How appeared cigarettes in UK?
After Christopher Columbus brought tobacco to Europe, smoking in the last 250 years became one of the ways of gaining pleasure.
The first active promoter of tobacco in England was Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1584 he received from Queen Elizabeth the first permit of New Land's development and in the same year founded the colony in the New World, which named Virginia in honor of the Queen Elizabeth the Virgin. In 1585, he came back to England bringing tobacco and a substantial collection of Indian pipes.
In 1603 Queen Elizabeth died and the quiet life of British smokers ended. After, ascended the throne James VI and I, he becomes the first anti-tobacco activist. James VI was the first who adopted anti-smoking bans: prohibiting smoking in the court, public places and even in the streets. However, he haven't prohibit smoking totally in England, the reason was - the export of tobacco abroad and high taxes on tobacco, that significantly replenished the royal treasury.
Walter Raleigh brought the expedition to America in search of the mythical El Dorado, rich in gold, in the existence of which in sec.17 people believed. Such country, of course he didn't found, but he brought back to UK that for many merchants became most notably and expensive than gold - a sweet-smelling tobacco.
When Raleigh was returning to England, the Spanish fleet made bold attempts to acquire the valuable cargo with tobacco and their attempts failed. In the meantime, the king decided to conclude a peace with Spain and the adventurer Reilly, was accused of trying to foment a war with the Spanish king and sentenced to death. On the way to scaffold, Raleigh smoked his last pipe, knocked the ashes out and was executed.
But the Walter Raleigh's legacy remained in Europe, tobacco began cultivated and grow not only in the North American territory, but also in Europe, Asia and Africa. By the end of the 19th century, tobacco has become very popular all over the world, it was smoked in pipes, cigars, hookahs, chewed and sniffed.
Cigarettes appeared more than 200 years ago in the second half of the 19th century.
Cigarettes smoked 200 years ago, of course, were different from those smoked today. Interesting fact is that first cigarettes were originally made only of tobacco leaves wrapped in tubes. It is considered that first cigarettes in Europe appeared during the Crimean War of 1853-1856 in which participated UK. After Crimean War cigarettes spread around the world.