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Cordoba, one of the most cultured ciites in Western Europe, at the end of the first millennium AD, popularized the process of distillation. The first products were used more for medicinal purposes and widely believed to be a useful medicine more than a relaxing drink.
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A guide on how to distill wine is produced by french professor Arnald of Villanova which leads to more widespread use of distilled wine or "agua vitae" for medical purposes such as improving memory, calming toothaches, preserving youth, and so on throught the 1300's.
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Distilled beverages began to become more popular at social gatherings as recreational drinks. Knowledge of distillation spreads due to the prinitng press and more drinks like whiskey and brandy are created as people begin to distill beverages using local ingredients.
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Portugese explorers begin to send slaves from trading posts in West Africa to work sugar plantations in the Caribean. Christopher Columbus finds the West Indies in 1492 which also leads to a rise in slave use for sugar production.
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Distilled beverages like brandy become popular forms of currency (besides textiles) in the slsve trade. Distilled drinks had less chance of spoiling and higher alcohol content than wine.
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Barbados sugar planters create "Kill-Devill" or "Rumbullion" later shortened to its present name rum. It becomes very popular with sailors and is rationed to slaves.
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Royal Navy Ships in the Caribbean adopt rum as a subsititute for the usual rations of beer. Admiral Edward Vernon creates the cocktail "grog" which inadvertently reduces scurvy rates among sailors and helps strengthen the British navy.
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The law passed by British Parliament taxed foreign/imported (mainly french) molasses in hopes of encoiuraging colonists to buy British molasses instead. However British sugar islands could not supply enough molasses to keep up with demand, prompting the colonists to smuggle french molasses into the country and setting a precedent of disobeying British law.
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British Parliament pass the Sugar Act, a strengthened Molasses Act, which gave the Royal Navy the power to collect duties in American waters and made it harder to smuggle in French sugar. Rum distillers led the oppostion to the act.
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After Alexander Hamilton passed an excise tax on distilled liquor, tensions grew on the western frontier which eventually culminates in violence. The so called "Whiskey Boys" demanded the tax be repealed and talked of secession. The rebellion was eventually shut down by federal soldiers. The rebellion also led to the creation of Bourbon
