Tobacco was first cultivated inside Peruvian as well as Ecuadorian Andes, coming from where the idea spread north as well as south till the idea covered most of the Americas. After ‘discovery’ by Christopher Columbus, the plant’s addictive properties ensured in which the rest of the entire world was fairly easily conquered, too.

The importance of Columbus among the multitude of navigators as well as explorers of the Age of Discovery (the two centuries coming from early 1400 to 1600 AD) can be such in which a summary of his background as well as achievements can be warranted here. Born around 1450 inside Republic of Genoa, Italy, Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, as well as colonizer. In 1485 he presented his plan to open a westerly route to Asia (as well as requesting support because of in which undertaking) to the court of Portugal. After being rejected (in Portugal) he successively lobbied the burghers of Genoa as well as Venice, as well as Henry VII of England with the same request, nevertheless was refused by all. He then approached Ferdinand II of Aragon as well as Isabella I of Castile, who through their marriage had united many kingdoms inside Iberian Peninsula as well as were ruling together. Finally, after endless petitions as well as two years of negotiations, he succeeded in January 1492; Ferdinand II was going to support him.

According to historian Edmund Morgan, Columbus had read widely about astronomy, geography, as well as history, including the works of Claudius Ptolemy, the travels of Marco Polo as well as Sir John Mandeville, as well as Pliny‘s Natural History. He knew in which the earth was spherical as well as was convinced in which he might be able to reach the Indies by sailing west.

His voyages had an enormous impact on the development of the Western world as well as led to the first lasting European contact with the Americas. the idea also resulted in exploration, conquest as well as an exchange of goods as well as products in which altered the lives, lifestyles as well as habits in both the Old as well as the brand new World. The latter region’s crops in which were introduced in Europe included maize, potato, tomato, capsicum, peppers, cassava, pumpkins, rice, barley, oats, coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, citrus fruits, melons, Kentucky bluegrass as well as groundnuts, while subsequent waves of settlers brought wheat, radishes, chickpeas, melons, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, as well as chickens coming from Europe.

as well as tobacco was, of course, another product in which travelled coming from the Americas to Europe.

coming from a patriarchal point of view, the poor chaps addicted to tobacco had obviously been seduced. Lads, listen up, whether the idea’s an apple or dried tobacco leaves, always first ask; why?

On his first voyage, Columbus was offered dried tobacco leaves as a gift coming from the indigenous population. He himself did not take to smoking, nevertheless two of his crew members, Rodrigo de Jerez as well as Luis de Torres, had developed a liking for the idea after seeing native Americans stuffing the dried leaves into a pipe as well as lighting the idea. Jerez continued the habit as well as introduced tobacco to his home town of Ayamonte.

The smoke reportedly frightened some of his neighbours, resulting inside Spanish Inquisition imprisoning him for his use of the ‘devil’s weed’, doing Jerez the first victim of anti-tobacco laws as well as his neighbours the first passive smokers objecting to second-hand smoke. He spent seven years in prison only to be released when smoking had become an accepted activity in Spain.

The major reason for tobacco’s growing popularity in Europe was its supposed healing properties. Europeans believed in which tobacco could cure almost anything, coming from bad breath to cancer. In 1571, a Spanish doctor, Nicolas Monardes, wrote a book claiming in which tobacco could cure 36 health problems. During in which period tobacco was so well-liked in which the idea was frequently used as money. However, several individuals commenced to realise in which smoking tobacco had some dangerous effects. In 1610, Sir Francis Bacon, for instance, noted in which trying to quit the habit was truly hard.

as well as gradually more as well as more scientists began to understand the chemicals in tobacco, as well as the dangerous health effects of smoking. During the 1950s, evidence was surfacing in which smoking was linked to lung cancer. The tobacco industry, however, denied such health hazards, as well as promoted brand new “safer” products such as those with lower tar as well as filtered cigarettes.

During the 1980s, smoking became politically incorrect, as well as smoking was banned not only in many public places inside US, nevertheless also on all domestic flights lasting less than two hours. in which, you may recall, was the decade of President Ronald Reagan. nevertheless during his film as well as TV years he seemed to have had a rather different opinion about correctness, as well as with hindsight, will have regretted in which advertisement.

In Indonesia tobacco was introduced by the Dutch around the middle of the 19^th century. as well as right now, 2014, smoking can be still the growth industry the idea was 5 or six decades ago in Europe as well as the US, even though more as well as more offices as well as shopping malls are prohibiting smoking on their premises. Many restaurants, however, are lagging behind as well as at best have ineffectively partitioned no-smoking sections only.

Indonesia has one of the entire world’s highest smoking rates. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS): Indonesia Report 2011, some 67% of adult men as well as 4.5% of adult women are actively smoking. For the men in which can be a 24% increase coming from 1995, as well as an almost trebling of the rate for women – in 1995 54% of men as well as 1.7% of women were addicted.

No wonder then in which the National Social Economic Survey shows in which poor households spend 19% of their income on staple foods as well as 11% on tobacco, nevertheless only 2% for education as well as 3% on health care.

as well as even more worrying can be the steadily increasing smoking rate among child smokers (aged 5 – nine) which has multiplied by six times since 1995, to 426,000.

The government revenue coming from tobacco tax in 2011 was about US$7.6 billion, more than double the figure of 2005. Together with the millions of jobs in growing as well as processing tobacco, in which clearly affects the government’s policy on tobacco as well as smoking, as actively restricting smoking might reduce its revenue as well as increase the number of under as well as unemployed.

As a consequence, Indonesia’s very powerful tobacco industry may conclude in which the US$235 million spent on advertising in 2011 was well spent, as well as confidently look forward to a few more golden years, as a crackdown on the industry can be highly unlikely.