When was tobacco introduced to Europe?
1925150#1
Until the late 20th century, the use of tobacco for smoking and in the form of snuff was common among Jews. It is asserted that a Jew named Luis de Torres, who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his expedition in 1492, settled in Cuba, learned the use of tobacco, and introduced it into Europe. From this time Jews were connected with the trade in tobacco, one of the most important in early American history (M. J. Kohler, in "Publ. Am. Jew. Hist. Soc." x. 52)
Smoking in Jewish law
3322201#2
On October 15, 1492, Christopher Columbus was offered dried tobacco leaves as a gift from the American Indians that he met when landing upon the New World. Soon after, sailors brought back tobacco to Europe and the plant started to be grown all over the Old World. The main reason for tobacco's growing popularity in Europe was its supposed healing qualities. Europeans believed that tobacco was a cure-all and could cure anything from halitosis to cancer. In support of this, in 1571, a Spanish doctor by the name of Nicolás Monardes wrote a book about the history of medicinal plants of the new world, one of them being tobacco. In his book he claimed that tobacco could cure 36 health problems. During the 1600s tobacco was so popular that it was often used as currency. It was the first crop grown for profit in Jamestown, Virginia, the first city in the first colony of the New World. It became North America's main source of income and helped fund the American Revolutionary War.
Comprehensive Smoking Education Act
14848060#0
The history of commercial tobacco production in the United States dates back to the 17th century when the first commercial crop was planted. The industry originated in the production of tobacco for pipes and snuff. Different war efforts in the world created a shift in demand and production of tobacco in the world and the American colonies. With the onset of the American Revolution trade with the colonies was interrupted which shifted trade to other countries in the world. During this shift there was an increase in demand for tobacco in the United States, where the demand for tobacco in the form of cigars and chewing tobacco increased. Other wars, such as the War of 1812 would introduce the Andalusian cigarette to the rest of Europe. This, accompanied with the American Civil War changed the production of tobacco in America to the manufactured cigarette.
History of commercial tobacco in the United States
25422522#3
Commercial tobacco production dates back to the 17th century when the first commercial crop was planted. The industry originated in the production of tobacco for pipes and snuff. Different war efforts in the world created a shift in demand and production of tobacco in the world and the American colonies. With the advent of the American Revolution trade with the colonies was interrupted which shifted trade to other countries in the world. During this shift there was an increase in demand for tobacco in the United States, where the demand for tobacco in the form of cigars and chewing tobacco increased. Other wars, such as the War of 1812 would introduce the Andalusian cigarette to the rest of Europe. This, accompanied with the American Civil War changed the production of tobacco in America to the manufactured cigarette.
Tobacco in the United States
18909502#11
Tobacco was introduced elsewhere in continental Europe more easily. Iberia exported "ropes" of dry leaves in baskets to the Netherlands and southern Germany; for a while tobacco was in Spanish called "canaster" after the word for basket, "canastro", and influenced the German "Knaster". In Italy, Prospero Santacroce in 1561 and Nicolo Torbabuoni in 1570 introduced it to gardens after seeing the plant on diplomatic missions. Cardinal Crescenzio introduced smoking to the country in about 1610 after learning about it in England. The Roman Catholic Church did not condemn tobacco as James I did, but Pope Urban VIII threatened excommunication to anyone smoking in a church.
History of tobacco
25422522#9
As early as 1621, only 14 years after the establishment of a colony in Virginia and just 9 years after John Rolfe discovered the economic potential of tobacco in America, British merchants were on the march in an attempt to control the tobacco trade. A measure was introduced into the British Parliament in 1621 with two major components: a restriction on tobacco importation from anywhere with the exception of Virginia and the British West Indies and an edict that tobacco was not to be grown and cultivated anywhere else within England. The objective of the merchants was to monopolize and control all means of tobacco distribution within Europe and throughout the world. By doing so it was possible to secure a stable return on investment for the American Colonies and profit tremendously within Europe. The British merchants influenced economies using the power of the nation-state to influence and protect business interests. In exchange, taxes were levied in order to fund political interests. The bill that the merchants put forward in 1621 to Parliament was a classic example of the power and influence of mercantilism.
Tobacco in the United States
17716336#46
Nazi anti-tobacco activists often tried to depict tobacco as a vice of "the degenerate Negroes". The Nazis claimed that Jews were responsible for introducing tobacco and its harmful effects. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany announced that smoking was an unhealthy vice spread by Jews. During the opening ceremony of the aforementioned "Wissenschaftliches Institut zur Erforschung der Tabakgefahren" in 1941, Johann von Leers, editor of the "Nordische Welt" (Nordic World), proclaimed that "Jewish capitalism" was responsible for the spread of tobacco use across Europe. He said that the first tobacco on German soil was brought by the Jews and that they controlled the tobacco industry in Amsterdam, the principal European entry point of "Nicotiana".
Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany
22145250#3
The first attempts to respond to the health consequences to tobacco use followed soon after the introduction of tobacco to Europe. Pope Urban VII's thirteen-day papal reign included the world's first known tobacco use restrictions in 1590 when he threatened to excommunicate anyone who "took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose". The earliest citywide European smoking restrictions were enacted in Bavaria, Kursachsen, and certain parts of Austria in the late 17th century.
Tobacco control
18909502#0
Tobacco has a long history from its usages in the early Americas. It increased in popularity with the arrival of Spain to America, which introduced tobacco to the Europeans by whom it was heavily traded. Following the industrial revolution, cigarettes were becoming popularized in the New World as well as Europe, which fostered yet another unparalleled increase in growth. This remained so until scientific studies in mid 20th century demonstrated the negative health effects of tobacco smoking including lung and throat cancer.
History of tobacco
18909502#15
Although "Nicotiana suaveolens" is native to Australia, tobacco smoking first reached that continent shores when it was introduced to northern-dwelling Indigenous communities by visiting Indonesian fishermen in the early 18th century. British patterns of tobacco use were transported to Australia along with the new settlers in 1788; and in the years following colonisation, British smoking behaviour was rapidly adopted by Indigenous people as well. By the early 19th century tobacco was an essential commodity routinely issued to servants, prisoners and ticket-of-leave men (conditionally released convicts) as an inducement to work, or conversely, withheld as a means of punishment.
History of tobacco