A History of the World in 6 Glasses P. 69-129

Summary:

The Imperial Vine:

Conflicts between Greek and Rome are arising and it's all leading to the vines that makes wine. The Romans are gaining popularity by simply copying the Greeks' culture, techniques, and business. Then the Romans wanted the vines that's located in Greek islands to be transported and transplanted to Italy. The Romans pretty much duplicated how the Greek made their wines. Ever since Rome started making more and more wines, people stopped caring about beers and only wanted wine. Just like beer, wine was consumed and enjoyed by all sorts of different people, ranging from age to class. Another thing that the Romans copied from the Greek is how to drink their wine in a civilized manner, meaning having water mixed in with their wine. Lastly, wine played a crucial role as to why Christian do drink wine and Muslims do not. Bread and wine symbolizes Christ's body and blood that he sacrificed for everyone so it would be an honorable thing to actually drink the wine as well as eat the bread. As for Muslims, they believed that Satan is sending them wine and gambling to disrupt their innocent minds and that they should abstain from drinking and gambling at all times. 

High Spirits, High Seas:

Near the first millennium AD, Cordoba of Arab Andalusia was considered the most cultured city in western Europe because of all the developments they had during that time. They offered parks, palaces, paved rads, mosques, libraries, and so much more. They also looked back on the knowledge of the Greek to invent and brainstorm further items and ideas. Arab chemists developed how to distill wine to use specific items for other researches. Thanks to distilled drinks, it may it a whole lot easier for people to store and transport it to other places. Distilled water plus a little bit of fire always helped a lot in the medical field because it was very strong, strong enough to cure sicknesses and relieves pain. Distilled water can also be known as aqua vitae, and introducing it to the medical field was a success. Since beer and wine is getting a tad expensive to ship to places, Ligon decided to create a drink that won't spoil as fast and be made in large quantities; He called it kill-devil, rumbullion, or rum (for short). Slaves take advantage of rum because it actually helped them to stay on task and dealt with any hardship/labor. So, the creation of rum helped make those who consumed it more energetic and way more affordable than beer and wine.

The Drinks That Built America:

Almost anyone could afford rum back in the days because it was so darn cheap. But not enough molasses was being produced to support how much rum is being made so, distillers were forced to decrease making rum but they didn't listened. They kept their extremely cheap prices and used smuggled molasses to make it. That all led to the Molasses Act, which then led to a few more acts during the French and Indian War. Unfortunately, many supplies of molasses was ruined so distillers had a difficult time producing rum. So, whiskey took the placement of rum because it only needed staple products to make and even cheaper than rum.  

Quote:

"Many great events have proceeded from much smaller causes." (Standage 121).

Reaction:

I agree with this quote because all of the proof is in the text, itself. During the years of learning history, I haven't learned nor talked much about the Molasses Act. But I've read a lot about French and Indian War, and how there were many acts that came after one another. For example, the Boston Massacre which led to the Boston Tea Party and that led to the Sugar Act and so forth. After reading this specific passage, it all began because of a beverage, rum. Because of the Molasses Act, many people have fought and stood up for what they believe in by facing the multiple acts that were trying to bring them down. YEAH, FIGHT THE POWER!... :)