to settle down. He also tells us on how Greek wine affected how we socialize in public. He also expresses on how spirits started the Atlantic slave trade. Finally he shows us how coffee in England inspired revolution and thinking. This all together majorly these all together make human history as we know today. The creation of beer in 10,000 BCE was the first major changing point in human civilization. Beer began as an accident it was found when water was left fermenting with wild grains for a few days this

distillation of these drink began originally in Arabic city of Cordoba the most cultured city at the time in the world it had parks paved roads palaces oil lamp to light the streets and advanced drainage and sewage systems and one of the biggest libraries at the time. Arab scholars were building upon the knowledge of the Greeks, Indians and the Persians, in their studies the made the astrolabe, algebra and the modern numerical system they also invented new medicines with herbs and invented new navigation techniques using the magnetic compass from the Chinese such as trigonometry and the nautical map, the Arabs also found a technique that gave rise to many new drinks this was distillation the process in which you vaporize a liquid and recondensing it to purify and separate its constituent parts. This was important because it made wine stronger because alcohol has a higher boiling point than water making it contain more alcohol and less water, doing this many times is called rectification. Spirits began as a technique known to a very few people. Spirits became very popular during the age of exploration because they were a durable compact form of alcohol, so popular that the taxation and control became political matters. Like the past 2 drinks spirits were used for medicinal purposes it was reputed to have miraculous healing powers. Exploration began with Portugal around the coast of West Coast of Africa and nearby Atlantic island, the Azores for example had the perfect climate for growing sugar a valuable resource. sugar was needed to make spirits and beer but sugar cane was extremely hard to grow unless the right climate also sugar cane needed a lot of manual labor although the Arabs made devices that make harvesting sugar easier it still needed lots of manpower. Slaves in Africa were originally kidnapped and forced to work on sugarcane farms