The U.S. embargo on Cuba is the political decision that reshaped the American cigar market. After the 1959 revolution, the U.S. government restricted trade with Cuba, and in 1962 President Kennedy expanded the embargo. Cuban tobacco and Cuban cigars disappeared from legal U.S. shops, although they continued to be sold in the rest of the world.
The result was a change in the industry. Cuban families and cigar rollers moved abroad, tobacco seed was taken out of Cuba, and factories opened in Florida, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras. The everyday cigar of the American smoker became a New World cigar. See topics · cuban vs new world and history · the cigar.
This encyclopedia treats the embargo as a historical event and a trade barrier. It does not take a side on the politics.