Discovery of Tobacco

Tobacco was introduced to Europe in the 1560s, and it soon became popular there.

European explorers throughout the New World saw Native Americans smoking tobacco in pipes or cigars, chewing it or taking it as snuff.

Columbus discovered natives smoking tobacco in Cuba.

Forty years later, Jacques Cartier saw natives living along the St. Lawrence, thousands of miles from Cuba, smoking tobacco as well.

Tobacco was reputed to have many wonderful properties.

People in England believed that tobacco reduced hunger, fatigue and fever, and that it could open pores and cured gout.

Because the new tobacco trade competed with established interests and because it was untaxed, tobacco was banned in a number of countries in the 17th century. It was banned in England in 1604.