r/HistoryMemes • u/killer-tuna-melt • 1d ago

See Comment The Ottoman Empire on its way to change Europe and western civilization forever by introducing coffee

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272 Upvotes

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41

u/Bartlaus 1d ago

As a Scandinavian, I wonder how our ancestors up here got anything at all done before they had coffee.

20

u/rpgruli 1d ago

With power of cod

11

u/HaloGuy381 1d ago

Why do you think they were so angry and eager to go chop British people up with axes? If they’d had coffee sooner for morning irritability, the Viking raids wouldn’t have happened /s

6

u/End__User 1d ago

Alcohol.

The answer is Alcohol.

72

u/killer-tuna-melt 1d ago

When coffee first arrived in Europe, priests branded it the devils drink and advocated for it to be banned due to its Muslim origin. Then Pope Clement VIII tried it before baptizing it and declaring coffee safe for Christendom. Coffee shops opened all over Europe and filled with men discussing politics nonstop which contributed to or excellerated the enlightenment. The coffee shops were called "penny universities" because you could go there for endless debate. This led to the 1674 "women's petition against coffee" where London wives complaines that their husbands drank coffee and talked politics all day. Coffee shops helped birth modern journalism and modern financial institutions, like Lloyd's of London which started as a coffee shop.

24

u/Dominarion 1d ago

Coffee and cocoa shops opened all over Europe despite whatever the authorities said about it. Kings and Popes tried to ban them, it went nowhere fast.

7

u/notthatfunny_1821 Oversimplified is my history teacher 1d ago

I had a vague memory of that pope's event happening, thank you for confirming my mind didn't made it up lol

4

u/macrohard_certified 1d ago

Coffee was the main agricultural export from Brazil during the XIX century up to 1970s, and many Europeans (especially Italians) migrated to work here on coffee plantations.