According to Standage, in around the first millennium AD, Arab scholars developed many advances in society. Including astrolabe (the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the sun's noon altitude), algebra, a numerical system, and many other impressive advances. Distillation was another one of those creations! Although simple distillation was used in Northern Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BCE for perfumes, in the eighth century a scholar distilled wine making it much stronger. Since this drink was discovered in the “Age of Exploration” seafaring Europeans used distilled drinks because it was a durable, compact form of alcohol. They also became economic goods resulting in their taxation and control became politically important determining
