Tobacco

Timeline

1. c. -6000–1492Hispaniola and Yucatán · HispaniolaCaribbean peoples such as the Taíno used tobacco in rituals and diplomacy via the smoking pipe (tabaco); the Aztecs also used it medicinally and as offering, forming a tobacco culture independent of the Old World.
2. 1560–1585Paris · FranceJean Nicot, French ambassador to Lisbon, introduced tobacco to the court in 1560, popularizing it as snuff; by the 1580s tobacco shops had appeared in Paris and London, turning it from a curiosity into a fashionable consumer good.
3. 1585–1590Roanoke and the Virginia coast · United StatesThe 1585 Roanoke colonial expedition brought tobacco seeds and drying techniques back to England; meanwhile, the Spanish Caribbean and Brazil began experimental cultivation, laying the groundwork for Virginia's 17th-century tobacco economy.