Tobacco was one of the precious gifts the indigenous people of the Antille Islands presented to Christopher Columbus when he landed in the Caribbean in 1492. Cultivated by the Mayan Empire as a highly prized medicinal plant, tobacco had traveled from Mexico south to the Caribbean where it came to the attention of Columbus and his men. According to legend, one of Columbus' sailors rolled the dried whole leaves into a cylinder, lighted one end and inhaled the smoke. Delighting in the sensation, he inadvertently created a crude prototype of the cigar, which recently has been re-marketed into a trendy luxury item.

By 1560, tobacco was known throughout Europe as a medicinal plant thanks to Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal. Nicot was enamored both with the plant's flower, which he wore as a boutonniere, and its medicinal properties. For a time tobacco was known as "Nicotina" in honor of Nicot who introduced it to France, but the name "tobacco" eventually prevailed as the worlds largest producer became the island of Tobago, the Caribbean's southernmost island above the Port of Spain off Venezuela.

In 1614, King Philip III of Spain established Seville as tobacco center of the world. Attempting to prevent a tobacco glut, Philip required all tobacco grown in the Spanish New World to be shipped to a central location, Seville, Spain. Seville became the world center for the production of cigars. European cigarette use began here, as beggars patched together tobacco from used cigars, and rolled them in paper (papeletes). Spanish and Portuguese sailors spread the practice to Russia and the Levant. This began what we know today as modern hand rolled cigarette.