Did wars really occurred because of condiments?

by Biolongi

I'm super confused, i'm getting the idea that some armies (armies?) would have traveled and fought to get condiments for their or someone's food flavor. I mean, was food flavor really a cause of war or invasion? I know there are wars for quality of life, but this?

vertexoflife

The answer is yes, according to Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner. Spices and tea and other consumer goods were absurdly highly valued and profitable, and England was especially interested in profitability. The easiest way for us to understand this in modern terms is to look at the amount of gang violence and state warfare against drugs like heroin or cocaine. Substitute the words nutmeg or peppercorn into that sentence, and you begin to understand why there were conflicts over trade goods.

However, I don't know of a war started just over spices, but I would be happily corrected.

Alpy94

Could you give a specific era or region?

But in general, yes-ish. Condiments or spices were often valuable trade goods. Armies didn't fight to have tastier foods. They fought to have more money from selling the spices.