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