| You might think that the world's first cigars were rolled | | | | nicotine comes. The word tobacco itself has a |
| in Spain, or that the philosophic French were the very | | | | disputed origin, though the majority of people now |
| first to wax existential over cigarette smoke, but | | | | believe that it is simply a corruption of the name of a |
| before there were any cigars or cigarettes in the old | | | | Caribbean island, Tobago. Some others contend that it |
| world, tobacco had to be brought in from the new one. | | | | originates from Tabasco, a region of Mexico. |
| Tobacco is a plant that was originally found only in | | | | The first tobacco to be commercially cultivated in the |
| North and South America, where native Americans | | | | United States was planted in the state of Virginia in |
| have cultivated it for hundreds, if not thousands, of | | | | 1612. Very soon thereafter plantations popped up in |
| years. | | | | Maryland and elsewhere. At this point, people smoked |
| The Indigenous Mayans of the Mexican Yucatan | | | | their tobacco mostly in pipes. It wasn't until the late 18th |
| peninsula grew tobacco plants, and there is evidence | | | | century that cigars began to be smoked in the United |
| showing that they smoked it in ways similar to the | | | | States. The person who is said to have brought cigar |
| way we do today. From its origins in Mexico, tobacco | | | | smoking to the US is Israel Putnam. Putnam served in |
| use spread from tribe to tribe, to the north and to the | | | | the Revolutionary War as a general, but afterwards, |
| south. Historians now believe that the first tobacco use | | | | and more importantly for posterity, he traveled to |
| in what is now the United States occurred along the | | | | Cuba and smoked the cigars that were made there. |
| banks of the Mississippi river. And it wasn't until | | | | On returning to the US he brought back a box of |
| Christopher Columbus famously ran into Central | | | | those cigars with him. Almost overnight cigars were |
| America while looking for India that Europe and Asia | | | | smoked everywhere and soon cigar factories popped |
| became acquainted with tobacco and its uses. | | | | up, significantly in the area around Putnam's hometown |
| When he arrived in the Caribbean, Columbus was | | | | of Hartford, Connecticut. |
| apparently not a very big fan of the flavor of tobacco, | | | | Cigars weren't very popular in Europe until the |
| and was not keen on the way the people he | | | | Peninsula War that occurred in the beginning of the |
| encountered used it to smoke. His sailors, though, | | | | 19th century. The soldiers of Britain and France who |
| thought the stuff was amazing and started to smoke it | | | | fought in Spain during the war brought back tobacco |
| themselves. When they returned to Spain, they | | | | and pipes with them to their homelands, and soon, |
| brought tobacco back with them and shared it with | | | | again, tobacco use in those countries was prevalent. |
| people back home. It spread through the county like | | | | But it was among the fashionable upper classes that |
| wildfire. And it wasn't long before the French too were | | | | cigar smoking took hold. Even today, smoking cigars is |
| lighting up. Incidentally, it is from the name of the French | | | | something that is associated with the luxury and |
| ambassador to Spain, Jean Nicot, that the scientific | | | | discernment afforded to those with discerning tastes |
| name for tobacco Nicotiana tabacum and the word | | | | and the means to satisfy them. |