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10,000 BCE
End of the Last Ice Age
The end of the last ice age occurred around 10,000 BCE and it caused the formation of an ideal environment for wild goats, cattle, sheep, pigs, and wild wheat and barley which is known as the Fertile Crescent. These conditions made it an ideal place for people, and being about the start of the Neolithic Revolution, to settle as well as travel nomadically. This abundance of Wheat and Barley made it possible for Beer to be discovered accidentally as easily as it was. -
Period: 10,000 BCE to 5000 BCE
Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution was a long and gradual time change in which humans abandoned their nomadic lifestyles and began settling into more permanent communities. Beginning around 12,000 BCE, it was one of the most significant and widespread change in human history, that many argue was in part caused by the demand for grain to produce beer, a staple beverage for many upon its discovery. Because the revolution was such a gradual change, its exact start and end times are unknown. -
Period: 9000 BCE to 4000 BCE
Emergence of Wine
Sometime between 9000 and 4000 BCE, in the Zagros Mountains, multiple factors came together to allow for the emergence of a drink that would redefine the ordinary displays of wealth, Wine. The availability of year round cereal crops could allow wine making communities food reserves, the invention of pottery around 6000 BCE and the appearance of the wild Eurasian grape vine. -
Period: 6000 BCE to 2000 BCE
Rise of the Beer Fueled Civilizations
As tribes were settling into fertile land and forming strong, large and permanent settlements, beer began to truly take off as a staple ingredient in the everyday life of these new civilizations. Around 3400 BCE, the oldest known written documents seemed to emerge, and written all over them were symbols for beer. Used from government rations, to payment for workers, from the pyramids to the temples, beer built these early tribes into civlizations as we know them today. -
Period: 5000 BCE to 2500 BCE
Spread of Wine
From the Zagros Mountains, the knowledge of wine making spread south to Egypt and West to Greece and modern day Turkey (Anatolia). Around 3000 BCE domestic production began in Egypt, as well as Crete around 2500 BCE, which allowed for the spread around the Mediterranean Sea. -
Period: 2737 BCE to 2697 BCE
Tea, An Ancient Brew
Sometime during the reign of emperor Shen Nung (2737 BCE - 2697 BCE) it is said that the first cup of tea was brewed. While boiling water to drink, the leaves of the wild tea bush he was using to fuel the fire were carried into his pot by a wind. Tasting it, Shen Nung found that the water had a pleasant and calming taste to it. Later, Shen Nung also wrote a medical text which highlighted the uses of Tea. Little did he know that Europeans would use this new drink to subjugate his people later on. -
2100 BCE
Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh was one of the first written stories, and it details the adventures of the Sumerian King Gilgamesh who lived around 2700 BCE, and his friend Enkidu who begins as a wild man, and is then introduced to civilization and taught to be civilized through Beer and Food. This was an early representation of how, following the discovery of beer, it was considered civilized to drink it. -
1550 BCE
The Ebers Papyrus
This was an Egyptian medical text based on older texts, which contained hundreds of herbal remedies and medicines, many of which contained beer. These early medicines were some of the earliest medicines of this region, and the appearance of beer in the remedies outlines how important beer was to the everyday life of the people in Egypt and Mesopotamia, appearing from medicine to currency, from drink to sacrifice, it was truly a staple beverage of this time period. -
753 BCE
Rise of the Republic of Rome
While the founding of Rome is shrouded in myth and folktale, the story goes that twins, Romulus and Remus were raised by a wolf after being abandoned, and when they grew they decided to found a city. Upon an argument, Romulus killed Remus and named the city after himself. Throughout the course of the great nation's history, it took much of the culture of Greece, and altered it in its own way, and the same went for the drink that forged both these great ancient civilizations, Wine. -
Period: 740 BCE to 433 BCE
Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia was a name given to coastal areas of Southern Italy that were first colonized by Greek City States from around 740 BCE to 433 BCE. These Greek Colonies would come to be sacked by the Romans, which would then act as a means to share the culture of the Ancient Greeks with the Romans, which the Romans would alter and adopt as their own, as well as improving upon the culture of the Greeks. These colonies set up perfectly a way for wine to be spread through one of the largest empires. -
Period: 285 to 476
The Fall of Rome
In 285 CE, Emperor Diocletian split the Roman Empire to be governed out of two places, Byzantium (Constantinople) in the east, and Milan in the west. During the reign of Emperor Theodosius, the two halves fully split to be governed by separate governments and Emperors. While the the Eastern Roman Empire lived on, the Western Empire fell, and many historians credit it to the reliance of their african colonies for grain, after stopping domestic production of grain to be replaced by wine. -
Period: 570 to Sep 8, 632
Muhammad's Life
Born in Mecca in 570 CE, Muhammad would grow up to receive a revelation from the angel Gabriel. Following this revelation, he preached about Mecca to the people who would listen, and eventually, by defeating the doubting religious leaders of Mecca, would build one of the most widespread religions on the planet. One of the laws of Muhammad was a prohibition of alcohol. Though debated among his followers, this set the Arabian kingdoms up as prime exporters of Coffee to Europe. -
Sep 7, 1000
Discovery of Coffee
There are many legends about when and how Coffee was discovered, such as the story of an Ethiopian man who noticed that his flock of goats acted strangely after consuming particularly berries. Upon eating them himself, he discovered the effects of eating the berries. Although there is no official story about the discovery of Coffee, it is certain that the rise of Coffee prompted the rebirth of philosophy and questioning, philosophy that took place in the public coffeehouses of Europe. -
Period: Sep 7, 1450 to
The Triangle Trade
When european colonies were established in the Americas, the natives were being enslaved and forced to work on plantations and farms. Terrible conditions and treatment led to a drastic plummet of the population of the natives, and so the Europeans needed more slaves. This demand for labor prompted the Triangular Trade, a trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas with manufactured goods, slaves, and spirits. Spirits played an important role, along with guns, in buying these slaves in Africa. -
Dec 24, 1492
The Americas
In December of 1492, the Santa Maria, a ship of the spanish explorer Christopher Columbus, ran aground of the northern coast of Hispaniola, and having to leave behind 39 men, prompted the establishment of the first European settlement in the Americas. Upon returning to Spain, Columbus received funding for a second voyage, and these voyages opened the door for the Europeans to embark on the Colonial Age. Through the subjugation of natives, they expanded and opened trade, in goods such as Spirits. -
Sep 7, 1500
The Book of the Art of Distillation
In 1500, German alchemist, Hieronymus Braunschweig published a book about the process of distilling beverages. In this process, it allowed for a drink with a much higher alcohol content to be packed into the hull of a crammed trading vessel. These spirits would become the staple that held together the trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas. Whether paying for more slave labor, or a ration for the crew of a ship, Spirits would hold together the process that brought wealth to the Europeans. -
Sep 7, 1557
Trading with the Celestial Empire
In 1557, Chinese authorities sanctioned a small area through which the Portuguese could trade with the Chinese, though little of their European goods were of any value to the Chinese who had much superior resources and technology than that of the Europeans. Eventually, though not at first, tea was brought back to Europe through this trade, and it was loved by the people, but still not gaining popularity due to its high price. After the Industrial Revolution, it would become a staple beverage. -
Period: to
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was a puritan and a member of the English Parliament when civil war between Parliament loyal armies, and armies loyal to Charles I. Oliver Cromwell led an army that decimated the King's army, and led to the execution of Charles I and the crowning of Oliver Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell was a very strict Puritan, and thus had many rules in check. It was during this time period that the respectability of taverns and bars plummeted, and allowed for the rise of Coffeehouses. -
Period: to
British East India Company
The British East India Company was a trading company that was given a monopoly on goods coming out of British East India. This company, while not originally focused on tea, would come to dominate the tea trade and hold the most power that any company or corporate has ever held in the history of mankind. Before their end, the company governed the British colony of India, and eventually would lead to the rise in Tea, and would cause two wars and the subjugation and destruction of millions. -
Rise of the London Coffeehouses
The coffeehouses arose during the Puritan rule of Oliver Cromwell, and the first of these establishments in London rose in 1652. First arising as a more respectable alternative to the rowdy taverns, these coffeehouses would open up a new age, and sparking conversations within. Whether about rebellions, astronomy, or mathematics, these coffeehouses brought about change by bringing people together to discuss problems and theories that arose in the political, scientific, or other worlds. -
Period: to
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaie
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaie was a philosopher of Revolutionary France who, upon insulting a nobleman in 1726, was imprisoned, and only released on the condition that he leave for England. Upon reaching England, he saw the philosophy and self education that was spreading throughout the coffeehouses of London and other English cities. He returned to France and published a book about many ideas of the coffeehouses in England which was immediately banned, though not before he influenced France -
The Molasses Act of 1733
The Molasses Act of 1733 was an act by the British Parliament that put a tax on the imports of foreign molasses, in an attempt to get the British Colonies to buy molasses from the British sugar plantations. This act was nearly completely ignored, as most rum producers simply smuggled what they considered to be better molasses from the French, and bribed those who were supposed to collect the tax and duty from them. -
Discovery of Rum
Sometime in the second half of the seventeenth century, Rum overtook beer as the preferred drink of the colonists because it was cheaper, easier to make and stronger. Made using left over molasses from sugar production, this strong drink became the staple of all men, women and children in the colonies, as well as crewmen in ships bringing over slaves and other goods across the Atlantic. At one point, rum accounted for 80% of the exports for the British. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
This revolution that took place in Europe and particularly in England was a time in which production within factories skyrocketed due to new technology, technology that fueled Britain as a world superpower. This allowed European countries to expand into Asia where centuries of Isolationism have set nations like China far behind. This allowed them to subjugate and swindle these countries to gain wealth and power, and a drink that was at the heart of it all, Tea. -
Fixed Air
In 1767, a clergyman named Joseph Priestley investigated the properties of "fixed air", the name given to the gas the bubbled up from the fermenting alcohol in the brewery near his home. By experimenting, he was able to create the worlds first soda water, and by 1772 had devised a much more efficient way for producing this soda water. Although he made no attempt to commercialize his discovery, it was a chemist, Thomas Henry who began the roots of the tree that would grow to become Coca Cola. -
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a protest in which American Colonists boarded English Ships dressed as Native Americans and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. This protest was the result of the Tea Act of 1773, which endangered the lively hood of merchants who relied on smuggling goods from cheaper countries. The result was a series of laws called the Coercive Acts passed in 1774 in which the British attempted to exert their authority and dominance over the colonists, which enraged them. -
Period: to
The Great Depression
Following the stock market crash of 1929, the American economy began on a downward trend that would result in the deepest and longest lasting economic downturn in the country's history. At its worst point, nearly 15 million americans were unemployed, and nearly 50% of the country's banks had failed. It wasn't until the Second World War broke out that the industry of America pulled it out of the depression, and throughout the whole thing, Coca Cola was a drink that the people look to for comfort. -
Period: to
World War II
In one of the largest wars that the modern world had ever seen, over sixteen million servicemen went out to help in the war effort, and Coca Cola guaranteed each and every one of them a bottle of Coca Cola for five cents. The popularity of the drink in the armed forces helped to skyrocket the armies' morale, and in a war that reached Europe, and Africa, it helped to spread the goodness of Coca Cola throughout the globe. -
Period: to
The Cold War
The cold war was not a war with battles and lives lost, however instead it was a period of increased tensions as the communist Soviets and the Democratic Americans feared that another world war would erupt. Throughout this, Coca Cola came to be a sense of welcome for the Americans, as a utensil for the perfect life, whereas the Soviets viewed it as the vile and disgusting product of capitalism and everything that is wrong with the Western world. -
Period: to
Tensions in the Middle East
Due to the Religious Prohibition of alcohol in the Middle East in many Islamic states, and the hot climate, it was a prime area for selling the cool, refreshing, non alcoholic Coca Cola. Upon doing this, Israeli businessmen blamed the company for neglecting to work in Israel to save its business in the Arab market. This sparked lots of tension within the Middle East, which was reflected by the European, Middle Eastern tensions that still arise in the Middle East today.