In the BeginingTobacco and Cigar

Tobacco is believed to have originated in the Americas itself. Native Americans have been growing and smoking Tobacco right from the time when the Maya civilization existed in the Yucatan and the central Americas. A tribe which resided along the bank of the Mississippi is believed to be the first of the Native Americans to use tobacco, although later on it was hard to distinguish because every tribe got into the habit of growing and smoking tobacco.

Christopher Columbus was the person who is responsible for bringing the tobacco to Europe and eventually the whole world. When Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492, he himself had not found much interest in the habit of smoking tobacco, but the members of his crew were more than just impressed with the tobacco. It was because of the American voyage of Christopher Columbus that the use of tobacco spread to Spain and Portugal, then later to France and from there on, slowly all over the world.

There are many speculations regarding the origin of the term tobacco, but the exact origin is still not clear of all doubt. Tabasco is the name of a state in Mexico and some associate the term tobacco with it as there was a huge Maya population of the Native Americans in Mexico once. Although this theory is believed by some experts, the alternative thought is that tobacco is actually a mispronunciation of Tobago, an island in the West Indies. The scientific name of tobacco is Nicotiana tabacum, which is believed to have originated from the French ambassador’s name Jean Nicot.

Virginia and Maryland were the two chief areas in the United Sates where tobacco was grown, but it all began with a single plantation in Virginia, more than a hundred years before the first cigar was manufactured in the United States, in 1612. Tobacco was initially used as means to smoke a pipe alone in the United States, which is until Israel Putnam introduced the cigar to the new Americans. The general brought the cigars from Cuba where the revolutionary war had taken him near the end of the 18th century. As it is imaginable, the flavor of a Cuban cigar soon caught the attention of smokers and tobacco producers alike and many cigar plants were soon started in Connecticut and Harford.

Although Europe was the first continent of the modern world to come to know of tobacco, cigars were not produced on a large scale there. Due to some reason, cigars had to wait till the Peninsula War was over to reach optimum popularity. After the war was over, the soldiers of England and France returned to their respective countries. They brought the habit of smoking cigars along with them as they had been in Spain for quite sometime during the wars. Thus, in the 19th century, Pipes were soon replaced with cigars, especially by the aristocrats and the wealthy as a more preferred way of smoking. It still can not be denied that smoking a cigar seems elite elegant rather than other forms of smoking the tobacco.

About the Author: Gary Cigaros is an author writing about cigar related topics, and you are invited to visit his website covering number of aspects about Cuban cigars & cigar lighters.