Morphine, Nicotine, and Caffeine

The addictive molecules of morphine from the opium poppy, nicotine in tobacco, and caffeine in tea, coffee, and cocoa, have been sought out and prized for millennia, bringing both benefits and dangers to all mankind.  They have caused wars, spurred trade, generated fortunes, and enslaved millions among other things.  These three came together unexpectedly at one intersection in history that would help shape the modern world before our very eyes.

The use of the opium poppy, originally used as a medicinal herb in the eastern Mediterranean region, spread quickly throughout Europe and Asia, and was soon a foreign commodity in China.  Though the opium trade was banned in most countries, including China, it was in high demand by its people.  Also in high demand here was tobacco, which the Chinese would mix with the opium and smoke.  What China had plenty of, however, was tea.  The British Empire, unwilling to pay in silver for the tea leaves that they so valued, entered the illegal opium business and began trading with Chinese buyers.  Angered, the Chinese government destroyed a year's supply of opium on British ships unloading in Canton's harbor, prompting the British to declare war.  Now known as the First Opium War (1839-1842), the conflict would result in a Chinese defeat that required them to pay large amounts in reparations, open five ports to trade, and to cede Hong Kong to the British.  Another Chinese defeat twenty years later in the Second Opium War further broke down Chinese isolation, sending the nation into a period of upheaval and change that culminated in the Revolution of 1911.

Today, morphine and its related compounds are the most effective painkillers known, but a stronger analgesic effect is also correlated with a stronger addiction.  For example, codeine (found in opium in small quantities) is less addictive but is also a less effective narcotic.  Diacetylmorphine, also known as heroin, is an extremely powerful analgesic, but is far more addictive than morphine.  Heroin is banned in most countries today, but is still illegally manufactured and sold on the black market.  The nicotine molecule, found in the tobacco plant genus Nicotiana, has also affected man and his history, and has been smoked around the world since its introduction, despite it being outlawed in many countries earlier on, especially in Asia.  Tobacco is a crop that requires labor-intensive work, so plantation owners resorted to the use of slaves to cultivate it.  Because of this, nicotine joins glucose, cellulose, and indigo as another molecule that promoted slavery in the New World.  Caffeine, especially in tea, plays a major role in shaping human history as well.  Aside from causing the First Opium War, the human desire for this addictive molecule may have also helped fuel the American Revolution.  Tea imported to the colonies by Britain was heavily taxed, which angered many colonists, who, on December 16th, 1773, raided a British cargo ship and threw barrels of tea into the harbor.  The event became known as the Boston Tea Party and further strained what relationship Britain and her colonies had left with each other, which eventually culminated in revolution.  The impact all three of these addictive molecules had on human history was enormous, having above all else helped China come out of isolation to become one of the world's greatest superpowers, and to even help fuel a revolution that an even greater world power would emerge from.