A History of the World in Six Glasses: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

At the end of the first millennium AD, the most “cultured” city in the Western world was Cordoba. Cordoba had a vast library, beautiful palaces, sophisticated sewer systems, and many other strikingly modern features. Cordoba was an Arab city, and the center of Arabic scholarship. Cordoba’s citizens pioneered trigonometry, modern cartography, algebra, and—most relevantly to this book—the process now known as distillation.

Distillation involves vaporizing and then re-condensing a liquid. This process makes the liquid pure. When wine is distilled, it becomes much more alcoholic, because wine’s boiling point is lower than water’s—that is to say, the steam that rises from boiling wine contains more alcohol and less water. Arabic scholarship was crucial in describing this process and popularizing it throughout Europe. Even the English word “alcohol” derives from Arabic, proving the importance of Arabic thinking in Western drinking. Throughout the age of imperialism, Standage argues, distilled liquor was an important commodity, reflecting the enormous changes in the world at the time.

In 1386, Charles II of Navarre, “Charles the Bad,” was lying on his deathbed. His doctors decided to try a new medicine—distilled wine, or “aqua vitae.” They had learned of the distillation technique from Arabic texts. The doctors fed Charles highly alcoholic liquid, hoping that it would cure him of his diseases. Likewise, many other doctors at the time advocated distilled wine as a medicine. Doctors claimed it could improve the memory, fight nerve disease, and cure dozens of other afflictions. Aqua vitae was known as “burnt wine,” or, in English, “brandy.”

The invention of distillation coincided closely with the rise of European exploration. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal pioneered voyages to north Africa and the Americas. In the Americas, Portuguese explorers found sugarcane, a plant that could be enriched to produce sugar. Because sugar required a large amount of labor to cultivate, Portugal turned to slavery, kidnapping Africans and taking them to the Americas to work. This constituted the first major surge in slavery since the time of the ancient Romans. The surge continued throughout the 16th century, when Britain, Holland, Spain, and France joined Portugal in exploring the New World. All of these nations used alcohol to trade with Africa: wine and brandy were accepted forms of currency for slave traders in Africa. As Standage puts it, “brandy oiled the wheels of the slave trade.”

On the island of Barbados, colonists experimented with new ways of making spirits, using the new supply of sugar. One new drink, rum, became popular in the 17th century. Rum was produced by allowing cane sugar to ferment for long periods—its name derives from the slang word “rumbullion,” meaning a brawl—suggesting the link between drinking and fighting. Rum was served to slave traders in Africa and slaves in the Americas to soften their hardships. Rum was also a popular drink for sailors journeying to and from Europe. Rum elegantly closed the “triangle” of trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas: rum purchased slaves, who were then used to produce sugar and more rum.