Uncommon GroundsBy Mark Pendergast

Allie IaccarinoWorld History AP

January 2009

Introduction to the “Sacred Bean”

• Ethiopia is birthplace of coffee• Spread globally as psychoactive drug• Known for initiating conversation,

providing energy (caffeine), and delicious taste

• Today, is second most valuable legal exported commodity

• Industry shaped around success of Brazil’s acres of coffee trees

Thesis

• “Coffee has assumed a social meaning that goes far beyond the simple black brew in the cup. The coffee industry has dominated and molded the economy, politics, and social structure of entire countries”(XVIII-XIX)

Both the “Goods” and “Bads” of Coffee

• Cash crop for farmers

• Basis for industrialization and modernization

• Organic• Fair trade• Habitat for

migratory birds

• Oppression and land dispossession of indigenous people

• Over reliance on foreign markets

• Over reliance on single cash crop

• Rainforest and environmental degradation

Brazil

• Coffee industry= enormous, interconnected, global,& economic power relying on Brazil

• Began in Rio de Janeiro during 1800s

• Environment: arid savanna perfect for coffee cultivation

• As plantations increased so did slave population

• Multiple damages to people and land

• Entire industry dependent on one country

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The Western World• Initially spreading to Europe from Middle East, coffee was

expensive medicine of upper class• Began to take on social aspect and expanded to Italy, France,

England, and eventually Germany• In U.S., became replacement for tea after British taxation®

by 1876 US importing 340 million lbs. annually• Coffee companies drastically increased across U.S. such as

Hills Brothers’ Coffee, Folger’s, and Maxwell House• Market shaped around nation’s current standing and events

– World War I– World War II– Great Depression

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Coffee Today

• “Coffee inspiration has a way of flowing from one continent to another”(425).

• In 2000, world coffee production and consumption exceeded 100 million bags per year

• Entrance to world of conversation, great stories, and lively controversy