Paul,

The Japanese, Chinese, Hawaii (Polynesian), pre-Columbian America, the 100s of different tribes of Africa all developed alcohol.

Look it up. There are only a few isolated cultures that didn't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_alcoholic_drinks

Alcohol was made in Australia by the colonists for their own consumption not to corrupt the indigenous. The ills of the Aboriginals are not all entirely self-inflicted but many are.

SM,

Why do you attempt to underscore the malicious use of alcohol by the European to subjugate native people. I have a book on Native Americans, in a 19th century recipe for 'fire water' commonly produced to "trade" with the Indians. It contained such nasties as turpentine and saltpetre, deadly stuff.

In Australia's case the early European colony was awash with cheap spirit, and it was used to "trade" with the natives. The big 3 evils of the European; disease, the gun and alcohol, all tools used to disposes native people.

BTW, alcohol consumption which had been introduced by Cook in 1778 was illegal in Hawaii for the common people until King Kamehameha III lifted the ban in the 1830's at the insistence of European settlers.

It's odd that people who are always singing the the praises of non-white people, and condemning whites for corrupting those wonderful, innocent natives are also willing to say that their favourites have no will power or intelligence to say no. Whitey just handed out grog, and darkie was too stupid realise that the stuff went straight to his brain, and in a short time, he lost control. You only need the experience once to get the message. Who's to blame when whitey himself loses control? Alcohol is non-discriminatory. It affects everyone the same way. I think much of the waffle we see here comes from alcohol. Some of the rubbish could surely not come from a sober mind.

Paul,

Given the litany of dangerous food additives in recent years incl glycol in alcohol in Bali, melanin in Milk in China etc, most of these deadly additives are made for profit. So one "recipe" in one book in the US is hardly proof that this was a consistent policy or even vaguely relevant to Aus.

Epic Fail.

SM,

Read any half decent history book on Native Americans, and it will tell you that from earliest times Europeans, such as fur traders and others, extensively used alcohol as trade with the Indians. Likewise in Australia and elsewhere, Europeans used alcohol as an insidious weapon to exploit the native population. I don't expect you or others who think like you would want to believe that, as it don't suit your distorted narrative of European colonisation and dispossession.

Did have the pleasure of accompanying the wife to a talk here in Brisbane, before covid, given by a Native American chap from the Navajo Nation, he said he was 85 years old, he was on a lecture tour speaking on indigenous matters. Interesting that a common thread for all indigenous people where extensive European colonization has taken place is dispossession, once displaced alcoholism becomes a major problem in native communities.

In NZ one of the reasons some Maori chiefs were in favour of a treaty with the British was to try and put a stop to the devastating effects European alcohol was having on the native population. The settlement of Russell in the Bay Of Islands was known as the hell hole of the Pacific.