Tobacco history

Published on February 6, 2008 2:51 PM

First tobacco burgeoned in the pre-Columbian Americas. People used to smoke and chew the leaves of the tobacco plant. The Mayan civilizations of Central America have been the first users of this product. Later the plant was tasted by the nations of Central and most of South and North America.

The first European smoker in history was one of Christopher Columbus's explorers - Rodrigo de Jerez. When he came back home he intended to smoke in public and the Spanish Inquisition enclosed him into prison for three years.

First English slave trader who brought tobacco to England was Sir John Hawkins in the XVI century. Other contenders may be Sir Francis Drake and Richard Grenville who introduced tobacco to England. The first book in the English language about tobacco was published in the same century and called “Tobacco”.

In the XVII century King James I published his treatise “A Counterblast to Tobacco” where described the tobacco plant as “an invention of Satan” and banned smoking in London's alehouses. But later he changed his decision, “nationalized” the tobacco industry in England and reduced tobacco taxes.

The first Romanov Czar, Michael Feodorovich, announced the use of tobacco a deadly sin in Russia. The penalty was awful - slitting of the lips or a terrible and sometimes fatal flogging. In India, Persia and Turkey the death punishment was prescribed as a treatment for the habit.

In 1600 tobacco production was well developed in the New World, smoking was becoming popular with Europeans. First Cuban cigars arrived in London in 1830. First paper rolled cigarette appeared in 1832.

Some historians believe that Turks and Russians learned about cigarettes from the French, who likely have learned about smoking from the Spanish. Other historians say that Egyptian soldiers made the first paper rolled cigarettes during the Turkish-Egyptian war.

First cigarette factory was opened in the XIX century in England. In the beginning of the XX century smoking hats and jackets for gentleman smokers were in fashion. Cigarettes became a part of life.