This is an interesting question and something military historians have been trying to answer since more than a 100 years.
Enfield rifles were used by the British Army in the mid 19th Century and most of them used grease made of animal lard.
The East Indian company had conscripted an Army of locals within India. These were made up of mostly Hindu and some Muslims men.
Rumors began to circulate that the grease of made of cow or pig lard. This was highly offensive to Hindus and Muslims alike, since Hindus considered the Cow to be their god and Muslims considered pig to be unclean.
To how large of an extent did this play in turning into the 1857 Rebellion is arguable, however, it did inflame tensions between the occupied and the occupiers.
The have been many different issues that have divided Americans. Nevertheless, the 2008 recession is one that occured lately, and it clearly marks differences between the rural and the urban sectors in the USA.
After 2008, America has overcome the economical recession and new jobs have appeared. However, as it was shown by happenings like the 2016 Presidential Elections, thousands think that there has no been such recovery.
In this way, it is possible to say that Americans have been divided about the economical recovery after the 2008 recession. Rural and urban Americans have felt differently about the recovery; feeling the first ones thta there has been none, and feeling the second ones an actual recovery. This possitive and negative feeling can be explained taking into account that the country's recovery has mainly taken place in metropolitan areas.
It affected society in that people wanted to conserve resources. They didn't want to be as wasteful and it helped improve the environment.
