Ways of the World 560-563: Discovery of quinine

On page 562 of Ways of the World, there is a brief statement on things that helped expansion be more desirable, and doable. Among that list, there was the discovery of quinine, and I chose to do some extra research on the topic.

In the book, quinine is just described as something to prevent malaria. The book goes on to say that it greatly reduced deaths among Europeans that were in the tropics.

It was the Quechua of Peru and Bolivia who discovered this medicine in the chinchona tree and its relaxing effects to help to stop shivers from the really low temperatures, and the high altitudes. Then the Catholic missionaries brought the medicine over to Europe, where it was to become a vital element in there expeditions. The Jesuits (have to do with catholics) who were living in Lima, made a connection between the shivering caused by malaria, and the shivering of the Quechua. They noticed that the shivering was really similar, and so they brought some of the chinchona tree bark over to Rome where they ran tests on it to see if it treated malaria. It indeed helped prevent malaria, and so the bark became one of the most valuable commodities shipped at the time.

It may seem as if this wasn't that important, looking at the overall time period of expansion, but it was. This medicine made a lot more people want to go on voyages to expand, because they knew that they weren't going to die because of the Malaria, and so Europe grew. The discovery of the quinine medicine can easily be one of the major factors as to why Europe is so wealthy.