Barley, Beer and the Dawn of Civilization

The rise of the human civilization started about 12 000 years ago when agriculture developed. There is a theory that beer is at the origin of the Neolithic revolution that started when plants got domesticated. Indeed, there is evidence that the barley plant, whose grain gives beer, was one of the first plants to be domesticated from its wild relative Hordeum spontaneum. Archeologists have also found remains of beer on ancient vases proving the existence of the drink at the very first stage of civilization.

The barley plant and its grains

http://mashbang.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/barley-hanging-on/

Agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution

http://www.myhistro.com/story/neolithic-revolution/13833#!early-agriculture-in-the-middle-east-30618

The discovery of beer was no more than an accident when barley grains were malted by the rain and then turned into beer. From that time on, beer became indispensable and barley had to be cultivated, ending hunter-gathering in the Levant and leading to a cascade of events and inventions.

Some beers

http://www.foodsci.wisc.edu/extension/brewing_beer_styles/

Agriculture led to a sedentary lifestyle and the domestication of the surrounding environment. It also had a social impact; the population could now grow and new political and hierarchical orders evolved. Much more came from the domestication of barley such as, trade, writing, art and mathematics that truly changed the world.Barley is also at the heart of the English measurement units. For example, an inch is equal to three grains of barley placed one after the other. We also owe the pyramids to beer since the workers who built them were paid with the popular drink.

More recently, beer has played a very important role in the discovery of germ theory by Louis Pasteur during the 19^th century and is responsible for the medicine that we have today. Beer also instigated the invention of refrigeration and the end of child labor. Today it remains one of the most popular drinks in the world as for example, in 2012, 55.1 billion gallons of beer were sold in the US and tens of thousands of brands of beer exist around the world. And barley remains the fourth most important cereal after wheat, rice and corn. If it weren’t for barley, our world, as we know it, would probably not exist.

Different beer brands 

http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2012/04/building-a-successful-global-beer-brand/

Relevant sites

http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/barley-february-grain-of-the-month

http://www.academia.edu/1662242/Barley_Malt_and_Ale_in_the_Neolithic_Near_East_10_000_-5000_BC

http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/beer1.htm

The Pursuit of Spices

Spices have played a very important role in world history and in the development of the western civilization. From empire to empire, ever since Antiquity, spices have been particularly prized possessions. Spices were known to come from the legendary Spice Islands, now known as the Moluccas, of which, for centuries, only the Arabs knew the location. They controlled the spice route and brought spices by caravans or camels to Western Europe where the demand was huge. The Romans later took control of the trade but spices were so expensive that they were only available to the wealthiest people. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the popularity of spices and its trade declined.

A map of the Spice Islands (Moluccas) from 1640

http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/spice-islands/spice-islands-maps.html

During the Middle Ages, Europeans began to desire spices more and more as they rediscovered their flavors during the crusades. Besides, in 1270 Marco Polo explored Asia and brought back memories of fabulous spices. Kings and Queens of Europe then decided to find the source of those precious products. The quest for spices set up a new age of discovery that fundamentally changed world history.

This competition for spices enabled the exploration of the world as well as the establishment of vast empires on both the eastern and western borders of Europe. Both the Spanish and the Portuguese had a great maritime power and wanted to search for the Spice Islands. On the one hand, the Spanish Christopher Columbus went west towards America, and discovered spices such as vanilla and chili peppers. On the other hand, the Portuguese Vasco de Gama sailed around Africa and reached India where he found pepper and later cinnamon in what is now Sri Lanka.

Vasco de Gama's first travel route

http://awhamilton.pbworks.com/w/page/29917352/Vasco%20da%20Gama%20DS%20LS

The Portuguese started building a spice empire and rapidly expanded to the Spice Islands from which great profit came. Consequently important trade networks surfaced inevitably arising the jealousy of other European countries, especially Spain, Holland and England. Wars over the Spice Islands and the East Indies broke out and lasted for about 200 years from the 15^th to the 17^th century. The Dutch who had recently become much more powerful, gained control of the spice trade by the beginning of the 17^th century. The British interest in the spice trade also grew and lead England to fight against the Dutch. Ultimately, England gave up the island Run where nutmeg grew to the Dutch in exchange for other colonies. This is how New Amsterdam became New York, now a major city in the world. Indubitably the British East India Company gained incredible power to the expense of the Dutch East India Company that collapsed at the end of the 18^th century.

Some spices

http://www.gtspice.com/bulk.html

Spices were crucial in the establishment of the world that we know today. They allowed the foundation of significant empires, and the discovery of entire continents. The quest for spices opened the world to trade and globalization. The influence of the spice trade on Europe has now declined, but oil has become very valuable to the western countries and might shape the world just as spices did. 

Relevant sites: 

http://www.livescience.com/7495-spice-trade-changed-world.html

http://begumskitchen.com/SpiceHistory.html

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/spices-how-search-flavors-influenced-our-world

http://theepicentre.com/the-spice-trade-a-taste-of-adventure/

Tobacco and Cotton: Crops of Supremacy and Guilt

When I think about tobacco and cotton, I can clearly remember the smell of the student who used to sit next to me in math class in high school, and the softness of my favorite dress. Tobacco and cotton are such prominent crops in our society that it is hard to imagine life without them. It is therefore easy to understand why, when they were first introduced in Europe, they had such a great success. Their discoveries however had a particularly strong impact on the new world. Indeed, tobacco and cotton were some of the most influential factors in the foundation of the United States of America.

The Cotton Crop

(http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/non-toxiccotton/)

The Tobacco Crop

(http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/infopays/photos/aff1.php3?fichier=Andorre_tabac&CP=AND)

Tobacco is the reason why colonialism really took off in Northern America. Until John Rolfe first planted tobacco seeds in Virginia in 1610, the first British settlements on the American territory had been a disaster.  Colonizers had died, either starved or chased by the surrounding indigenous populations.  However when the first commercial crop was cultivated in 1612, the future of America drifted; it was now possible to cultivate, live and rapidly earn a lot of money in northern America. With the increasingly high demand for tobacco in Europe, more and more settlers came to this new land to cultivate the crop. The first plantations appeared and soon after, in 1619, so did the first slaves.

A Tobacco Plantation: Its History and Association, 1859

( http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2013/05/22/tobacco-census-fixing-the-frauds-and-mischiefs-of-the-tobacco-trade/)

Slavery gave enormous profits to the settlers as well as a sense of prosperity and independence. However in the 18^th century, after the Seven Years War against the French on the American territory, the British tried to make the colonizers pay for the cost of the war. They established different acts such as the Stamp Act in 1765, creating a direct tax to be paid by the colonizers. This led to an American uprising and in 1776, the settlers obtained their independence, officially forming the United States of America. However, slave labor was still prominent and even George Washington produced tobacco in a plantation with 316 slaves.

Slavery unmistakably played a very important role in the history of the United States of America. Both tobacco and cotton were grown on slave plantations. And when by the end of the 18^th century, tobacco was becoming less and less profitable, cotton took over the USA’s economy and the southern land soon became covered by cotton plantations. In the following century, the cotton business took a giant step forward; indeed, in England, the textile revolution was raging, providing ways to manufacture cotton much faster and for much cheaper. This also meant that Britain would now need tons of raw cotton to be imported for its manufacture, which is an opportunity that the United States immediately seized. Cotton, indirectly through slavery, later caused the American Civil War (1861-1865) that forever changed the future of the USA. 

A Cotton Plantation 

(http://www.federalobserver.com/2012/02/26/cleaveland-why-the-civil-war-didn%E2%80%99t-end-slavery/)

Cotton and tobacco were very powerful crops and are certainly not guilt free. They will forever carry the weight of slavery, but it is also safe to say, that without them, the United States of America would not be the powerful nation that it is today. 

Relevant website: 

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/slavery.html