Random Alcohol Profoundly Changed History (16 items)

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  (#5) The Borgias Maintained Their Power Thanks to Poisoned Wine

  For a family obsessed with holding and keeping the Papal seat, the Borgias's methods were anything but moral. The Borgias were an Italian family who reigned during the Renaissance. The aristocratic clan counted two Popes among their ranks. More importantly, the Borgias are known as one of most power-hungry families in history. Their weapon of choice for dispatching enemies? Poison-laced wine, on enemies and subordinates alike.

  In a poetic twist of fate, some historians believe that it was a Borgia-poisoned bottle of wine, brought to the table by accident, that ultimately took the life of the patriarch of the Borgias, Pope Alexander VI. 
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  (#2) Abraham Lincoln's Bodyguard Left His Post at Ford's Theater for a Drink at the Saloon

  On the night of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, John Parker was assigned the job of protecting the President on his trip to Ford's Theater. After the President and his wife settled in, Parker accepted an invitation from Lincoln’s footman and coachman to go for a drink at the Star Saloon next door. We’ll never know for sure what would have happened if Parker declined that invitation.

  Perhaps John Wilkes Booth would have even been able to charm his way past presidential security as a famous actor. However, at least one person blamed Parker for the death of the president: Mrs. Lincoln. 
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  (#3) Russians Lost a War Because They Were Too Drunk

  Despite attempts by Ireland, Germany, and France, no nation is more closely associated with a specific alcohol than Russia is with vodka. Russians put this to the test during the Russo-Japanese War, when they proved that they couldn't forgo their favorite libation long enough to win a war. Russian newspapers reported after the hostilities that soldiers were too drunk to fight and provided easy targets for Japanese forces.

  In 1905, Russia accepted less than ideal treaty terms in a negotiation brokered by Theodore Roosevelt. Even Tsar Nicholas himself blamed alcohol for the country’s embarrassing performance. He banned alcohol in the lead-up to World War I in the hopes that it wouldn’t happen again. Spoiler alert: things didn't end well for the Tsar or for the alcohol ban, which ended in 1925. 
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  (#16) The Fight Over Alcohol Gave Us Everything Good and Bad About the Roaring '20s

  The unintended consequences of prohibition ushered in some of the most romanticized figures of the 1920s: the bootlegger, the flapper, the gangster, the Untouchable Eliot Ness. When America went dry, the crime and chaos of the underground alcohol scene flourished. Social and sexual norms eased and people began to shed the stiff skin of the Victorian age.

  As the Great Depression hit, politicians were forced to understand that the legalization of alcohol meant the taxation of alcohol. 
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  (#8) Without the Whiskey Rebellion, Political Parties as We Know Them Wouldn't Exist

  The Whiskey Rebellion played an important part in the birth of the America that we know today. When thousands of colonists came together to protest a new tax on whiskey, the rebellion met the iron hand of the new US government, led by the commander-in-chief himself, George Washington. The break-up of the rebellion proved to colonists that the young government had the power to defend itself against uprisings and laid the groundwork for the prosecution of treason.

  Perhaps more interestingly, the whiskey tax was one of the issues pushed by the anti-Federalists, a move that helped spawn the division of ideology that created America’s first separate political parties. 
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  (#14) Australia's Only Government Overthrow Happened with the Help of Rum

  Throughout the annals of history, if there is one thing that is sure to cause discontent, it is depriving a nation of its alcohol. This was the case for colonial Australia, when Governor William Bligh’s repression of the rum trade in New South Wales helped cause a military uprising. In 1808, the New South Wales Corps, nicknamed the “Rum Corps,” invaded Government House, placed Bligh under arrest, and took control of the government for two whole years.

  The suppression of rum was one piece of a larger puzzle in the conflict between Bligh and the soldiers, but it has come to symbolize the rebellion as a whole.

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