When you go out to buy cigarettes, or you log on to buy cigarettes online, do you ever stop to wonder how lust for tobacco came to be? Wonder no more... Tobacco has grown wild in the Americas for more than eight thousand years, and it has been cultivated for at least four hundred years.
Since at least two thousand years ago, native tribes chewed and smoked tobacco as part of their religious and cultural ceremonies. For example, the Mayans of Mexico carved drawings into stone which depict their tobacco use, and the Native American Indians smoked tobacco through a pipe as for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. It was not an activity done on a daily basis. Christopher Columbus was the first European to witness tobacco use, and in 1531 it was cultivated for the first time in Europe at Santo Domingo. By 1600 its use had spread throughout Europe, and it was used as a currency in England. Tobacco was the first crop grown for profit in North America, and by 1700, smoking had become widespread and the tobacco industry was born.
Tobacco smoking was not without its critics, even then. As early as 1602 smoking was linked to health in the same way that the health of chimney sweeps was impacted by soot. By 1800, many people used small amounts of tobacco recreationally. Snuff was a smokeless, ground tobacco leaf product which was inhaled into the nasal cavity; it was often blended with flavourings such as spices, flowers, and menthol, and delivered a swift nicotine hit. Some people chewed tobacco, while others preferred to smoke it from a pipe. At that time, people smoked an average equivalent of forty cigarettes per year. (Cigars are also a tobacco product, but are made differently, from a different type of tobacco, and have differing origins from cigarettes).
The first commercial cigarettes were made in 1861. They were hand-rolled, and were sold to soldiers at the end of the US Civil War.
Smoking cigarettes became widespread after the cigarette machine was invented by James Bonsack in 1881. The first machines produced two hundred cigarettes per minute (today’s machinery produces nine thousand cigarettes per minute!). In the first year, ten million cigarettes were produced. The markets were expanded, as manufacturing cigarettes was cheap and advertising appealed to the masses. The first brand of cigarettes, Duke of Durham, was boxed with baseball cards.
Cigarette production and use peaked with the two world wars. Soldiers were given free cigarettes on a daily basis. By the 1940s, women had also taken up the habit, as they went out to work while their husbands were away at war. By 1944, three hundred billion cigarettes were produced each year in the US alone.
In the decades since, cigarettes have evolved to include filters, differing strengths, health warnings, and even different flavours. Tobacco has come a very long way since it was first used thousands of years ago.
Next time you buy cigarettes, you should always consider your health and that of your family.
