Tobacco cultivation in the Americas

Timeline

1. c. -5000–1492Caribbean and eastern North America · CubaTaino, Iroquois, and other peoples cultivated tobacco in gardens, using pipes, snuff, and fumigation for sacrifice, alliances, and medicine, and developed cultivation knowledge tied to land and seasons.
2. 1551–1560Amboise, France and Lisbon · Centre-Val de LoireIn the 1550s French diplomat Jean Nicot introduced tobacco seeds and uses to the court, while Spanish and Portuguese ports simultaneously transshipped American leaf; European pharmacopoeias began recording tobacco's medicinal effects, and smoking spread among nobles and townspeople.
3. 1610Colony of Virginia · VirginiaEnglish colonists established large tobacco plantations in Virginia, transplanting American cultivation techniques and commercializing exports, making tobacco the leading cash crop of the North American colonies and a pillar of transatlantic trade.