Four types of plants affect human life

These four plants not only change the daily life of hundreds of millions of people but also affect the history of the world.

Tobacco

Tobacco plants originated in the Americas and the people who brought it popular in the world were Europeans.

On October 12, 492, according to the first-day maritime log of Columbus's American dock, recorded the offerings of indigenous peoples, in which there was a ' yellow dry-smelling leaf. special flavor '- that is tobacco. However, at that time, tobacco leaves were thrown on the deck, no one looked forward.

Half a month later, Columbus's boat arrived in Cuba, the sailors marveling to discover that some Aboriginal people were smoking yellow leaves rolled into a round shape, occasionally releasing cloudy smoke. Some sailors boldly tasted and became Europe's first tobacco crusher.

Tobacco tree (Photo: caobangtrade)

Cigarettes followed the Columbus fleet back to Europe. The first place to land on the voyage is Spain, followed by Portugal and other parts of Europe. In 1580, tobacco was brought into Turkey via Portugal, then spread to Iran, India, Japan .

In 1575, Spain shipped tobacco plants to the Philippines (Spanish colony at the time) and quickly became a money-making product. Before and after 1600, Chinese sailors and merchants brought tobacco to China. By 1620, tobacco has become a global product, widely available.

One of the reasons tobacco is widely accepted is its miraculous medicinal effect. All European doctors in the sixteenth century used tobacco as a " medicine". They use it to treat toothache, intestinal parasites, bad breath, tetanus . and even cancer.

There is a way to say superstition that tobacco can treat plague, even at public schools in the UK every morning, use a whip to force students to smoke cigarettes to avoid this disease.

Today, modern science has shown the harmful effects of tobacco on human health, which is the cause of lung cancer, palate, very dangerous.

Tea - the beginning of two wars

A plant other than tobacco makes people addicted. But it is not as harmful as tobacco is tea. China is the country that holds the earliest tea production and processing techniques in the world. However, due to limited transaction, tea consumption is limited to popular in China and some neighboring countries for a long time.

The first step in universalizing tea trees globally must include Arabs. Around the year 850, the Arabs knew Chinese tea through the Silk Road. In 1559, they imported tea to Europe through the Venice trade route.

At that time, in Europe, drinking tea became part of the daily life of the aristocracy. Due to the high price, very few people get tea.

Tea tree (Photo: gongfu-tea.com)

By the beginning of the seventeenth century, England's East India Company was the only visionary company to have seen the opportunity for tea business. It took the company 66 years to get a tea trading license with Chinese people. Since then, every year the company imports 4,000 tons of tea from China, but can only buy with white silver. At that time, the price of each ton of imported tea was only £ 100, but East India Company sold for £ 4,000 / ton, gaining very high profits.

However, silver used to buy Chinese tea is increasingly rare on British territory. In exchange for white silver, the company brought illegal opium into China. This action posed a great threat to China and eventually caused the opium war to explode. Interestingly, the American war of independence also came from tea.

From the mid-nineteenth century until now, the British decided to plant tea trees in India (then British colonies), in order to produce tea themselves. In 1848, the East India Dispatch Robert Fortune - owner of the Room Temperature Board of the Royal Botanic Gardens, a man with extensive experience in plants to China. Later, Fortune brought back 20 thousand small tea plants, 17,000 seeds of tea, and eight tea producers and Chinese tea farmers.

Since then, Indian tea began to replace Chinese tea on the world trading floor. By 1890, Indian tea accounted for 90% of the UK tea market. China failed in this trade and spy tea war.

Tea became popular in Europe, eventually leading to a change in the habits of Europeans, especially the British. For example, 5 pm tea drinking became familiar in the British family.

Sugar cane - leads to a change in human habitation

Drinking tea leads to high demand for sugar. Sugar is produced from sugarcane. Sugarcane was discovered as early as in Asia. While Asians enjoy the sweetness of sugar from sugarcane, Europeans only use honey.

Sugarcane (Photo: Flickr)

Until the 11th century, the Eastern Knights of the Crusaders conquered the sweetness of sugar in Syria. In Europe, only royalty, nobles and high-ranking mandarins had their way on the dining table. Sugar is imported at very expensive prices.

New seaborne trade routes were opened not long after, countries like Spain and Portugal started growing sugarcane in the Caribbean.

Sugarcane plantations grow like mushrooms on these islands. On the island of Barbados (then a British colony), an island of only 430 square kilometers, there were more than 900 sugarcane plantations. Increasing sugar production capacity makes sugar prices fall quickly and sugar becomes a common product.

Sugar not only affects world production, but it also directly leads to migration across the continent. But this migration is mainly a slave trade.

Unlike tea, tobacco, planting sugarcane is both time-consuming and labor-intensive, it needs a large human resource. Therefore, the colonial states, when building the sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean Sea, thought about human resources first. They decided to transport a large number of African slave labor here.

As a result, this area of ​​the entire South American population was constantly changing according to the development of sugarcane plantations.

Potatoes - save the world

In the history of mankind, potatoes have saved many lives that have changed the world. High production of potatoes, suitable for all soil conditions, production, its high starch content, rich in nutritional value . With these advantages, it becomes an important agricultural product on Around the world.

Potatoes originate in the mountains of Andeans in South America and imported into Europe by sea. After that, it was popularized to other localities and became the fourth largest agricultural product in the world.

Potato sprouts (Photo: Gardenaction)

The emergence of potatoes has supplemented food shortages due to low productivity. Medieval Europe only needed a sample of potatoes and a dairy cow was enough to feed the whole family. From 1845-1847, an epidemic of wilting plants plagued the Irish region, nearly destroying the entire potato farming industry of this region.

In just 2 years, more than 1 million people died of starvation, Rickettsia fever (a fever that causes fever, purple red spots on the body) and other diseases. It leads to millions of Irish people migrating to the United States. During the war, the effect of potatoes became even more apparent.

In 1756-1763, Europe happened the "Seven Year's War". The war on one side was the alliance of France, Austria and Russia (their allies were Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Saxony) with Prussia (British ally). Therefore, it is also called the 7-year War of England - France.

Although France, the Austrian empire, and Hungary repeatedly invaded Prussia, destroyed farms and agricultural crops on the ground, but the Prussia still survived thanks to underground potatoes. These countries, after discovering the effect of potatoes, immediately took measures to plant potatoes on their territory.

Hoang Hanh