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Hemp since the beginning of the Modern Age

Posted by Open HempShop Team on May 27th 2023

Hemp since the beginning of the Modern Age

The Modern Age is the historical period that begins with the discovery of America in 1492 and ends with the French Revolution in 1789. It was a time of great economic, political and religious changes, one of whose fundamental events was precisely the arrival of the Europeans to the New World.

Hemp, whose cultivation had spread throughout continental Europe and Asia since 500 AD, was one of the main raw materials of the time, used for the production of textiles, construction materials and for food and medicinal or therapeutic purposes. During this historical period, the maximum activity of hemp cultivation and maceration is recorded, coinciding with the increase in demand for its fiber to supply the Spanish royal navy for imperial expansion and trade.

As a curious fact, the first printing of Gutenberg's Bible, in the 15th century, was made on hemp paper. A lucky decision for posterity because hemp paper is more durable than vegetable pulp, with which those important bibles have withstood the test of time.

Its medicinal use in Europe began in the Napoleonic period, when Napoleon promulgated the use of cannabis for medical purposes, stimulated by the interest of military doctors who returned with him after the victorious conquest of Egypt. Subsequently, the first writings by French doctors appeared, explaining that cannabis oil was used for people with dementia and for certain cases of syphilis. For almost a century, this product remained among the therapeutic options of the European Medical Society for the relief of menstrual pain, hysteria, rheumatism and many other indications.

Its cultivation and uses in the New World

Hemp cultivation played a very important role in the discovery and colonization of the New World, to the point that there are historians who think that this event would not have been possible without the contribution of hemp, because it was a key product for the construction and manufacture of ropes, sails and platforms for the great ships and galleys of the time.

It is said that when Columbus landed on the shores of America, he carried an estimated 80 tons of sails and ropes made of hemp in his boats. In addition, hemp seeds were kept in the hold of the Santa Maria to feed the crew, which were later used to plant them in the lands they were colonizing.

Its expansion into the present territory of the United States

In 1553, the English king, Henry VIII, ordered English farmers to plant hemp as a way to ensure the growth of the empire. This decision is responsible for the expansion of cultivation that occurred, around 1616, in Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. There, hemp was used as fuel for lamps and textiles, as well as for ropes and ship equipment. In 1619, the Virginia Assembly ordered farmers in the colonies to grow hemp, a mandate now believed to be the first cannabis law in the New World.

Throughout the rest of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, hemp played a fundamental role in the United States economy, placing itself at the center of its development. Even the first two drafts of the Declaration of Independence used hemp paper, although for the final copy, the founding fathers decided to use animal skin parchment. Its use was so widespread that, by the 1850s, the United States Census identified some 8,400 hemp plantations across the country.

Until the 20th century, 80% of the textile needs of the United States were covered by hemp, a product that was very useful to satisfy many of the demands of World War II. However, shortly after the end of the war, the international rejection and prohibition of drugs created a strong stigma around cannabis that also spread to hemp and ended up causing the sectors that produce hemp in some countries to disappear. The US hemp industry, which until then was booming, produced its last crop in Wisconsin, in 1957.

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