Background InformationBackground Information
Since the earliest people didn't keep written records, no one knows when Tobacco was discovered or how people learned to raise and use it. Since the 1600s, North America has been a major grower and supplier of Tobacco. Today, Tobacco is grown and used in many countries worldwide.
From the New World
Before the discovery of America, Native Americans grew and used Tobacco in areas from southern Canada to southern Brazil. In 1942 when Christopher Columbus landed at San Salvador, he wanted to find gold. Instead, the Native Americans gave him Tobacco. He thought it was worthless and threw it away. He did notice, however, that many Native Americans smoked or chewed Tobacco. Others sniffed it up into their nose through a tube. Spanish explorers and conquerors discovered another unpleasant use for Tobacco during battles with Native Americans. The Native Americans squirted Tobacco juice into the Spaniards' eyes, which temporarily blinded them.
Spanish and Portuguese sailors and explorers adopted the use of Tobacco. They brought their new addictions back to their homes and to there port cities they visited. Tobacco use soon spread across Europe and into other countries. By about 1575, every nation, including Japan and the Philippines, smoked or chewed Tobacco, or used it as snuff.
One reason Tobacco use spread quickly was that many people believed that it could cure diseases. European doctors and university professors wrote about the healing power of Tobacco. in 1560 Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, shipped Tobacco to his queen for use in her herb garden. The word nicotine, which is the addictive drug found in Tobacco, comes from Nicot's name.
People believed Tobacco had magical powers. For example, they used it to treat headaches, toothaches, asthma, stomachaches, lockjaw, heart diseases, and poisons. " The smoke, it was said, was magnetic; especially effective when inhaled," one British writer explained. He thought it cleaned the lungs. London pharmacies listed Tobacco as a treatment for coughs.
In 1607 British settlers founded Jamestown, the first New World colony. The colonists barley survived in their harsh, new country. A turning point came in 1612, when the settlers planted tobacco seeds acquired from Spanish colonists in Trinidad and Caracas. Tobacco, known by the colonists as golden leaf, thrived in its new home. The first tobacco shipment sailed to England in 1613 and was eagerly snatched up. Londoners found the new tobacco superior to their own and demanded more.
Cigarettes Take Off
The turning point for the growth of the cigarette industry occurred between 1913 and 1914. This happened right before the United States entered in World War I (1914-1918). According to Dr. John Slide, associate professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, cigarettes took off because a tobacco company used a large national mass media ad campaign to sell one of its cigarette brands. The company also sold its cigarettes for less then the other brand.
Also World War I helped the cigarette industry grow. After the United States entered the war, tobacco companies sent millions of free cigarettes to Americans fighting in France. Americans, both the troops and civilians, began smoking more. In 1910 less than 10==ten billion cigarettes were produced. By 1919, the number had jumped to seventy billion dollars.
Cigarette smoking now became popular with both men and women, and the antismoking groups broke up. A strong lobbying effort from the industry was led by the Tobacco Merchants Association. By 1927 all laws banning cigarettes were reversed. World War II (1939-1945) helped the tobacco industry in another way. Then President Roosevelt declared tobacco an essential crop. This meant that tobacco growers did not have to fight in the war.