Ottoman Empire · about 1450-1700

Coffee and the coffeehouse

Coffee began as a drink of Sufis in Yemen and became a worldwide habit. Students follow the bean from the Red Sea to Istanbul and London, and find out why rulers both loved and feared the coffeehouse.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1500 to AD 1652
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Coffee began as a drink of Sufis in Yemen and became a worldwide habit. Students follow the bean from the Red Sea to Istanbul and London, and find out why rulers both loved and feared the coffeehouse.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Trace the spread of coffee from Yemen to Istanbul and Europe on the map.
  • Describe what happened in an Ottoman coffeehouse.
  • Explain why some rulers tried to ban coffee or coffeehouses.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1500

Where coffee began

Open the map in 1500 and zoom in on the south-west corner of Arabia and the hills of Ethiopia across the Red Sea. The coffee plant grew wild in Ethiopia. Which narrow strait separates the two coasts?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1530

Up the Red Sea

Zoom out. Coffee beans traveled from Mocha up the Red Sea to Jeddah and Cairo, then on to Istanbul. Trace this path. Which empire controlled most of it after 1517?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1652

To Europe

Move to 1652, the year London got its first coffeehouse. Turn on the Cities layer and find Istanbul, Venice and London. How might the drink have traveled between them?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Sufis in Yemen drank coffee to stay awake for night prayers. How did a religious habit become a worldwide drink?
  2. The governor of Mecca banned coffee in 1511, but the ban did not last. Why do bans on popular things often fail?
  3. Ottoman coffeehouses were places to talk, play games and hear the news. Why might some rulers have feared them?
  4. In London, coffeehouses became places for business, such as shipping insurance. How can a meeting place change an economy?
  5. Who profited from coffee in 1600, and who profited in 1750, after the Dutch began growing it on Java?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Suleiman the Magnificent, in whose reign the first coffeehouses opened in Istanbul. Discuss: should a ruler control places where people meet and talk freely?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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