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Period: to
European History: SIns of Modern Europe
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Coffee and Coffee Houses
Coffee travelled from Africa to the Ottoman Empire, an hit Venice beofre it exploded in Europe in the 17th century. Coffee Houses were created in order to house this new consumed product and by 1663, there were 82 in London, and more than 500 by the 18th century. Foreign products such as coffee became more popular with the rise of the middle class. -
Het Amsterdamsch Hoerdom
This anonimous and mysterious book from 1681 gives a detailed and very important historical discription of pubs, inns and dance-rooms in Amsterdam during the 17th century. It also gives a wealth of information on drinks and alcohol consumption, prices and measures, and prostitution. It includes anecdotes on musicians and other people and life during the 17th century. Between fiction and reality, the anonymous author scrutinized the everyday-life on the aftermath of religious wars. -
Thomas Sydenham
Thomas Sydenham was an innovative English physician of his time. He represents a number of authoritive medical authorities who backed depressants and other questionable drugs for pain relief.
Portrait done by painter Mary Beale (1633-1699). -
The Baptist Confession of Faith
This confession was an example of many Christian documents which worked under the assumption that people were drinking alcohol casually. Because all major Christian sexts were completely tolerant of alcoholic consumption, and the vast majority of people in the 17th century were practicing Christians, the groundwork was laid for alcohol to become a central part of most European cultures for centuries to come. -
Dutch East India Company and Slavery
The Dutch East India Company was widely known as an international entity that held huge amounts of power and participated in all matter of trade including coffee production. Coffee demand in Europe required large scale production that included slavery.
"Natives of Arrakan sell slaves to the Dutch East India Company at Pipely/Baliapal (in Orissa), Jan. 1663" by a man named Wouter Schouten who was a surgeon in the Company and wrote about his expedition to the East Indies in 1708. -
Emergence of Champagne in France
The very first painting depicting champagne was released in 1735, Jean Francoise de Troy's "The Oyster Lunch," depicting nobles at leisure drinking champagne. Champagne was, even since its inception, a symbol of royalty and nobility, yet was increasingly popular among the middle classes as France approached its revolution. The capacity and desire for the upper middle class to buy champagne foreshadowed the precipitating of the French Revolution. -
England's Gin Craze
Late 17th century relations between England and France were predictably turbulent. England promoted to its subjects gin as a substitute to French brandy, and the half-century to follow was characterized by a sharp increase in alcohol consumption across England, especially in London. William Hogart's prints Beer Street and Gin Lane promoted the Gin Act of 1751, the last of six acts over 22 years aimed at decreasing English gin consumption. -
Roll’s Best Virginia Tobacco Advertisement
A Tobacco advertisement from the 18th century, it demonstrates a propagandized perspective on the realities of tobacco production, with images of black slaves, Indians and a supreme white figure interacting cohesively. With the growing normalization of tobacco and its consumption in the 18th century, the image for tobacco companies had to be above reproach. -
"The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith
Through the 17th and 18th century new ideas of liberalism appear thanks to the great-minded thinkers like Adam Smith. A Scottish philospher and economist who believed that free market and liberalism were the best solutions for bettering the economy. He argues in his book "The Wealth of Nations" (1776) that the European economy was bad because of the limitations instated by monarchies. He suggests that allowing others to compete in the economy will produce positive economic outcomes. -
Dangerous liaisons
The epistolary novel is exposing sins and perversions of the so-called Ancien Regime. The author celebrates libertinism and above that, it is a satyric critique of the aristocracy who was embodied in a moral crisis, where women are trying to liberate themselves through harsh vengeance. Considerated as a morality tale today, it was not viewed as a political critique of the Ancien Regime until the French Revolution that made it appear as such. -
"Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine-Hasbourg, reine de France et ses enfants", by Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Le Brun, 1789
Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), born Archduchess of Austria, married the Dauphin of France, Louis XVI in 1770 and became Queen of France in 1774. Later known as 'Madame Deficit' she was negatively viewed by the French people because of her spending habits. Her extravagant spending and careless attitude towards France's economic position made the country vulnarable to politcal and economic tensions. -
Faust, Goethe
Faust II (1832) is the posthumus of the firt version from Goethe. A deal with the devil or is a cultural motif, best exemplified by the legend of Faust.The major theme of Faust, that of supernatural temptation and human strength or weakness, is seen in the earliest literature of ancient cultures. Of sins and evilness, Goethe is one of the most famous writer of modern europe who reappropriated important religious references. -
Industrial Revolution and Alcoholism in England
As the Industrial Revolution sparked in england, and industrial progress erupted, the vast majority of workers were more impoverished than ever before. To deal with their condition, many turned to excessive drinking, and a century after the first Gin Act, England found itself once again afflicted by an epidemic of drunkenness. Many government officials found this directly caused the sharp increase in crime rates in such a short time period. -
'La Tabacomanie'
This french satirical cartoon demonstrates the growing addiction to tobacco enabled by domestic mass-industrialized production of cigarettes. But more over, the satire demonstrates the class distinctions found in how one smokes their tobacco.In the image, those of Bourgeois society smoke cigars. -
La Dame aux Camelias
The author Alexandre Dumas son is relating his own story through the novel. What Armand felt for Marguerite is what the author felt for Marie Duplessis, a demi-mondaine courtisan in the aftermath of the second french revolution, where romanticism is trying to draw the individuality of persons. -
Une saison en enfer, Rimbaud
In the aftermath of his break-up with Paul Verlaine, Rimbaud published A Season in Hell that describes the painful homosexuality relationship that he had with Verlaine.
Chapter on Bad Blood: "Now I am accursed, I detest my native land. The best thing is a drunken sleep, stretched out on some strip of shore." -
"Une des premieres automobile Mors", 1898
Nikolas Otta (1832-1891), a German engineer, created the first internal combustion engine in 1876, in other words the first gasoline powered automobile. The automotive industry was taking over Europe in the late 19th century, inventors everywhere were putting out on the market their best designs. Mors, a french based company is among the automotive competitors. Mass production is also used in this industry to bring to the consumer market a popular and affordable car. -
Opium Wars and Imperialism
"China- the cake of King and Emperors" by Henry Meyer. This is a french satirical cartoon, that demonstrates the legacy of 19th century Opium wars and the imperialist, economic motives of European powers. Many European powers wanted China to adopt an 'open door' international trade policy towards all manner of trade including the profitable opium, which was exported by English Merchants. -
Absinthe and Bohemian Culture
The painting is: “The Absinthe Drinker” by Czech painter Viktor Oliva. Absinthe is known as a hallucinogen which became very popular in France from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. It became very popularly consumed by Parisian writers and artists, including the likes of Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway. However, it did receive criticism from conservative factions of French society like prohibitionists, and Absinthe was eventually banned in 1915. -
"Magasins Reunis d'Epinal, vue perspective" by Joseph Hornecher, 1902
The 20th century is the start of a new way of consuming and a new kind of consumer. Department stores represent the ideal place to spend money because a person can buy almost everything in one place. This kind of consumption is primarily directed to attract sophisticatedwomen who play a significant role in the stimulation of the economy at the time. These stores were located in the most cosmopolitan cites and demonstrate ideas of grandeur as well as the nations wealth. -
Russian Prohibition of Vodka
When Tsar Nicholas II banned the production and sale of vodka, a state-owned industry, he simultaneously increased the already-deafening dissent against his regime, created an illicit market for alcohol, and slashed his government's budget by a third as it was entering the largest conflict the world had ever borne witness to, World War I. At the very least, the decision played a major role in the events which led to the Tsar's fall from power in 1917 and the turbulent years to follow in Russia. -
Alcohol Rations in World War I
During the most destructive conflict the world had ever borne witness to, governments on both sides used alcohol as a way to keep troops from demoralization. European governments, for the first time, used alcohol to their benefit on a huge scale. Germany, France, Belgium, and England all issued their troops daily rations of different alcoholic beverages. The deeply demoralized Russian troops recieved no such ration, due to their recent prohibition. -
Fernande Grudet, known as Madame Claude
After acting as an agent of the Resistance during the German Occupation of France during World War II and doing several other jobs, she created her exclusive prostitution network in Paris during the 1960s. Her clients were famous political figures (like J-F. Kennedy), members of the Mafia, as well as police administrators who all ensured her protection. Finally, she has been condemned to 3 years of jail by her over-procurement discovered by the french government. -
"Week-end cigarettes au goût anglais” by Severo Pozzati, 1936
Through advertising, tobacco, among many other consumer goods, flourished as a leading consumer product. Advertising was used as a means to attract consumers. Posters such as these were used to fight off competitors and get new products out on the market. The French tobacco industry, ‘le Service d’exploitation industrielle des tabacs’ (SEIT), used advertising to annonce their new product: Week-end cigarettes.
