Coffee the fuel of Revolutions...Coffee Houses...

[5fish]

You know coffee fueled our nation's revolution back in the 1770s... Coffee houses were places where people could meet and debate the issue of the day between the classes... Drinking coffee showed all you were a patriot...

Sip Sip Hurrah! How Coffee Shaped Revolutionary America

Did you know that the first mention of coffee in America was by Jamestown's most famous settler? Captain John Smith knew about coffee from his travels in...

www.battlefields.org

An early reading of the Declaration of Independence occurred on the steps of the City Tavern, also known as the Merchant Coffee House, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The tavern was built in 1773 on South Second Street and was visited by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Paul Revere, among others. The First Continental Congress held meetings there. The building was reconstructed in 1976, and today houses a restaurant.

Most homes were not equipped with the tools to brew coffee, so coffeehouses rapidly became popular places for people of all socio-economic statuses. Additionally, as coffee replaced beer as the chosen drink, more political conversations occurred. The Boston coffeehouse and tavern the Green Dragon, built in 1701, was known as the "Headquarters of the Revolution" because of the meetings that occurred in the basement. Members of the St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons, which included Paul Revere, bought the tavern in 1764, and the Sons of Liberty began meeting there. Some even suggest that parts of the Boston Tea Party were planned there.

Coffee fueled Revulotion around the world... before ours... Coffee Houses...

How Coffee Fueled Revolutions—and Revolutionary Ideas | HISTORY

From the Ottoman Empire to the American and French Revolutions, coffeehouses have offered a place for (sober) people to discuss new waves of thought.

www.history.com

Sultan Murad IV decreed death to coffee drinkers in the Ottoman Empire. King Charles II dispatched spies to infiltrate London’s coffeehouses, which he saw as the original source of “false news.” During the Enlightenment, Voltaire, Rousseau and Isaac Newton could all be found talking philosophy over coffee. The cafés of Paris sheltered revolutionaries plotting the storming of the Bastille and later, served as the place authors like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre plotted their latest books.

History is steeped in ideas sparked over cups of coffee. Here's a rundown of the revolutionary power of the commonplace café. (Read the link)

 

[5fish]

OMG... @rittmeister , @Wehrkraftzersetzer , @O' Be Joyful , @jgoodguy , @diane ... OMG the Prussians banned coffee from the masses... It sounds like Coffee disrupted the common order of Europe, when it was introduce...

When Frederick The Great Went To War On Coffee » Brookston Beer Bulletin

You're probably familiar with this great beer quote by Frederick the Great, also known as Frederick II of Prussia: Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer. And it is a great quote, but the context in which he said it is even more interesting. It was from a proclamation he

brookstonbeerbulletin.com

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Whereupon, in 1781, finding that all his efforts to reserve the beverage for the exclusive court circles, the nobility, and the officers of his army, were vain, the king created a royal monopoly in coffee, and forbade its roasting except in royal roasting establishments.

And it is a great quote, but the context in which he said it is even more interesting. It was from a proclamation he made on September 13, 1777. Also said during that proclamation was this. “Everybody is using coffee. If possible, this must be prevented. My people must drink beer.” He was dead set against the use of coffee by his citizens, but especially his troops. Here’s the paragraph the quote is taken from:

" It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects, and the amount of money that goes out of the country as a consequence. Everybody is using coffee; this must be prevented. My people must drink beer. His Majesty was brought up on beer, and so were both his ancestors and officers. Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war. "

 

[5fish]

The French had their part in coffee... first the help advance coffee production and later it fueled their revolution...

Coffee, coffeehouses, and the French Revolution

A common theme in places where rulers banned public coffee drinking (see earlier posts in June) was the danger of coffeehouses as meeting places for talk against the king or government. Enforcement of these bans, from fines to beatings to beheadings, may have helped keep revolt at bay. But in 18th

www.koffeekompanions.com

Coffee had a positive beginning in France under King Louis XIV. In 1714, he received a gift of a young coffee plant from the Mayor of Amsterdam and ordered it planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. In 1723, a young naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu got a seedling from the King's plant and took it safely to the island of Martinique, after overcoming horrendous weather, a saboteur who tried to destroy the seedling, and a pirate attack. The seedling not only thrived but fostered more than 18 million coffee trees on Martinique during the next 50 years. In fact, it was the parent of all coffee trees throughout the Caribbean, as well as South and Central America.

Meanwhile, according to historian Calestous Juma, coffee's critics in France likened the drink to wine and repeatedly tried to outlaw it on this basis. When coffee drinking and coffeehouses continued to spread into France’s cities, the threatened wine and beer industries attacked.

As a center for intellectuals, the Café de Procope looms large in the annals of the French Revolution. During the turbulent days of 1789 one could find at the tables, drinking coffee or stronger beverages and debating the burning questions of the hour, such characters as Marat, Robespierre, Danton, Hébert, and Desmoulins.

Napoleon Bonaparte, then a poor artillery officer seeking a commission, was also there. He busied himself mostly in playing chess, a favorite recreation of the early Parisian coffeehouse patrons. According to popular accounts, the café’s owner François Procope once required young Bonaparte to leave his hat for security while he sought money to pay his coffee score. Bonaparte absorbed the radical principles of coffeehouse speakers and gradually gained influence in politics and rapid military promotions as he became a front runner in the collective resistance against the French monarchy. Sadly, his personal ambitions drove him to betray many of these principles in his eventual drive to become the first emperor of France in 1804.

 

[jgoodguy]

Coffee also powered wars and the industrial revolution.

 

[rittmeister]

Coffee also powered wars and the industrial revolution.

... and navies

• the royal navy buys more coffee than tea
• the us navy has a saying:

q: could the us navy fight and win a war without coffee?​

a: we think yes but we'd prefer not to try​

 

[5fish]

I think I found the first German coffee house... Breman...

Coffee City Bremen - Der Leiermann

In 2004 the Bremer Marketplace was awarded the title “World Cultural Heritage”. Rightly so, I think, as the town hall and the upright Roland bear witness to a free bourgeoisie, which could arise here through the long work of the Hanseatic League. What is probably far less well known, however, is...

www.der-leiermann.com

As early as 1673, the first coffee house opened its doors here, making it the first in the entire German-speaking world. By the way, the Dutchman Jan van Huesden received permission to brew and serve the then little-known “Indian drink”.

 

[5fish]

the Brits used Coffee houses to make money... Coffee Houses the root of Capitalism...

| Historyworld

HistoryWorld contains narrative world history and interactive world history timelines.

www.historyworld.net

London's coffee houses: from1652

The first coffee house in London opens in 1652. Soon much of England's business is being conducted in these congenial establishments where merchants can gather to strike their bargains over a cup of the newly fashionable liquid.

Individual coffee houses, like clubs, acquire their own identity and clientele. Ship owners and sea captains congregate at Edward Lloyd's. Here they discuss terms with men who are prepared to take a gamble on the success of the next voyage, insuring it against disaster in return for a premium. Their circle develops into the insurance giant Lloyd's of London, retaining the name of the coffee-house owner.

At Jonathan's coffee-house there are customers with money to risk in a different way. These are the investors who take a share in a trading venture, accepting part of the risk in return for part of the profit. The enterprises in which they participate are joint-stock companies, of which the East India Company is one of the first. Others, chartered when the coffee-houses are already in business, include companies with monopolies for Hudson's Bay (1670), Africa (1672) and the South Sea (1711).

Shares in such companies can be bought and sold at Jonathan's coffee house. The brokers who arrange the deals here call themselves (from 1773) the Stock Exchange.

Here is Lloyds of London was a coffee house at first...

Lloyd's Coffee House - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It was opened by Edward Lloyd (c. 1648 – 15 February 1713) on Tower Street in 1686.[1][2] The establishment was a popular place for sailors, merchants, and shipowners, and Lloyd catered to them by providing reliable shipping news. The shipping industry community frequented the place to discuss maritime insurance, shipbroking, and foreign trade.[2] The dealings that took place led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyd's of London,[when?] Lloyd's Register and several related shipping and insurance businesses.[3]

 

[5fish]

It seems beer suffered at the hands of coffee...

From Beer to Caffeine: The Birth of Innovation

Three hundred years ago, during the Age of Enlightenment, the coffee house became the center of innovation. Back then, most people went from drinking beer to consuming coffee (i.e. from being tipsy to being wired) and ideas started exploding.

www.huffpost.com

Three hundred years ago, during the Age of Enlightenment, the coffee house became the center of innovation. Back then, most people went from drinking beer to consuming coffee (i.e. from being tipsy to being wired) and ideas started exploding.

In his excellent book Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, author Steven Johnson explores the impact of coffeehouses on the Enlightenment culture of the 18th century. "It's no accident," he says, "that the age of reason accompanies the rise of caffeinated beverages." There are two main drivers at work here. The first is that before the discovery of coffee, much of the world was intoxicated much of the day. This was mostly a health issue. Water was too polluted to drink, so beer was the beverage of choice. In his New Yorker essay "Java Man," Malcolm Gladwell explains it this way: "Until the 18th century, it must be remembered, many Westerners drank beer almost continuously, even beginning their day with something called "beer soup." Now they begin each day with a strong cup of coffee. One way to explain the industrial revolution is as the inevitable consequence of a world where people suddenly preferred being jittery to being drunk."

 

[diane]

Coffee and beer seemed to be essential in the Revolution: George Washington took a brewery with his army so they could have beer in the field. It wasn't strong beer but it worked! I think today we might think our country was founded by a bunch of drunks - they all drank well over what would be considered healthy today. Washington was always getting new false teeth because the port he drank (a LOT) turned them purple.

Civil War was fueled by coffee and tobacco. The rebs had tobacco but no coffee, the Yanks had coffee but no tobacco...there were always impromptu truces being made for trade. Commerce stops for no war! The same combination fueled WWII soldiers with the addition of sugar - coffee, donuts and a cigarette was cheerfully provided by the government. Soldiers brought that home with them as well.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Coffee and beer seemed to be essential in the Revolution: George Washington took a brewery with his army so they could have beer in the field. It wasn't strong beer but it worked! I think today we might think our country was founded by a bunch of drunks - they all drank well over what would be considered healthy today. Washington was always getting new false teeth because the port he drank (a LOT) turned them purple.

 

[5fish]

Russia's first coffeehouse...

Coffee Culture in Russia – from Peter I to Present | Kremlin Tour

Coffee Culture & Habits in Russia | History of Coffee in Imperial Russia | Modern Coffee Statistics | Traditions of Coffee-Drinking in Russia

kremlintour.com

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As regards Russia, historically, the tradition of coffee-drinking there begins with the era of Peter the Great. He "discovered" coffee while in Holland, became fond of it and brought the drink to Russia in the beginning of XVIII century. At first the court noblemen (or “boyare”) called this “outlandish pot” a “smut syrup”. The Tsar, though, urged them “not to cast aspersions on the praiseworthy drink”. So little by little coffee caught on in the country. The first coffee house in Russia was opened in 1720 in St. Petersburg Peter and Paul Fortress and was called “Chetyre Fregata” (“Four Frigates”).

Here is an article on coffee from the Tzars to the Commies... They made a coffee maker...

As the 1800s progessed, Russia experienced unprecedented economic growth and integration with world markets. As coffee imports edged up, the famous Tula samovar makers began also making coffee services. These were similar in appearance to samovars, but were heated by an alcohol burner from beneath rather than the regular and much higher-temperature pipe filled with hot coals or embers inside the tank. Various publications also turned their attention to coffee recipes, recommending mixing coffee with various liqueurs or floral extracts such as rose hip, orange blossom, or lavender. Buttered and salted coffee seems to have also been popular.

 

[5fish]

It seems Native Americans were the first to drink caffeine drinks ...

Native Americans were the first to make caffeinated drinks

While coffee wasn't available to them, the Natives brewed caffeinated drinks from two other plants hundreds of years before Arabs put the coffee pot on.

www.zmescience.com

 

[5fish]

Here is this tidbit on coffee... You will learn its many names... North America could have been a coffee giant but?

The Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

Yaupon tea, a botanical cousin to yerba maté, is now almost unknown.

www.atlasobscura.com

Cassina, or black drink, the caffeinated beverage of choice for indigenous North Americans, was brewed from a species of holly native to coastal areas from the Tidewater region of Virginia to the Gulf Coast of Texas. It was a valuable pre-Columbian commodity and widely traded. Recent analyses of residue left in shell cups from Cahokia, the monumental pre-Columbian city just outside modern-day St. Louis and far outside of cassina’s native range, indicate that it was being drunk there. The Spanish, French, and English all documented American Indians drinking cassina throughout the American South, and some early colonists drank it on a daily basis. They even exported it to Europe.

The Civil War reinforced this association of cassina with a hardscrabble lifestyle. When the South seceded, luxury imports became scarce, and both rich and poor turned to cassina. After the war, when coffee and tea became available again, cassina had acquired more negative associations: war, hunger, and defeat.

 

[5fish]

Tolkien's Isengard was about the Industrial Revolution...

Isengard represented the Industrial Revolution: Because Tolkien hated technology

Oftentimes, when we think of allegory associated with Lord of the Rings, we give it a biblical interpretation. Gandalf is Jesus, dying for…

medium.com

While this interpretation holds well, there is another, more prevailing view that holds true throughout the story: the fall of the old world. In Middle-earth everything is in decay. And a new force is rising: the force of darkness. It becomes apparent, not only through orcs and Uruks, but through a will to supplant the old world. The method: modernization.

In both the movies and books we see Isengard, the home of Saruman the White, go from forest to factory. Why: to build an army for the dark lord Sauron, who is coming to claim the world. Where trees once rested, swords and armor are being forged deep in the earth. And in the midst of this is the enemy. Their tool of destruction is steel. And flames.

Tolkien himself was never alive for the Industrial Revolution, but he did live in time to witness its effects. He maintained a close relationship with the countryside, where he grew up. He even said that the Shire was inspired by his old home in Sarehole, Birmingham.

 

[5fish]