The History of Chocolate

The History of Chocolate

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The history of chocolate is based on the interest of anthropologist Sophie D. Coe in learning the history of pre-Colombian food. Chocolate has been used in various ways in trade wars, poison to enemies, bait to lovers, and as a tool for conspiracies. Several books have been written and research conducted to clearly understand the history of Chocolate. One of this sources is a letter by Marie de Villars, the wife to French Ambassador that he wrote to Spain in 1680. This is a primary source that have been used in this project. To understand this primary source, a series of questions have been answered based on the content of the letter in this paper.

1. What aspect of the past would this source be used in illuminating?

The source in this case is a letter. Ideally, most of letters were written to show love, emergency messages, and as a way of communication[1]. Therefore, this source can be used to illuminated how Marie cared about the people of Spain and wanted them to adopt the chocolate diet too.

2. Limitations of using this source? Basic identification

Letters are primary sources. Primary sources have both advantages and disadvantages. The usefulness of letters as primary sources are[2];

• There is high possibility for biasness.
• Not all people could read and learn at that time.
• The time period taken for the letter to reach the recipient was long.

3. What type of source is it?

The source presented here is a letter.

4. Date of creation?

The source was excerpted from “The True History of Chocolate’’ source created by Thames & Hudson in 2013.

5. Who created the source and the purpose of the source?

The source was created Thames & Hudson in 2013. The purpose of the source was to add weight on their effort to prove and defend their thesis “The True History of Chocolate’’. [3]Secondly, the letter was purposely written by Marie de Villars to convince people adopt eating chocolate.

6. Why was this source created? What was its original purpose?

The true purpose of creating this source, was based on the desire of the anthropologist Sophie D. Coe to write about the history of chocolate with much interest on the pre-Columbian meals. However, since she died before she completed creating the source, her husband Michael Coe continued with the research to accomplish the mission of his wife.

7. The intended audience of this source.

The immediate audience of this source are the Spaniards people who did not by then understand or eat Chocolate. As mentioned in the letter, Marie de Villars wanted to “make you confess that there is nothing better for health than chocolate.[4]’’

8. Under what historical circumstances was the source created?

The desire of Sophie Coe to understand culinary history and pre-Columbian food were the underlying circumstances under which this source was created.

9. Historical events that might have triggered the creation and the content of the source.

The historical events in the content of this resource gallops all through millenniums during which the Aztec Capital was destroyed in 1521 leading to the emergency of cacao bean era that transformed chocolate eating creolizing Spanish conquerors who later on invented advanced terminologies for the word and the product itself.

Another historical event was the full control of trade by Spaniards that lead to expansion and rise in cost of bean creating a havoc in the seas.

10. Historical facts that can be learned from this source?
11. It’s evident that the main mean of communication during this time was through letters.
12. Chocolate diets originated from Spain there after being distributed to the rest of Europe.

• Chocolate was associated with royalty, church and aristocracy in 18^th

1. Solid chocolate was invented in early 20^th C
2. Biases or cultural factors that have shaped the source message?

The burning of shiploads full of cacao beans by Bucaneers thinking that they were sheep[5].

12. What historical perspectives that are left in this source?
13. There is no mentioning on mode of trade for Spaniards to exchange chocolate to other countries.
14. Empires that existed during chocolate era.
15. Questions that are not answered in this source?
16. Methods of cultivating chocolate.
17. Health benefits of chocolate.

• Procedure of preparing chocolate drink.

References

Becker, Marshall Joseph. “Chocolate: A Brief Review of Recent Research.” The Codex 26, no. 3 (2018): 17.

Coe, Sophie D., and Michael D. Coe. The true history of chocolate. Thames & Hudson, 2013.

Dosti, R. (1996, August 25). More Than Just Dessert : THE TRUE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE.<i> By Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe (Thames and Hu. Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-25-bk-37346-story.html

Lombardozzi, Danica L., Nicholas G. Smith, Susan J. Cheng, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Thomas D. Sharkey, Alistair Rogers, Rosie Fisher, and Gordon B. Bonan. “Triose phosphate limitation in photosynthesis models reduces leaf photosynthesis and global terrestrial carbon storage.” Environmental Research Letters 13, no. 7 (2018): 074025.

[1] Dosti, R. (1996, August 25). More Than Just Dessert : THE TRUE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE.<i> By Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe (Thames and Hu. Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-25-bk-37346-story.html

[2] Coe, Sophie D., and Michael D. Coe. The true history of chocolate. Thames & Hudson, 2013.

[3] Becker, Marshall Joseph. “Chocolate: A Brief Review of Recent Research.” The Codex 26, no. 3 (2018): 17.

[4] Lombardozzi, Danica L., Nicholas G. Smith, Susan J. Cheng, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Thomas D. Sharkey, Alistair Rogers, Rosie Fisher, and Gordon B. Bonan. “Triose phosphate limitation in photosynthesis models reduces leaf photosynthesis and global terrestrial carbon storage.” Environmental Research Letters 13, no. 7 (2018): 074025.

[5] Coe, Sophie D., and Michael D. Coe. The true history of chocolate. Thames & Hudson, 2013.