Until clean piped water became widely available in the early 19th century

many people had only beer or ale to drink (or, of course, wine in southern Europe), which meant that until then, many people (especially in cities) were drunk much of the time.

This accounts for the subsequent:
Temperance movements,
and the surge of Western Europe into clear-eyed domination, empire, inventiveness, technology and capitalism.

It also led to social reform, including compulsory education in Germany, England and France,
which was not just to teach the illiterate to read (notices and forms) but, mainly, to inculcate aggressive nationalism.

Which, of course, led to World War I.