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> No two drugs have defined human civilization the > way alcohol and caffeine have. Tobacco? As much as one can quantify it, I'd argue it played as large
by charlesism 10y ago
> No two drugs have defined human civilization the
> way alcohol and caffeine have.
Tobacco?
As much as one can quantify it, I'd argue it played as large a role as coffee up until a few decades ago. Possibly larger.
Not that I'm planning on starting :)
- qeternity 10y agoOnce you factor is the geopolitical effects due to cash crop trade and production, I think you'd certainly be right.
- rangibaby 10y agoNot a drug, but wars have been fought over spice (in real life).
- magic_beans 10y agoSalt too!
- lostlogin 10y agoBut don't be forgetting Dune or Dune II. It was so fantastic.
- rangibaby 10y agoin real life, too ;-)
- devoply 10y agoTobacco and Coffee were both discovered in the new world. Civilization is much older than either of these discoveries by Europeans for Europeans. It was used by Indigenous Americans up to 1000 BC. But no one else knew about it.
- jalayir 10y agoCoffee is from Ethiopia. Maybe you're thinking of chocolate.
- devoply 10y agoNo you are right. But again coffee wasn't discovered by Europeans until around that same time mid to late 1500s. Civilization is much older than that.
- lostlogin 10y agoIt's an interest story/legend as to how coffee got introduced to Europe, left behind by the retreating Ottoman army at Vienna. Resulted, apparently, in the invention of the croissant too. The ends don't justify the means, but that's a lot more productive that many recent conflicts. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_Sobieski https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_Sobieski https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viennese_coffee_house https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viennese_coffee_house
- adrianN 10y agoOpium is also pretty important. The Opium Wars had a major influence on China.
- lostlogin 10y agoTea is another, and the various spices that were traded.
- beaconstudios 10y agotea basically drove colonial mercantilism for the UK.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- 49para 10y agoWasn't that also the driver for American Independence ?
- sethrin 10y agoIt was a focal point but I couldn't call it a major driver in and of itself. To the degree that it represented trade restraint and taxation issues, sure, but people didn't actually start a war and found a new nation because of the contents of their teacup.
- Karlozkiller 10y ago> Tobacco? Doesn't fit the narrative! On a side note I think I read or heard something along the lines of tobacco leaves being used as currency in the early westernised North America? Edit: http://archive.tobacco.org/History/colonialtobacco.html http://archive.tobacco.org/History/colonialtobacco.html
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]