What is the history of smoking tobacco and when did cigarettes become really popular and why?

Answer 1

i know that there were plantations in the south that grew tobacco. other than that i really don't know the history of it. but i just watched the movie "thank you for smoking" and it said that cigarette use spiked in the thirties when movies started having sound and the actors started smoking to fill time. yearly production went to over 100 billion cigarettes a year. not sure if that is true or not but it is interesting.

Answer 2

After WW ll people smoked in a big way. Cigarettes were cheap and it was a social thing hanging about in groups and offering them around from gold cigarette cases. You could buy twenty of a cheap brand in 1945 for five pence in modern money. After a few years the dangers of smoking were discovered and also the tax went up and so you end up with only the lesser intelligent smoking. No body quite knows why that is but it has been suggested that it is an extension of Darwin and it is to rid the world of the dim witted

Answer 3

Tobacco came to Britain in 16th Century.

It became very popular after that.

Around 1908 it was made illegal to sell cigarettes to under 16s.

In 1912 some of the first evidence linking smoking to cancer was put forward.

During WWI, the more people than ever before were smoking.

In 1925 manufacaturers tried to make women smoke.

In 1930s Britain had highest lung cancer rates in the world.

During WWII smoking became even more popular.

Smoking rates continued to rise until 1962, when smoking rates started to drop.

Answer 4

Tobbaco of some kind came to Europe with The crew of Colombus' 1st voyage. They all had a good giggle frightening the locals by blowing smoke out their noses. Not so funny when the Inquisition got involved.

Cigarettes became popular when manufacturing processes were perfected. See Winston Salem, North Carolina websights for the details.

Answer 5

Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back from the New World to the court of Elizabeth I - she apparently took up the habit because she liked to be ultra modern and I believe that is how it caught on in this country

Answer 6

There was a big surge in popularity of cigarettes during and following World War I, during which the cigarette companies provided them free to soldiers.

Answer 7

first nations in the new world used smoking for very deliberate purposes which were usually ceremonial and/or sacred. thus, when early explorers encountered first nations peoples, they were included in the act of smoking for celebration of their first meeting.
a person, in history, called sir Walter Raleigh was supposed to have returned, to his homeland, from the new world. he brought with him the trappings to smoke with. he was doused with water because he was thought to be on fire. this was the beginning of smoking in society.

as time passed, smoking became more common in society. first nations of the new world did not intend for this activity to become so popular. it became a lucrative industry and was eventually abused by countless persons who overly indulged themselves.