Q 01/05

Archaeological finds suggest humans in the Americas began using tobacco roughly how long ago?

A) 1,200 years

B) 3,000 years

C) 12,300 years

D) 8,000 years

Answer · why

C) 12,300 years

Europeans had never encountered the plant until the voyages to the New World.

Q 02/05

Rodrigo de Jerez, a crewman on Columbus's 1492 voyage, was the first European to do what?

A) Smoke tobacco

B) Grow potatoes

C) Eat a chilli pepper

D) Drink chocolate

Answer · why

A) Smoke tobacco

Back home in Ayamonte the Inquisition jailed him for it; by his release seven years later the habit had caught on.

Q 03/05

Why did the Spanish Inquisition imprison Rodrigo de Jerez?

A) He refused to pay tobacco tax

B) Only the Devil could make a man exhale smoke

C) He sold tobacco to Moors

D) He smoked inside a church

Answer · why

B) Only the Devil could make a man exhale smoke

He was locked up for his 'sinful and infernal' habits.

Q 04/05

Nicotiana and nicotine honour which French ambassador who sent tobacco to Paris in 1559?

A) Jacques Cartier

B) Jean Nicot

C) Nicolas Fouquet

D) Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Answer · why

B) Jean Nicot

Botanists were calling the plant Nicotiana by 1570.

Q 05/05

Which English king wrote 'A Counterblaste to Tobacco' in 1604?

A) Henry VIII

B) James I

C) Charles I

D) George III

Answer · why

B) James I

He backed up his pamphlet with a 4,000 percent tax increase, then set up a royal monopoly in 1624.