Alcohol is one of the most well-known stimulants. According to studies, a few years ago the average consumption of alcoholic beverages per person was approximately 145 liters per year. For many it is a nice drink, a nightcap. But for many others, pleasure has become an addiction, and many people are addicted to alcohol.
History of alcohol
Alcohol is a product of microorganisms, which is created when yeast or bacteria build up sugar. This is a biochemical process that is more than two billion years old. As a pleasure, intoxicant or food, alcohol has a tradition dating back thousands of years. Presumably, alcohol-containing food is as old as humanity.
The use of overripe fruits, which have already started to ferment, has an intoxicating effect. This was an accidental discovery. Only much later, with the development of arable farming, does the real production of alcoholic beverages begin. Alcohol is now even a cultural asset: the ancient Egyptians already brewed beer. The Romans worshiped Bacchus as the god of wine and the Greeks worshiped Dionysos. The Germans made honey wine from honey and water and in Tibet beer was brewed from barley.
Alcohol is also the oldest drug used for religious reasons. The first alcoholic products were mainly used in ritual acts and were only intended for a small group of shamans and elderly people.
In addition to other drugs, alcohol softened the transition to a trance state (the now well-known drunkenness) during parties and rites. Today, red wine is still a symbol of the blood of the Redeemer at the Lord’s Supper.
Centuries-old tradition of beer brewing
The oldest known beer was demonstrated in Sudan. This beer dates from the eighth century BC and was made from barley products. In 3000 BC, the Sumerians also brewed their own beer. From the Sumerians there is the blue monument, which shows the goddess Nina preparing sacrificial beer. According to Egyptian mythology, Osiris, the god of agriculture, himself taught the Egyptians how to produce beer and wine.
Beer was mainly produced in the colder areas of Northern Europe, where there was no wine growing. Barley, water and yeast were used as raw materials. The earlier beers did not have a long shelf life. Only after the addition of hops by merchants from Flanders and the Netherlands in the fifteenth century did this change. The mildly bitter hop-malt brew almost completely displaced beer types without hops around the eighteenth century.
Development of viticulture
The production of wine from fruits goes back a long way. First indications of vine cultivation and wine making date back to the times of Mesopotamia and Iran, five centuries BC. Wine culture later spread in Egypt and then came to Europe, first in Greece and Spain. In the first century BC, the first vines were grown in Italy and France, which are now real wine countries.
The Romans started the art of viticulture in the areas they conquered, such as Alsace, the Rhine and the Moselle. For the Romans, wine served as a sacred drink, food and stimulant. However, this high-quality drink was also used as a medicine for internal and external use, because it had a disinfectant effect.
After wine left its mark in Europe, it also reached overseas territories in the sixteenth century. Missionaries took the vines with them when they traveled to South America, California, South Africa and Australia.
Futile battle against alcohol
Already in the Middle Ages, alcohol quickly became a problem. Because it was available in large quantities, serfs and day laborers were paid with alcohol. This was still common at the beginning of the industrial age and this gave rise to the so-called poverty alcoholism. Since 1750, the government of England and the American colonies had tried in vain to control excessive alcohol consumption.
In the USA, between 1919 and 1933, people wanted to solve this problem by banning alcohol. However, it remained a vain attempt. The flourishing black market ignored the law, causing the state to lose significant amounts in taxes. Despite the ban, there were many cafes called ‘Speakeasy’ at that time that served alcohol. Moreover, there was a lot of crime. The illegal smuggling of alcohol was mainly carried out by the American mafia. One of the most famous figures of that time, who became extremely wealthy with this was the legendary gangster boss Al Capone.
Society and alcohol today
Unlike the Islamic world, which forbids the consumption of alcohol due to religious beliefs, alcoholic drinks are already permitted as a stimulant in the Western world. The downside of this, however, is worrying: The legal drug alcohol, together with nicotine, is number one when it comes to addictive substances.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), alcohol plays a role in 1.8 million deaths every year. Approx. 20 grams of alcohol in women (that is a quarter of a liter of wine or half a liter of beer) and 40 grams in men (half a liter of wine or a liter of beer) were classified as worrying by the WHO. Nevertheless, experts warn against the regular use of alcohol, because it is a poison that occurs in the natural metabolism of our body and can lead to permanent damage.
