The stimulating caffeine was soon stimulating seditious conversations. Let\u2019s look at three (and a half) such moments in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coffee’s First Revolution: The Ottoman Empire<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe trouble with coffee began in the Ottoman Empire. The first modern coffeehouses sprung up in Istanbul around 1550. Because practicing Muslims traditionally avoid alcohol, the coffeehouse became an easy lynchpin of social life, and by 1600 there were an estimated 600 coffeehouses in the city. Men (not women) could gather away from mosques, workplaces, and markets to exchange information and learn from their peers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/pexels-lisa-1024359-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAlong with coffee and education came an erosion of social norms<\/a>. Coffeehouses were an egalitarian space unusual for the time\u2013any man could come in as long as he could afford a beverage. Since coffee was relatively cheap, it allowed for an unprecedented mixing of social classes. Illiterate commoners could learn from literate scholars; members of the court could discuss intrigue with Janissaries, the Sultan\u2019s elite infantry units. Brought together like this, it\u2019s unsurprising that socioeconomic groups once pitted against each other for the ruling class\u2019s gain suddenly found themselves on common ground. Dr. Sarah Jilani wrote in The Economist<\/a> that coffeehouses introduced many to \u201crebellion, self-determination and the fallibility of the powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nSultan Murad IV decreed drinking coffee a capital offense in 1633, just 80 years after the first coffee houses opened in Istanbul. He was so dedicated to this law that he was known to disguise himself and skulk around the city<\/a>, beheading people he caught drinking the beverage with his broadsword. Just 11 years before, his brother, Sultan Osman II, had been killed by his own Janissaries, an assassination they had planned in a coffeehouse. Osman II had tried to ban the Janissaries from going to coffeehouses, but the Janissaries retaliated by strangling him instead. Murad IV was not about to gamble his life against this beverage. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSubsequent sultans followed his lead. Until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, sultans watched coffeehouses carefully, installing spies and issuing occasional bans on coffee any time they felt that unrest was reaching a critical point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But they couldn\u2019t cover them all. Jilani traced<\/a> at least three separate successful revolutions against the Ottomans to coffeehouses: \u201cNationalist leaders planned their tactics and cemented alliances in the coffee houses of Thessaloniki, Sofia, and Belgrade. Their caffeine-fuelled efforts succeeded with the establishment of an independent Greece in 1821, Serbia in 1835, and Bulgaria in 1878.\u201d Like coffee itself, the egalitarian nature of coffeehouses spread, leading to more equitable forms of governance. <\/p>\n\n\n\nEnlightenment Rebels: The Revolutions Against France<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nWhen King Louis VIX welcomed Sultan Mehmet IV\u2019s ambassador Suleiman Aga to Paris in 1669, he could never have known that the gift of coffee trees the sultan sent would instigate the downfall of his great-great-grandson, Louis XVI, over a century later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was in Caf\u00e9 Procope<\/a>, opened in 1686, where philosophers cut their teeth on Enlightenment ideals. Rousseau, Diderot, and Voltaire were all frequent customers (Voltaire is said to have consumed up to 100 chocolat chauds, <\/em>or a French version of a hot chocolate, a day<\/a>), and they put together ideas that would threaten European monarchies for centuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/pexels-david-henry-5812085-1024x692.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIndeed, about a hundred years later, Parisians acting on Enlightenment theories gathered at Caf\u00e9 de Foy on July 14, 1789, before storming the Bastille prison to free seven political prisoners. The successful takeover ignited a powder keg of discontent building in the city without check. The resulting French Revolution transformed France from a monarchy to a democracy. Today, the French still celebrate the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille as the beginning of modern France. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As coffee grew in popularity alongside Enlightenment philosophy in the 18th century, it depended on an economy based on colonial subjugation and slavery. France had to establish coffee plantations within its colonial holdings to keep up with demand. They planted especially across Sainte-Dominique, today known as Haiti. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With colonial power trickled in French Enlightenment ideals. Enslaved people, many of them forced to work on coffee plantations, rose up and demanded their freedom from France. The Haitian Revolution<\/a> took 13 years but resulted in the first country established by formerly enslaved people.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCoffee and Anti-British Sentiment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nWhen colonial rebels threw tea into Boston Harbor in 1773, as a stand against British policy, which we remember as the Boston Tea Party, revolutionaries in the new America had to find another beverage to consume. Much like when Noah Webster dropped the \u2018u\u2019<\/a> from American spelling while creating his famous dictionary to symbolize his passion for freedom from the English, coffee became the beverage for forward-thinking revolutionaries. To drink coffee was to be patriotic. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCoffee continued to find itself interweaved with patriotic ideals. Two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin is said to have sat in London\u2019s Smyrna Coffee House to write his \u201cOpen Letter to Lord North<\/a>,\u201d a satirical letter questioning England\u2019s tight-fisted rule of the colonies. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAn early draft of the Declaration of Independence was read aloud on the steps of Merchant Coffee House in Philadelphia. Patriots eager to break away from England were known to gather in the Green Dragon<\/a>, a coffee house and tavern in Boston. The Green Dragon was such a central location for revolutionary activity that it became known as The Headquarters of the Revolution. Some suggest that the Boston Tea Party, which drove the association of coffee with freedom, was planned in Green Dragon\u2019s basement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAlong with coffee and education came an erosion of social norms<\/a>. Coffeehouses were an egalitarian space unusual for the time\u2013any man could come in as long as he could afford a beverage. Since coffee was relatively cheap, it allowed for an unprecedented mixing of social classes. Illiterate commoners could learn from literate scholars; members of the court could discuss intrigue with Janissaries, the Sultan\u2019s elite infantry units. Brought together like this, it\u2019s unsurprising that socioeconomic groups once pitted against each other for the ruling class\u2019s gain suddenly found themselves on common ground. Dr. Sarah Jilani wrote in The Economist<\/a> that coffeehouses introduced many to \u201crebellion, self-determination and the fallibility of the powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sultan Murad IV decreed drinking coffee a capital offense in 1633, just 80 years after the first coffee houses opened in Istanbul. He was so dedicated to this law that he was known to disguise himself and skulk around the city<\/a>, beheading people he caught drinking the beverage with his broadsword. Just 11 years before, his brother, Sultan Osman II, had been killed by his own Janissaries, an assassination they had planned in a coffeehouse. Osman II had tried to ban the Janissaries from going to coffeehouses, but the Janissaries retaliated by strangling him instead. Murad IV was not about to gamble his life against this beverage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Subsequent sultans followed his lead. Until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, sultans watched coffeehouses carefully, installing spies and issuing occasional bans on coffee any time they felt that unrest was reaching a critical point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But they couldn\u2019t cover them all. Jilani traced<\/a> at least three separate successful revolutions against the Ottomans to coffeehouses: \u201cNationalist leaders planned their tactics and cemented alliances in the coffee houses of Thessaloniki, Sofia, and Belgrade. Their caffeine-fuelled efforts succeeded with the establishment of an independent Greece in 1821, Serbia in 1835, and Bulgaria in 1878.\u201d Like coffee itself, the egalitarian nature of coffeehouses spread, leading to more equitable forms of governance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When King Louis VIX welcomed Sultan Mehmet IV\u2019s ambassador Suleiman Aga to Paris in 1669, he could never have known that the gift of coffee trees the sultan sent would instigate the downfall of his great-great-grandson, Louis XVI, over a century later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was in Caf\u00e9 Procope<\/a>, opened in 1686, where philosophers cut their teeth on Enlightenment ideals. Rousseau, Diderot, and Voltaire were all frequent customers (Voltaire is said to have consumed up to 100 chocolat chauds, <\/em>or a French version of a hot chocolate, a day<\/a>), and they put together ideas that would threaten European monarchies for centuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, about a hundred years later, Parisians acting on Enlightenment theories gathered at Caf\u00e9 de Foy on July 14, 1789, before storming the Bastille prison to free seven political prisoners. The successful takeover ignited a powder keg of discontent building in the city without check. The resulting French Revolution transformed France from a monarchy to a democracy. Today, the French still celebrate the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille as the beginning of modern France. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As coffee grew in popularity alongside Enlightenment philosophy in the 18th century, it depended on an economy based on colonial subjugation and slavery. France had to establish coffee plantations within its colonial holdings to keep up with demand. They planted especially across Sainte-Dominique, today known as Haiti. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With colonial power trickled in French Enlightenment ideals. Enslaved people, many of them forced to work on coffee plantations, rose up and demanded their freedom from France. The Haitian Revolution<\/a> took 13 years but resulted in the first country established by formerly enslaved people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When colonial rebels threw tea into Boston Harbor in 1773, as a stand against British policy, which we remember as the Boston Tea Party, revolutionaries in the new America had to find another beverage to consume. Much like when Noah Webster dropped the \u2018u\u2019<\/a> from American spelling while creating his famous dictionary to symbolize his passion for freedom from the English, coffee became the beverage for forward-thinking revolutionaries. To drink coffee was to be patriotic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Coffee continued to find itself interweaved with patriotic ideals. Two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin is said to have sat in London\u2019s Smyrna Coffee House to write his \u201cOpen Letter to Lord North<\/a>,\u201d a satirical letter questioning England\u2019s tight-fisted rule of the colonies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An early draft of the Declaration of Independence was read aloud on the steps of Merchant Coffee House in Philadelphia. Patriots eager to break away from England were known to gather in the Green Dragon<\/a>, a coffee house and tavern in Boston. The Green Dragon was such a central location for revolutionary activity that it became known as The Headquarters of the Revolution. Some suggest that the Boston Tea Party, which drove the association of coffee with freedom, was planned in Green Dragon\u2019s basement. <\/p>\n\n\n\nEnlightenment Rebels: The Revolutions Against France<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCoffee and Anti-British Sentiment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n