Drinking Smoke: The Tobacco Syndemic in Oceania

Situating Tobacco Chronologically vis-à-vis Oceania

xvii Situating Tobacco Chronologically vis-à-vis Oceania 1492 November 5th in Cuba: The first recorded encounter between a European and a person smoking tobacco. 1511 The Portuguese conquer Malacca and visit Ambon in the Moluccas. 1519–1522 Magellan circumnavigates the globe. 1529 The Portuguese are “firmly implanted” in the Moluccas (Spice Islands). 1550s Tobacco seeds are carried to France and planted in herbal gardens there and in the Low Countries. 1556 A Bristol sailor “created a sensation” by smoking in the street in England. 1558 New Guinea appears on a Portuguese map. 1560 No indication that tobacco was widely used anywhere in Europe before this date. 1565 Sir John Hawkins imports a consignment of tobacco to England; a Spanish colony is established at Cebu in the Philippines. 1571 Spain moves its Philippines colony from Cebu to Manila; tobacco definitely in use in England. 1573 Manila galleon voyages begin. 1575 Spaniards introduce tobacco to the Philippines from Mexico. xviii Situating Tobacco Chronologically 1580 The first clay pipes are manufactured in London, modeled after Amerindian examples; Sir Francis Drake completes the second circumnavigation of the globe. 1590–1610 The Portuguese introduce tobacco to India, Java, and Japan, from where it spread to Sri Lanka, Korea, China, Malaysia, and West Papua. 1595 The Dutch “First Fleet” sails to Indonesia and reaches Bantam in June 1596. 1600 The East India Company is founded in England; tobacco is carried to China from the Philippines. 1602 The Dutch “Jan Compagnie” (VOC) is founded. 1607 Tobacco is first planted as a crop in the Virginia colony. 1616 Kumamba (Arimoa) Islanders offer tobacco to the crew of Schouten’s ship. 1619 The Dutch establish Batavia (what is now Jakarta). 1645 Seram Laut traders extend their trading sphere to the TransFly coast of New Guinea. 1668 A Spanish colony is established on Guam, Mariana Islands. 1750 Tobacco emerges as a European mass-consumed commodity. 1769 Captain James Cook reaches Tahiti; Tahitians “entirely innocent of tobacco.” 1770 Captain James Cook introduces tobacco to the New Zealand Māori. 1776 The Spanish Mission at the present site of San Francisco, California, is founded; the United States declares independence from England. 1789 Carolinian sailing canoes call at Guam but are lost on the return voyage. 1789 The first whaling ship enters the Pacific via Cape Horn. 1805 Carolinian sailors resume what become annual trading voyages to Guam. 1810 The annual Manila galleon is halted and such voyages are discontinued completely in 1815. 1810–1830 Heyday of sandalwood trade in Hawai‘i. Situating Tobacco Chronologically xix 1818 Whalers begin to exploit the “on-the-line” grounds just south of the equator; tobacco is grown on Guam. 1819 The “off-Japan” whaling grounds are discovered. 1833 Palauans are growing tobacco. 1840s–1860s Height of the sandalwood trade in Melanesia. 1869 The Suez Canal opens. 1884 The Bonsack machine is invented in the United States to manufacture ready-made cigarettes. 1885–1899 The German Astrolabe Compagnie grows tobacco commercially in German New Guinea. 1902 The British American Tobacco Company is established. 1941–1945 World War II in the Pacific; tobacco is declared an essential wartime material by President Franklin D. Roosevelt; industrially manufactured cigarettes commonly shared with Islanders. 1955 Fiji Tobacco Company pioneers cigarette manufacture in the Pacific Islands. 1964 First cigarette factory in Papua New Guinea begins production in Madang; U.S. Surgeon General’s report is issued on the negative health effects of tobacco use. 1990 Nabila village on Viti Levu, Fiji, declares itself a “non-smoking village.” 1997 The Republic of the Marshall Islands brings a lawsuit against several tobacco multinationals. 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) takes effect. 2007 The first biennial Oceania Tobacco Control Conference is held in Auckland. 2008 All sixteen Pacific Island countries have ratified the FCTC. ...