Beyond iberian atlantic spaces: trans-imperial and trans-territorial entanglements in Havana cigar history (1756-1924)

Résumé 0

This paper revisits broader historiography to interrogate the temporality of the hand-crafted Havana cigar's entrée onto the world stage in the «long nineteenth century», redrawing the start date for Havana cigar history as 1756, the outbreak of the Seven Years War. Subsequent developments, including the British occupation of Havana in 1762-3, and notably the advent of the «British cycle» of «liberal free trade» in global history, would see Spain's decline, resurgent Dutch competition, and British and U.S. involvement in Cuba's tortuous path to frustrated sovereignty. The paper charts the Havana cigar's vertiginous rise to iconic fame as one of diverse entanglements and mobilities, with political and social interests facilitating the spread and appropriation of knowledge and practice. In the race to re-create the quality and «authenticity» of the Havana cigar and leaf, this is illustrated by two transnational counterpoints: that of neighboring British colonial Jamaica and that of the distant Dutch East Indies in conjunction with the closer, independent United States. A brief concluding section reflects on the significance of origins (terroir) and reinvented perceived origins («Cubanicity») in how Havana cigar history became quite so «entangled».