The Origins of “Big Tobacco” Cigarette Manufacturing and the Prevalence of Smoking in Colonial Cyprus, 1920–1960

This article traces the origins of “big” tobacco, that is, international, multinational companies, in Cyprus during the British colonial period. It explores how the tobacco and cigarette industries developed from the 1920s until the end of colonial rule in 1960, and how “big” tobacco companies united and came to control these industries. The article shows that from the 1920s, and especially from the 1940s, the prevalence of smoking in Cyprus was exceedingly high. This corresponded to the large-scale importing of foreign-made cigarettes and the manufacture of cigarettes by local companies, before the first international company began to manufacture cigarettes in the island in 1951. The article explores how the British colonial governments and civil society did little to make the Cypriot people aware of the dangers of cigarette smoking, despite medical research linking cigarette smoking to the increase in lung cancer in 1950 and the debates and warnings in the UK. Ultimately, the origins and evolution of “big tobacco” companies in Cyprus had a profound impact on the local industry and the prevalence of cigarette smoking in Cyprus.