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A Short History Of Tobacco

The agricultural product tobacco is processed from nicotiana plant leaves. In this plant genus, there are over 70 species of tobacco. The U.S., China, and Cuba are among the countries that make large amounts of cash from producing this crop. The leaves are harvested and processed to form chewing, smoking, dipping, or snuffing tobacco.

According to experts, the tobacco plant began growing in the Americas in around 6,000 BC. Inhabitants started chewing, smoking, and using it in hallucinogenic enemas in 1 BC and by 1 AD, it had spread throughout the Americas. Though many Mayas migrated between 470 and 630 AD, some stayed behind and the smoking custom was passed to the Toltecs, creators of the Aztec Empire. The Indian class in this group formed cigars by rolling together tobacco leaves.

Mayas settling in the Mississippi Valley spread the smoking custom. Neighboring tribes turned it into a religion. They believed that their god, Manitou, was revealed in rising smoke. Here, as well as in Central America, an involved system of political and religious rites developed around tobacco. A pottery vessel found in Guatemala and dating back before the 11^th century holds the first pictorial record of smoking.

Not until Europeans arrived in North America did tobacco gain quick popularity as a recreational drug and trade item. Christopher Columbus discovered tobacco when he stepped foot in the New World in 1492. The substance was then spread throughout Europe and then the rest of the world by early explorers.

Tobacco served as the foundation for the economy in the southern U.S., prior to cotton. Pipes became extremely popular in the seventeenth century and tobacco was used as snuff during the following century. Cigars held the spotlight in the nineteenth century and the cigarette was developed after the American Civil War. By the year 1900, 4.4 billion cigarettes were being sold annually and there were 300,000 brands of cigars on the market.