Malaria, Quinine, and World War I

The effect of quinine is more like a butterfly effect than a direct cause of World War I. However, it enabled the "Scramble for Africa,"  when European nations competed to colonize the continent, which changed the planet forever. The first half of this video goes into the history of quinine and world events. The second half is chemistry, because there have been some new discoveries about how quinine works. Then the story picks back up at the ten-minute mark. (via Geeks Are Sexy)