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Chapter 9 - Empires of Tea: presentation

Empires of Tea Speech - Notes & Overview:

          Tea was available in Europe a few years before coffee and was used as a luxury and medical drink. There was much controversy on whether tea is good for a person and should be drunk. The Dutch doctor, Cornelius Bontekoe believed that the average person should consume tea every day or every hour. More specifically, a person should drink 10 cups a day, 50 cups if they were sick, and 200 cups at the most. A German doctor to the King of Denmark, Simon Pauli, thought that tea was poisonous from transporting it from China & quickens death. 

          Britain soon became the most tea-loving nation in Europe. At the beginning of 1700, almost no one in Britain drank tea, but by 1800, almost every one was drinking tea. At this time, prices of a pound of tea fell to 1/20 their original cost. This is because of the newly adopted practice of adulteration. Adulteration is the addition of ash, flowers, sawdust, & willow leaves or other items to a bag of tea. This allowed for more tea to be consumed than what imported. So much tea was produced in Europe at the time that everyone in every class could at least have 1-2 cups a day. 

          Out of the different flavors of tea during this era, black tea became more popular because it was more suited to survive longer voyages and was safer to drink because its adulterations were not poisonous like those of green tea. 

Oil in the Middle East: Map As History - history presentation

The Iranian Revolution: thoughts and reflections

          There were many aftershocks created from the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Even to begin with, the relations between Iran and the West had fallen apart due to the US's dislike for the Islamic Revolution. Cutting much of America's influence on exports of oil, the empowerment of the Islamic people in the Middle East and Iran was not beneficial to the West's need for black gold. The hostage crisis in Tehran cut a ravine of mistrust between Iran and the West. The Iranians accused the West for helping the pre-revolution governance of the country to regain its power. This mistrust of the West's actions leading to the crisis then lead the West to further dislike Iran. 

          A different aftershock created from the Islamic Revolution makes the culture of Iran more separated from the West. This change is the creation of women's dress code in the Middle East. I believe that when a religious or cultural society of people, such as certain majorities in Iran, is pushed back and forgotten during progress or minimized, then something like a change in dress code to preserve an non-outside influenced culture is completely understandable. I would sympathize with the choice to remain culturally different.