Tobacco: Building Religions, Starting Nations, and Causing a Global Epidemic

Tobacco: Building Religions, Starting Nations, and Causing a Global Epidemic

http://www.v2cigs.com/blog/2011/01/the-history-of-the-electronic-cigarette/

Of all the plants we have studied thus far, I think tobacco has had the greatest impact on world history.  Historically, tobacco was integral to Native American religious practices, helped drive and sustain the suffering of millions of Africans through the slave trade, and drove the founding of one of the most powerful nations in the modern world.  Having captivated the human race for centuries with its addictive properties, today tobacco continues to be one of the most popular, and legal, drugs in the world, and throughout the last few decades, discoveries of the detrimental health implications of smoking have triggered worldwide public health campaigns about tobacco use.

A Brief History of Tobacco

http://www.gardenhistorymatters.com/2012/01/tobacco-plant-that-changed-world.html

In the Americas, tobacco had been smoked by the natives for special religious rituals and medicinal practices.  Jamestown, the first successful British settlement in North America, was largely dependent on tobacco as its star cash crop and tobacco cultivation soon transformed into a booming business.  With the implementation of the slave trade shortly after, tobacco for the colonists became an even more profitable business, with practically free land and labor; but for the poor African slaves working on the plantations, tobacco locked them into a living hell.  As a result of their successful tobacco business, colonists grew more and more confident and independent. When the British began to aggravate the colonists in the mid 18^th Century, the colonists felt empowered enough to rebel and form the United States of America.  Thus, without tobacco, the Native Americans might have a dramatically different culture, the world might not have America, and the slave trade might not have been successful enough to exist.

http://healthmad.com/health/adverse-effects-of-tobacco-on-the-human-health

The American Indians did not smoke tobacco every day, and when they did, it was a revered cultural practice.  However, today, many people associate smoking tobacco with addictive chain smoking and health hazards. As shown in this video,  the pure tobacco that the natives originally smoked is hardly comparable to the cigarettes of today, filled with filthy cancerous additives.  As a result of this distorted and abusive use, tobacco is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease and cancer, two of the top killers of people worldwide.

So relevant historically and today, where would our world be today without tobacco?