The History Of Smoking (Part 1. 5000bc-1493)

Sticking something in your mouth and setting fire to it, then inhaling the smoke and blowing it out again through you nose and mouth !!.......can you just imagine for one moment , had the cigarette never been seen before, the looks you would get from people if you done that. One would probably get sectioned !!. Here is a look at the history of tobacco and cigarettes, telling us where it originated from and when it became popular.

Tobacco has been growing on this earth for around 8000 years, that dates it back to the year 6000bc, and it was first thought to have been found in and around Central America.
Around some 5000 years later (1000bc) the Mayan Civilization were the first to use the tobacco plant for the uses that is well known to us .....for smoking and chewing. Apart from smoking and chewing the leaves, it is also known that they used to mix the tobacco leaves with other plants and hearbs and use this new concoction to treat the sick.


Over time the Mayan Civilization dispersed into the Northern and Southern Americas, taking the tobacco plant with them, soon it was all over America.


 A fellow explorer of Christopher Columbus (left) has the title of being the first ever European smoker of tobacco, he was known as Rodrigo de Jerez. When Jerez returned to Spain, with his tobacco, he was imprisoned for "lighting up" in public, ironically whilst he was serving his sentence, many spaniards were becoming regular smokers, and hence, the popularity of the cigarette was expanding. This was circa 1492/3, just over 500 years ago.

Will carry on from 1493 in "The History Of Smoking"  very soon.



Vattie