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Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress refers to both the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and at the time, also described the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789. The Confederation Congress operated as the first federal government until being replaced following ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Until 1785, the Congress met predominantly at what is today Independence Hall in Philadelphia, though it was relocated temporarily on several occasions during the Revolutionary War and the fall of Philadelphia.

The First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in 1774 in response to escalating tensions between the colonies and the British, which culminated in passage of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament following the Boston Tea Party. The First Congress met for about six weeks, mainly to try to repair the fraying relationship between Britain and the colonies while asserting the rights of colonists, proclaiming and passing the Continental Association, which was a unified trade embargo against Britain, and successfully building consensus for establishment of a second congress. The Second Continental Congress convened in 1775, soon after hostilities broke out in Massachusetts. Soon after meeting, the Second Congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III, established the Continental Army, and elected George Washington commander of the new army. After the king issued the Proclamation of Rebellion in August 1775 in response to the Battle of Bunker Hill, some members of the Second Congress concluded that peace with Britain was not forthcoming, and began working towards unifying the colonies into a new nation. The body adopted the Lee Resolution for Independence on July 2, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence two days later, on July 4, 1776, proclaiming that the former colonies were now independent sovereign states.

The Second Continental Congress served as the provisional government of the U.S. during most of the Revolutionary War. In March 1781, the nation's first Frame of Government, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, came into force, and thus the body became what later was called the Congress of the Confederation. This unicameral governing body would convene in eight sessions before adjourning in 1789, when the 1st United States Congress under the new Constitution of the United States took over the role as the nation's legislative branch of government.

Both the First and Second Continental Congresses convened in Philadelphia, though when the city was captured during the Revolutionary War, the Second Congress was forced to meet in other locations for a time. The Congress of Confederation was also established in Philadelphia and later moved to New York City, which served as the U.S. capital from 1785 to 1790.

Much of what is known today about the daily activities of these congresses comes from the journals kept by the secretary for all three congresses, Charles Thomson. Printed contemporaneously, the Journals of the Continental Congress contain the official congressional papers, letters, treaties, reports and records. The delegates to the Continental and Confederation congresses had extensive experience in deliberative bodies, with "a cumulative total of nearly 500 years of experience in their Colonial assemblies, and fully a dozen of them had served as speakers of the houses of their legislatures."

Background
The initial idea for the development of the Continental Congress, including the Thirteen Colonies in British America, first arose in 1754 at the start of the French and Indian War, which started as the North American front of the Seven Years' War between Britain and France. Initially known as the Albany Congress, the Congress met in Albany, New York from June 18 to July 11, 1754, and representatives from seven of the thirteen colonies attended. Among the delegates was Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, who proposed that the colonies join in a confederation. Though the idea of a confederation was rejected, Franklin and others continued to argue that the colonies should act more cohesively. At the beginning of the American Revolution, committees of correspondence began building the foundation for interaction between the thirteen colonial states.

In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act requiring that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. The act provoked the ire of merchants in New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia, who responded by placing an embargo on British imports until the Stamp Act was repealed. To present a united front in their opposition, delegates from several provinces met in the Stamp Act Congress, which convened in New York City from October 7 through 25, 1765. It issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which it sent to Parliament. Under pressure from British companies hurt by the embargo, the government of Prime Minister Lord Rockingham and King George III relented, and the Stamp Act was repealed in March 1766.

The colonists' resistance to the Stamp Act served as a catalyst for subsequent acts of resistance. The Townshend Acts, which imposed indirect taxes on various items not produced within the colonies, and created a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, passed by Parliament in 1767 and 1768, sparked renewed animosity in the colonies, which eventually resulted in the Boston Massacre of 1770. Three years later, the Tea Act, which granted the British East India company the right to directly ship its tea to North America and the right to the duty-free export of tea from Great Britain, became law, exacerbating the colonists' resentment toward the British government, inciting the December 1773 Boston Tea Party, and inspiring the September 1774 Suffolk Resolves.

First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress met briefly in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from September 5 to October 26, 1774. Delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that would ultimately join in the Revolutionary War participated. Only Georgia, where Loyalist feelings still outweighed Patriotic emotion, and which relied upon Great Britain for military supplies to defend settlers against possible Indian attacks, did not, nor did East and West Florida, which at the time were also British colonies. Altogether, 56 delegates attended, including George Washington, Patrick Henry, and John Adams. Other notable delegates included Samuel Adams from Massachusetts Bay and Joseph Galloway and John Dickinson from the Pennsylvania. Peyton Randolph of Virginia was its president.

Benjamin Franklin put forward the idea of such a meeting the year before, but he was unable to convince the colonies of its necessity until the Royal Navy instituted a blockade of Boston Harbor and Parliament passed the punitive Intolerable Acts in 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party. During the congress, delegates organized an economic boycott of Great Britain in protest and petitioned the King for a redress of grievances. The colonies were united in their effort to demonstrate to the mother country their authority by virtue of their common causes and their unity, but their ultimate objectives were inconsistent. Most delegates were not yet ready to break away from Great Britain, but they most definitely wanted the king and parliament to act in what they considered a fairer manner. Delegates from the provinces of Pennsylvania and New York were given firm instructions to pursue a resolution with Great Britain. While the other colonies all held the idea of colonial rights as paramount, they were split between those who sought legislative equality with Britain and those who instead favored independence and a break from the Crown and its excesses.

Second Continental Congress
Map of territorial growth 1775.svg in 1775 and present-day U.S. state boundaries

{{legend|#f56858|Thirteen Colonies}} {{legend|#f5a691|Other British colonies}} {{legend|#e7a030|Spanish Captaincy General of Cuba and New Philippines}} ]]

In London, Parliament debated the merits of meeting the demands made by the colonies; however, it took no official notice of Congress's petitions and addresses. On November 30, 1774, King George III opened Parliament with a speech condemning Massachusetts and the Suffolk Resolves, prompting the Continental Congress to convene again.

The Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775, at Pennsylvania's State House in Philadelphia shortly after the start of the Revolutionary War. Initially, it functioned as a de facto common government by raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties. The Thirteen Colonies were represented when in the following year it adopted a resolution for independence on July 2, 1776, and two days later approved the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson drafted the declaration, and John Adams was a leader in the debates in favor of its adoption. Afterward, the Congress functioned as the provisional government of the United States of America through March 1, 1781.

To govern the war effort and to foster unity among the states, Congress created various standing committees to handle war-related activities, such as the committee of secret correspondence, the treasury board, the board of war and ordnance, and the navy board. Much work was also done in small ad hoc committees. One such small group was tasked with developing a constitution to perpetuate the new Union. Such an agreement, the Articles of Confederation was approved by Congress on November 15, 1777, and sent to the states for ratification.

Confederation Congress
The Articles of Confederation came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all Thirteen Colonies, and the Second Continental Congress became the Congress of the Confederation, which was officially styled as the "United States in Congress Assembled", a unicameral body composed of delegates from the several states. A guiding principle of the Articles was to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states. The weak central government established by the Articles received only those powers which the former colonies had recognized as belonging to king and parliament. Congress had the power to declare war, sign treaties, and settle disputes between the states. It could also borrow or print money, but did not have the power to tax. It helped guide the United States through the final stages of the Revolutionary War, but steeply declined in authority afterward.

During peacetime, there were two important, long-lasting acts of the Confederation Congress:

 * 1) The passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. This ordinance accepted the abolition of all claims to the land west of Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio River by the states of Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and the ordinance established U.S. federal governmental control over all of this land in the Northwest Territory with the goal of inspiring the creation of several new states there. In the course of time, this land was divided over the course of many decades into the states of present-day Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota.
 * 2) After years of frustration, an agreement was reached in 1786 at the Annapolis Convention to call another convention in May 1787 in Philadelphia with the mission of writing and proposing several amendments to the Articles of Confederation to improve the form of government. The report was sent to the Confederation Congress and the States. The result was the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, which was authorized by all the States thus fulfilling the unanimous requirement of the Articles of Confederation to allow changes to the Articles.

Under the Articles of Confederation, the Confederation Congress had little power to compel the individual states to comply with its decisions. More and more prospective delegates elected to the Confederation Congress declined to serve in it. The leading men in each State preferred to serve in the state governments, and thus the Continental Congress had frequent difficulties in establishing a quorum. When the Articles of Confederation were superseded by the Constitution of the United States, the Confederation Congress was superseded by the United States Congress.

The Confederation Congress ultimately established a suitable administrative structure for the Federal government, which placed into operation a federal government comprising three departments (finance, war, and foreign affairs), led by three ministers for each respective department. Robert Morris was selected as the new Superintendent of Finance, and then Morris secured a loan from the French government to deal with his empty treasury and also runaway inflation, for a number of years, in the supply of paper money.

As the ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin secured the loan for a common budget, and also persuaded France to send an army of about 6,000 soldiers to the United States and to dispatch a large squadron of French warships under Comte de Grasse to the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. These French warships were decisive at the Battle of Yorktown along the coast of Virginia by preventing Lord Cornwallis's British troops from receiving supplies, reinforcements, or evacuation via the James River and Hampton Roads.

Robert Morris, the Minister of Finance, persuaded Congress to charter the Bank of North America on December 31, 1781. Although a private bank, the Federal Government acquired partial ownership with money lent by France. The Bank of North America played a major role in financing the war against Great Britain. The combined armies of George Washington and Nathanael Greene, with the help of the French Army and Navy, defeated the British in the Battle of Yorktown during October 1781. Lord Cornwallis was forced to sue for peace and to surrender his entire army to General Washington.

During 1783, the Americans secured the official recognition of the independence of the United States from Great Britain following negotiations with British diplomats in Paris, which culminated with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. The Treaty of Paris was later ratified by the British Parliament.

Organization
Both the British Parliament and many of their own Colonial assemblies had powerful speakers of the house and standing committees with strong chairmen, with executive power held by the British Monarch or the colonial Governor. However, the organization of the Continental Congress was based less on the British Parliament or on local colonial assemblies than on the 1765 Stamp Act Congress. Nine delegates to that congress were in attendance at the First Congress in 1774, and their perspective on governance influenced the direction of both the Continental Congresses and the later Confederation Congress. Congress took on powers normally held by the British King-in-Council, such as foreign and military affairs. However, the right to tax and regulate trade was reserved for the states, not Congress. Congress had no formal way to enforce its ordinances on the state governments. Delegates were responsible to and reported directly to their home state assemblies; an organizational structure that Neil Olsen has described as "an extreme form of matrix management".

Delegates chose a presiding president to monitor the debate, maintain order, and make sure journals were kept and documents and letters were published and delivered. After the colonies declared their independence in 1776 and united as a quasi-federation to fight for their freedom, the president functioned as head of state (not of the country, but of its central government); Otherwise, the office was "more honorable than powerful". Congress also elected a secretary, scribe, doorman, messenger, and Chaplain.

The rules of Congress guaranteed the right to debate and open access to the floor for each delegate. Additionally, to ensure that each state would be on an equal footing with the others, voting on ordinances was done en bloc, with each state having a single vote. Prior to casting its yay or nay vote, preliminary votes were taken within each state delegation. The majority vote determined here was considered the vote of the state on the motion; in cases of a tie the vote for the state was marked as divided, and was not counted.

Turnover of delegates was high, with an average year-to-year turnover rate of 37% by one calculation, and 39% by session-to-session. Of the 343 serving delegates, only 55% (187 delegates) spent 12 or more months in attendance. Only 25 of the delegates served longer than 35 months. This high rate of turnover was not just a characteristic, it was due to a deliberate policy of term limits. In the Confederation phase of the Congress "no delegate was permitted to serve more than three years in any six". Attendance was variable: while in session, between 54 and 22 delegates were in attendance at any one time, with an average of only 35.5 members attending between 1774 and 1788.

Legacy
There is a long-running debate on how effective the Congress was as an organization. The first critic may have been General George Washington. In an address to his officers, at Newburgh, New York, on March 15, 1783, responding to complaints that Congress had not funded their pay and pensions, he stated that he believed that Congress would do the army "complete justice" and eventually pay the soldiers. "But, like all other large Bodies, where there is a variety of different Interests to reconcile, their deliberations are slow."

In addition to their slowness, the lack of coercive power in the Continental Congress was harshly criticized by James Madison when arguing for the need of a Federal Constitution. His comment in Vices of the Political System of April 1787 set the conventional wisdom on the historical legacy of the institution for centuries to come:

"A sanction is essential to the idea of law, as coercion is to that of Government. The federal system being destitute of both, wants the great vital principles of a Political Cons[ti]tution. Under the form of such a Constitution, it is in fact nothing more than a treaty of amity of commerce and of alliance, between so many independent and Sovereign States. From what cause could so fatal an omission have happened in the Articles of Confederation? From a mistaken confidence that the justice, the good faith, the honor, the sound policy, of the several legislative assemblies would render superfluous any appeal to the ordinary motives by which the laws secure the obedience of individuals: a confidence which does honor to the enthusiastic virtue of the compilers, as much as the inexperience of the crisis apologizes for their errors."

Political scientists Calvin Jillson and Rick Wilson in the 1980s accepted the conventional interpretation on the weakness of the Congress due to the lack of coercive power. They explored the role of leadership, or rather the lack of it, in the Continental Congress. Going beyond even Madison's harsh critique, they used the "analytical stance of what has come to be called the new institutionalism" to demonstrate that "the norms, rules, and institutional structures of the Continental Congress" were equally to blame "for the institution's eventual failure", and that the "institutional structure worked against, rather than with, the delegates in tackling the crucial issues of the day."

Historian Richard P. McCormick suggested that Madison's "extreme judgment" on the Congress was "motivated no doubt by Madison's overriding desire to create a new central government that would be empowered to veto the acts of state legislatures," but that it fails "to take any notice of the fact that while the authority of the Confederation Congress was ambiguous, it was not a nullity".

Benjamin Irvin in his social and cultural history of the Continental Congress, praised "the invented traditions by which Congress endeavored to fortify the resistance movement and to make meaning of American independence." But he noted that after the war's end, "Rather than passively adopting the Congress's creations, the American people embraced, rejected, reworked, ridiculed, or simply ignored them as they saw fit."

An organizational culture analysis of the Continental Congress by Neil Olsen, looking for the values, norms, and underlying assumptions that drive an organization's decisions, noted that "the leaderless Continental Congress outperformed not only the modern congress run by powerful partisan hierarchies, but modern government and corporate entities, for all their coercive power and vaunted skills as 'leaders'." Looking at their mission as defined by state resolutions and petitions entered into the Congressional Journal on its first day, it found that on the common issues of the relief of Boston, securing Colonial rights, eventually restoring harmonious relations with Great Britain, and repealing taxes, they overachieved their mission goals, defeated the largest army and navy in the world, and created two new types of republic. Olsen suggests that the Congress, if slow, when judged by its many achievements – not the least being recognizing its flaws, then replacing and terminating itself – was a success.

Timeline

 * 1774
 * September 5: First Continental Congress convenes at Philadelphia's Carpenter's Hall
 * October 14: Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress is adopted
 * October 18: Continental Association is adopted
 * October 25: First Petition to the King is signed
 * October 26: Congress adjourns, resolving to reconvene the following May if grievances were not redressed
 * 1775
 * April 19: War begins at the Battles of Lexington and Concord
 * May 10: Second Continental Congress convenes at Philadelphia's State House
 * June 14: Congress establishes the Continental Army
 * June 15: Congress appoints one of its members, George Washington, as commander of the Continental Army
 * July 1: King George III addresses Parliament, stating they will "put a speedy end" to the rebellion
 * July 6: Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms is approved
 * July 8: Second petition to the king (the Olive Branch Petition) is signed and sent to London
 * August 23: In his Proclamation of Rebellion (officially titled "A Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition"), King George III declares elements of the American colonies in "open and avowed rebellion" and orders officials of the British Empire "to use their utmost endeavours to withstand and suppress such rebellion"
 * October 13: Congress establishes the Continental Navy
 * November 10: Congress establishes the Continental Marines

 * 1776
 * January 10: Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
 * June 7: Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presents a three-part resolution to Congress, calling on Congress to declare independence, form foreign alliances, and prepare a plan of colonial confederation
 * June 10: Congress votes on June 10 to postpone further discussion of Lee's resolution for three weeks to allow time for the delegates to confer with their state assemblies
 * June 11: Congress appoints a "Committee of Five", Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston of New York, to draft a declaration justifying independence.
 * June 12: Congress appoints a Committee of Thirteen to draft of a constitution for a union of the states
 * July 2: Lee Resolution (also known as "The Resolution for Independence"), asserting the independence of the 13 colonies from Great Britain, is adopted
 * July 4: Final text of the Declaration of Independence is adopted
 * July 12: John Dickinson presents the Committee of Thirteen's draft constitution to Congress
 * August 2: Delegates sign an engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence
 * December 12: Congress adjourns to move to Baltimore, Maryland
 * December 20: Congress convenes in Baltimore at the Henry Fite House

 * 1777
 * February 27: Congress adjourns to return to Philadelphia
 * March 4: Congress reconvenes at Philadelphia's State House
 * June 14: Flag Resolution, defining the design of the flag of the United States of America, is adopted
 * September 18: Congress adjourns in order to move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania
 * September 27: Congress convenes for one day in Lancaster, at the Court House
 * September 30: Congress reconvenes at York, Pennsylvania at the Court House
 * November 15: Final text of the Articles of Confederation is approved and sent to the states for ratification

 * 1778
 * June 27: Congress adjourns to return to Philadelphia
 * July 2: Congress reconvenes in Philadelphia, first at College Hall, then at the State House

 * 1780
 * January 15: Congress establishes the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture

 * 1781
 * March 1: Having been ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation becomes effective; Continental Congress becomes the Congress of the Confederation
 * May 26: Proposed plan from Robert Morris to establish Bank of North America approved by Congress
 * October 17: Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia
 * December 31: Bank of North America chartered by Congress

 * 1783
 * June 21: The Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 forces congress to flee Philadelphia.
 * June 30: Congress reconvenes in Princeton, New Jersey, first at a house named "Prospect," then Nassau Hall
 * November 4: Congress adjourns to move to Annapolis, Maryland
 * November 26: Congress reconvenes at Annapolis, in the State House
 * December 23: George Washington resigns from the Army

 * 1784
 * January 14: The Treaty of Paris is ratified
 * May 7: Thomas Jefferson is appointed as a minister to France
 * August 19: Congress adjourns to move to Trenton, New Jersey
 * November 1: Congress reconvenes at Trenton, at the French Arms Tavern
 * December 24: Congress adjourns to move to New York City

 * 1785
 * January 11: Congress reconvenes in New York City, first at City Hall, then at Fraunces Tavern
 * March 25–28: Maryland–Virginia Conference held at Mount Vernon
 * March 28: Mount Vernon Compact is signed between Maryland and Virginia covering the use of the Potomac River

 * 1786
 * August 29: Shays' Rebellion begins
 * September 11–14: 1786 Annapolis Convention held; delegates issues a report calling for another meeting in the spring with delegates from all states

 * 1787
 * February 21: Congress calls a constitutional convention "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein and when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union"
 * May 25: Constitutional Convention convenes in Philadelphia; every state except for Rhode Island sends delegates
 * July 13: Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance
 * September 17: Constitutional Convention adjourns after completing work on the United States Constitution
 * September 28: Congress votes to transmit the proposed Constitution to the 13 states for ratification

 * 1788
 * July 2: Congress President Cyrus Griffin informs Congress that New Hampshire has ratified the Constitution and notes that it is the ninth ratification, thereby allowing for the establishment of the new government
 * July 8: A committee is formed to examine all ratifications received and to develop a plan for putting the new Constitution into operation.
 * September 13: Congress certifies that the new constitution has been duly ratified and sets date for first meeting of the new federal government and the presidential election
 * October 10: The last session during which the Continental Congress succeeded in achieving a quorum; and passes its last ordinance
 * November 15: Cyrus Griffin, the 10th president of Congress under the Articles of Confederation, resigns

 * 1789
 * March 2: Last meeting of the Continental Congress, held at Fraunces Tavern, is adjourned sine die; Philip Pell is the only member in attendance
 * March 4: First session of the 1st United States Congress begins at Federal Hall
 * April 30: George Washington inaugurated as first President of the United States
 * July 23: Charles Thomson transmits to President Washington his resignation of the office of Secretary of Congress
 * July 25: In accordance with President Washington's directions, "the books, records, and papers of the late Congress, the Great Seal of the Federal Union, and the Seal of the Admiralty" are delivered over to Roger Alden, deputy secretary of the new Congress, who had been designated by President Washington as custodian for the time being

title: Continental Congress


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Cigar

A cigar is a tobacco product made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of shapes and sizes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder leaf which holds the filler together, and a wrapper leaf, for appearance and flavor, which is often the highest quality leaf used. Often there will be a cigar band printed with the cigar manufacturer's logo. Modern cigars can come with two or more, highlighting special qualities such as age and origin of the tobaccos used.

Cigar smoking carries a variety of serious health risks, including developing cancer, respiratory, cardiovascular, periodontal and other diseases.

Etymology
The word cigar originally derives from the Mayan sikar ("to smoke rolled tobacco leaves"—from si'c, "tobacco"). The Spanish word "cigarro" is derived from it. The English abbreviation “cigar” came into general use in 1730.

History

Although the specific origin of the cigar is unknown, a Mayan ceramic pot from Guatemala dating back to the 10th century depicts people smoking tobacco leaves tied together with a string.

The practice of tobacco smoking was widely diffused among many of the islands of the Caribbean in the pre-Contact period. It was first observed by European Age of Discovery explorers when encountering the indigenous Taino people of Cuba in 1492.

The Spanish historian, landowner, and Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas vividly described how the first scouts sent by Christopher Columbus into the interior of Cuba found

"Men with half-burned wood in their hands and certain herbs to take their smokes, which are some dry herbs put in a certain leaf, also dry, like those the boys make on the day of the Passover of the Holy Ghost; and having lighted one part of it, by the other they suck, absorb, or receive that smoke inside with the breath, by which they become benumbed and almost drunk, and so it is said they do not feel fatigue. These, muskets as we will call them, they call tabacos. I knew Spaniards on this island of Española who were accustomed to take it, and being reprimanded for it, by telling them it was a vice, they replied they were unable to cease using it. I do not know what relish or benefit they found in it."

Following the first wave of European colonization, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling European colonialism, and also became a driving factor in the incorporation of African slave labor. The Spanish introduced tobacco to Europeans in about 1528, and by 1533, Diego Columbus mentioned a tobacco merchant of Lisbon in his will, showing how quickly the traffic had sprung up. The French, Spanish, and Portuguese initially referred to the plant as the "sacred herb" because of its alleged medicinal properties.

In time, Spanish and other European sailors adopted the practice of smoking rolls of leaves, as did the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors. Smoking primitive cigars spread to Spain, Portugal, and eventually France, most probably through Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, whose name became the root of the word nicotine. Later, tobacco use spread to the Italian kingdoms, the Dutch Empire, and, after Sir Walter Raleigh's voyages to the Americas, to Great Britain. Tobacco smoking became familiar throughout Europe—in pipes in Britain—by the mid-16th century.

Spanish cultivation of tobacco began in earnest in 1531 on the island of Hispaniola. In 1542, tobacco started to be grown commercially in North America, when Spaniards established the first cigar factory in Cuba. Tobacco was originally thought to have medicinal qualities, but some considered it evil. It was denounced by Philip II of Spain and James I of England.

Around 1592, the Spanish galleon San Clemente brought 50 kg of tobacco seed to the Philippines over the Acapulco-Manila trade route. It was distributed among Roman Catholic missionaries, who found excellent climates and soils for growing high-quality tobacco there. The use of the cigar did not become popular until the mid 18th century, and although there are few drawings from this era, there are some reports.

It is believed that Israel Putnam brought back a cache of Havana cigars during the Seven Years' War, making cigar smoking popular in the US after the American Revolution. He also brought Cuban tobacco seeds, which he planted in the Hartford area of New England. This reportedly resulted in the development of the renowned shade-grown Connecticut wrapper.

Towards the end of the 18th century and in the 19th century, cigar smoking was common, while cigarettes were comparatively rare. Towards the end of the 19th century, Rudyard Kipling wrote his famous smoking poem, The Betrothed (1886). The cigar business was an important industry and factories employed many people before mechanized manufacturing of cigars became practical. Cigar workers in both Cuba and the US were active in labor strikes and disputes from early in the 19th century, and the rise of modern labor unions can be traced to the CMIU and other cigar worker unions.

In 1869, Spanish cigar manufacturer Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his Principe de Gales (Prince of Wales) operations from the cigar manufacturing center of Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida to escape the turmoil of the Ten Years' War. Other manufacturers followed, and Key West became an important cigar manufacturing center. In 1885, Ybor moved again, buying land near the small city of Tampa, Florida and building the largest cigar factory in the world at the time in the new company town of Ybor City. Friendly rival and Flor de Sánchez y Haya owner Ignacio Haya built his factory nearby the same year, and many other cigar manufacturers followed, especially after an 1886 fire that gutted much of Key West. Thousands of Cuban and Spanish tabaqueros came to the area from Key West, Cuba and New York to produce hundreds of millions of cigars annually. Local output peaked in 1929, when workers in Ybor City and West Tampa rolled over 500 million "clear Havana" cigars, earning the town the nickname "Cigar Capital of the World". At its peak, there were 150 cigar factories in Ybor city, but by early in the next decade, nearly all of the factories had closed. Only one company still makes cigars in the Ybor City area, the J. C. Newman Cigar Company, which moved to Tampa from Ohio in 1954 and took over the previous Regensburg cigar factory. The company was continuing to utilize some antique, hand-operated ARENCO and American Machine and Foundry cigarmaking machines from the 1930s.

In New York, cigars were made by rollers working in their homes. It was reported that as of 1883, cigars were being manufactured in 127 apartment houses in New York, employing 1,962 families and 7,924 individuals. A state statute banning the practice, passed late that year at the urging of trade unions on the basis that the practice suppressed wages, was ruled unconstitutional less than four months later. The industry, which had relocated to Brooklyn (then a separate municipality) and other places on Long Island while the law was in effect, then returned to New York.

As of 1905, there were 80,000 cigar-making operations in the US, most of them small, family-operated shops where cigars were rolled and sold immediately. While most cigars are now made by machine, some, as a matter of prestige and quality, are rolled by hand—especially in Central America and Cuba, as well as in small chinchales in sizable cities in the US. Boxes of hand-rolled cigars bear the phrase totalmente a mano (totally by hand) or hecho a mano (made by hand). These premium hand-rolled cigars are significantly different from the machine-made cigars sold in packs at drugstores and gas stations. Since the 1990s there has been severe contention between producers and aficionados of premium handmade cigars and cigarette manufacturing companies that create machine-made cigars.

Manufacture

Tobacco leaves are harvested and aged using a curing process that combines heat and shade to reduce sugar and water content without causing the larger leaves to rot. This takes between 25 and 45 days, depending upon climatic conditions and the nature of sheds used to store harvested tobacco. Curing varies by type of tobacco and desired leaf color. A slow fermentation follows, where temperature and humidity are controlled to enhance flavor, aroma, and burning characteristics while forestalling rot or disintegration.

The leaf will continue to be baled, inspected, un-baled, re-inspected, and baled again during the aging cycle. When it has matured to manufacturer's specifications it is sorted for appearance and overall quality, and used as filler or wrapper accordingly. During this process, leaves are continually moistened to prevent damage.

Quality cigars are still handmade. An experienced cigar-roller can produce hundreds of good, nearly identical cigars per day. The rollers keep the tobacco moist—especially the wrapper—and use specially designed crescent-shaped knives, called chavetas, to form the filler and wrapper leaves quickly and accurately. Once rolled, the cigars are stored in wooden forms as they dry, in which their uncapped ends are cut to a uniform size. From this stage, the cigar is a complete product that can be "laid down" and aged for decades if kept as close to 21 °C (70 °F) and 70% relative humidity as possible. Once purchased, proper storage is typically in a specialized cedar-lined wooden humidor.

Some cigars, especially premium brands, use different varieties of tobacco for the filler and the wrapper. Long filler cigars are a far higher quality of cigar, using long leaves throughout. These cigars also use a third variety of tobacco leaf, called a "binder", between the filler and the outer wrapper. This permits the makers to use more delicate and attractive leaves as a wrapper. These high-quality cigars almost always blend varieties of tobacco. Even Cuban long-filler cigars will combine tobaccos from different parts of the island to incorporate several different flavors.

In low-grade and machine-made cigars, chopped tobacco leaves are used for the filler, and long leaves or a type of "paper" made from reconstituted tobacco pulp is used for the wrapper. Chopped leaves and a pulp wrapper alter the flavor and burning characteristics of the result vis-a-vis handmade cigars.

Historically, a lector or reader was employed to entertain cigar factory workers. This practice became obsolete once audiobooks for portable music players became available, but it is still practiced in some Cuban factories.

Dominant manufacturers

Two firms dominate the cigar industry, Altadis and the Scandinavian Tobacco Group.

Altadis, a Spanish-owned private concern, produces cigars in the US, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras, and owns a 50% stake in Corporación Habanos S.A., the state owned national Cuban tobacco company. It also makes cigarettes. The Scandinavian Tobacco Group produces cigars in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and the United States; it also makes pipe tobacco and fine cut tobacco. The Group includes General Cigar Co.

The town of Tamboril in Santiago, Dominican Republic is considered by many as today's "Cigar Capital of the World" housing more cigar factories and rollers than anywhere else in the world. According to Cigar Aficionado magazine, 44% of the world's most traded cigars come from the Dominican Republic, the world's largest producer of cigars, especially from the fertile lands of the Cibao capital, where 90% of the factories are located. The area has also been the largest supplier of cigars to the US in the last decades.

Families in the cigar industry
Nearly all modern premium cigar makers are members of long-established cigar families, or purport to be, most originally rooted in the historic Cuban cigar industry. The art and skill of hand-making premium cigars has been passed from generation to generation. Families are often shown in many cigar advertisements and packaging. In 1992, Cigar Aficionado magazine created the "Cigar Hall of Fame" and recognized the following six individuals:
 * Edgar M. Cullman, Chairman, General Cigar Company, New York, United States
 * Zino Davidoff, Founder, Davidoff et Cie., Geneva, Switzerland
 * Carlos Fuente Sr., Chairman, Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia., Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic
 * Frank Llaneza, Chairman, Villazon & Co., Tampa, Florida, United States
 * Stanford J. Newman, Chairman, J.C. Newman Cigar Company, Tampa, Florida, United States
 * Ángel Oliva Sr. (founder); Oliva Tobacco Co., Tampa, Florida, United States

Other families in the cigar industry (2015)

 * Manuel Quesada (MATASA Current CEO) Fonseca, Casa Magna, Quesada cigars, Dominican Republic
 * Don José "Pepín" Garcia, Chairman, El Rey de Los Habanos, Miami, Florida, United States
 * Aray Family – Daniel Aray Jr, Grandson of Founder (1952) Jose Aray, ACC Cigars, Guayaquil Ecuador, San Francisco, CA, Miami Florida, Macau SAR, Shanghai China.
 * EPC – Ernesto Perez-Carillo, Founder EPC Cigar Company (2009), Miami, Florida, United States
 * Nestor Miranda – Founder, Miami Cigar Company (1989) Miami, FL, United States
 * Blanco family – Jose "Jochy" Blanco, son of Founder (1936) Jose Arnaldo Blanco Polanco, Tabacalera La Palma, Santiago, Dominican Republic
 * Hermann Dietrich Upmann, founder of the H. Upmann brand 1844 in Cuba

Marketing and distribution

Pure tobacco, hand rolled cigars are marketed via advertisements, product placement in movies and other media, sporting events, cigar-friendly magazines such as Cigar Aficionado, and cigar dinners. Since handmade cigars are a premium product with a hefty price, advertisements often include depictions of affluence, sensual imagery, and explicit or implied celebrity endorsement.

Cigar Aficionado, launched in 1992, presents cigars as symbols of a successful lifestyle, and is a major conduit of advertisements that do not conform to the tobacco industry's voluntary advertisement restrictions since 1965, such as a restriction not to associate smoking with glamour. The magazine also presents pro-smoking arguments at length, and argues that cigars are safer than cigarettes, since they do not have the thousands of chemical additives that cigarette manufactures add to the cutting floor scraps of tobacco used as cigarette filler. The publication also presents arguments that risks are a part of daily life and that (contrary to the evidence discussed in Health effects) cigar smoking has health benefits, that moderation eliminates most or all health risk, and that cigar smokers live to old age, that health research is flawed, and that several health-research results support claims of safety. Like its competitor Smoke, Cigar Aficionado differs from marketing vehicles used for other tobacco products in that it makes cigars the main (but not sole) focus of the magazine, creating a symbiosis between product and lifestyle.

In the US, cigars have historically been exempt from many of the marketing regulations that govern cigarettes. For example, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1970 exempted cigars from its advertising ban, and cigar ads, unlike cigarette ads, need not mention health risks. As of 2007, cigars were taxed far less than cigarettes, so much so that in many US states, a pack of little cigars cost less than half as much as a pack of cigarettes. It is illegal for minors to purchase cigars and other tobacco products in the US, but laws are unevenly enforced: a 2000 study found that three-quarters of web cigar sites allowed minors to purchase them.

In 2009, the US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act provided the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco. In 2016, a deeming rule extended the FDA's authority to additional tobacco products including cigars, e-cigarettes and hookah. The objective of the law is to reduce the impact of tobacco on public health by preventing Americans from starting to use tobacco products, encourage current users to quit, and decrease the harms of tobacco product use.

In the US, inexpensive cigars are sold in convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies. Premium cigars are sold in tobacconists, cigar bars, and other specialized establishments. Some cigar stores are part of chains, which have varied in size: in the US, United Cigar Stores was one of only three outstanding examples of national chains in the early 1920s, the others being A&P and Woolworth's. Non-traditional outlets for cigars include hotel shops, restaurants, vending machines and the Internet.

Composition
Cigars are composed of three types of tobacco leaves, whose variations determine smoking and flavor characteristics:

Wrapper

A cigar's outermost layer, or wrapper (Spanish: capa), is the most expensive component of a cigar. The wrapper determines much of the cigar's character and flavor, and as such its color is often used to describe the cigar as a whole. Wrappers are frequently grown underneath huge canopies made of gauze so as to diffuse direct sunlight and are fermented separately from other rougher cigar components, with a view to the production of a thinly-veined, smooth, supple leaf.

Wrapper tobacco produced without the gauze canopies under which "shade grown" leaf is grown, generally more coarse in texture and stronger in flavor, is commonly known as "sun grown". A number of different countries are used for the production of wrapper tobacco, including Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Cameroon, and the United States.

While dozens of minor wrapper shades have been touted by manufacturers, the seven most common classifications are as follows, ranging from lightest to darkest:

Some manufacturers use an alternate designation:

In general, dark wrappers add a touch of sweetness, while light ones add a hint of dryness to the taste.

Binder
Beneath the wrapper is a small bunch of "filler" leaves bound together inside of a leaf called a "binder" (Spanish: capote). The binder leaf is typically the sun-saturated leaf from the top part of a tobacco plant and is selected for its elasticity and durability in the rolling process. Unlike the wrapper leaf, which must be uniform in appearance and smooth in texture, the binder leaf may show evidence of physical blemishes or lack uniform coloration. The binder leaf is generally considerably thicker and hardier than the wrapper leaf surrounding it.

Filler

The bulk of a cigar is "filler"—a bound bunch of tobacco leaves. These leaves are folded by hand to allow air passageways down the length of the cigar, through which smoke is drawn after the cigar is lit. A cigar rolled with insufficient air passage is referred to by a smoker as "too tight"; one with excessive airflow creating an excessively fast, hot burn is regarded as "too loose". Considerable skill and dexterity on the part of the cigar roller is needed to avoid these opposing pitfalls—a primary factor in the superiority of hand-rolled cigars over their machine-made counterparts.

By blending various varieties of filler tobacco, cigar makers create distinctive strength, aroma, and flavor profiles for their various branded products. In general, fatter cigars hold more filler leaves, allowing a greater potential for the creation of complex flavors. In addition to the variety of tobacco employed, the country of origin can be one important determinant of taste, with different growing environments producing distinctive flavors.

The fermentation and aging process adds to this variety, as does the particular part of the tobacco plant harvested, with bottom leaves (Spanish: volado) having a mild flavor and burning easily, middle leaves (Spanish: seco) having a somewhat stronger flavor, with potent and spicy ligero leaves taken from the sun-drenched top of the plant. When used, ligero is always folded into the middle of the filler bunch due to its slow-burning characteristics.

Some cigar manufacturers purposely place different types of tobacco from one end to the other to give the cigar smokers a variety of tastes, body, and strength from start to finish.

If full leaves are used as filler, a cigar is said to be composed of "long filler". Cigars made from smaller bits of leaf, including many machine-made cigars, are said to be made of "short filler".

If a cigar is completely constructed (filler, binder, and wrapper) of tobacco produced in only one country, it is referred to in the cigar industry as a "puro", from the Spanish word for "pure".

Size and shape
Cigars are commonly categorized by their size and shape, which together are known as the vitola.

The size of a cigar is measured by two dimensions: its ring gauge (its diameter in sixty-fourths of an inch) and its length (in inches). In Cuba, next to Havana, there is a display of the world's longest rolled cigars.

Parejo
The most common shape is the parejo, sometimes referred to as simply "coronas", which have traditionally been the benchmark against which all other cigar formats are measured. They have a cylindrical shape their entire length, one end open, and a round tobacco-leaf "cap" on the other end that must be sliced off, notched, or pierced before smoking.

Parejos are designated by the following terms:

These dimensions are, at best, idealized. Actual dimensions can vary considerably.

Figurado

Irregularly shaped cigars are known as figurados and are often priced higher than generally similar sized parejos of a like combination of tobaccos because they are more difficult to make.

Historically, especially during the 19th century, figurados were the most popular shapes, but by the 1930s they had fallen out of fashion and all but disappeared. They have recently received a small resurgence in popularity, and currently many manufacturers produce figurados alongside the simpler parejos. The Cuban cigar brand Cuaba only has figurados in their range.

Figurados include the following:

In practice, the terms Torpedo and Pyramid are often used interchangeably, even among knowledgeable cigar smokers. Min Ron Nee, the Hong Kong-based cigar expert whose work An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars is generally considered to be the definitive work on cigars and cigar terms, defines Torpedo as "cigar slang". Nee regards the majority usage of torpedoes as pyramids by another name as acceptable.

Arturo Fuente, a large cigar manufacturer based in the Dominican Republic, has also manufactured figurados in exotic shapes ranging from chili peppers to baseball bats and American footballs. They are highly collectible and extremely expensive, when available to the public.

Cigarillo
A cigarillo is a machine-made cigar that is shorter and narrower than a traditional cigar but larger than little cigars, filtered cigars, and cigarettes, thus similar in size and composition to small panatela sized cigars, cheroots, and traditional blunts. Cigarillos are usually not filtered, although some have plastic or wood tips, and unlike other cigars, some are inhaled when used. Cigarillos are sold in varying quantities: singles, two-packs, three-packs, and five-packs. Cigarillos are very inexpensive: in the United States, usually sold for less than a dollar. Sometimes they are informally called small cigars, mini cigars, or club cigars. Some famous cigar brands, such as Cohiba or Davidoff, also make cigarillos—Cohiba Mini and Davidoff Club Cigarillos, for example. And there are purely cigarillo brands, such as Café Crème, Dannemann Moods, Mehari's, Al Capone, and Swisher Sweets. Cigarillos are often used in making marijuana cigars.

Little cigars
Little cigars (sometimes called small cigars or miniatures in the UK) differ greatly from regular cigars. They weigh less than cigars and cigarillos, but, more importantly, they resemble cigarettes in size, shape, packaging, and filters. Sales of little cigars quadrupled in the US from 1971 to 1973 in response to the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned the broadcast of cigarette advertisements and required stronger health warnings on cigarette packs. Cigars were exempt from the ban, and perhaps more importantly, were taxed at a far lower rate. Little cigars are sometimes called "cigarettes in disguise", and unsuccessful attempts have been made to reclassify them as cigarettes. In the US, sales of little cigars reached an all-time high in 2006, fueled in great part by favorable taxation. In some states, little cigars have successfully been taxed at the rate of cigarettes, such as Illinois, as well as other states. This has caused yet another loophole, in which manufacturers classify their products as "filtered cigars" instead to avoid the higher tax rate. Yet, many continue to argue that there is in fact a distinction between little cigars and filtered cigars. Little cigars offer a similar draw and overall feel to cigarettes, but with aged and fermented tobaccos, while filtered cigars are said to be more closely related to traditional cigars, and are not meant to be inhaled. Research shows that people do inhale smoke from little cigars.

Cannagar
Recently, with the changing legality of cannabis, some suppliers are creating so-called "cannagars" (a portmanteau of "cannabis" and "cigar"). These are different from cannabis blunts. Modeled after a traditional cigar, a cannagar is cannabis wrapped within either cannabis or hemp leaf, like a traditional cigar is tobacco wrapped inside dried tobacco leaf. Unlike a cigar, cannagars do not usually contain tobacco, but they do need to be cut and lit like a cigar.

Smoking

Most machine-made cigars have pre-formed holes in one end or a wood or plastic tip for drawing in the smoke. Hand-rolled cigars require the blunt end to be pierced before lighting. The usual way to smoke a cigar is to not inhale, but to draw the smoke into the mouth. Some smokers inhale the smoke into the lungs, particularly with little cigars. A smoker may swirl the smoke around in the mouth before exhaling it, and may exhale part of the smoke through the nose in order to smell the cigar better as well as to taste it.

Cutting
Although a handful of cigars are cut or twirled on both ends, the vast majority come with one straight cut end and the other capped with one or more small pieces of wrapper adhered with either a natural tobacco paste or with a mixture of flour and water. The cap end of a cigar must be cut or pierced for the cigar smoke to be drawn properly.

The basic types of cigar cutter include:

 * Guillotine (straight cut)
 * Punch
 * V-cut (a.k.a. notch cut, cat's eye, wedge cut, English cut)
 * Grip cutters
 * Cigar Scissors

Lighting
The head, or cap, of the cigar is usually the end closest to the cigar band, the other the "foot". The band identifies the type of the cigar and may be removed or left on. The smoker cuts or pierces the cap before lighting.

The cigar should be rotated during lighting to achieve an even burn while slowly drawn with gentle puffs. If a match is used it should be allowed to burn past its head before being put to the cigar, to avoid imparting unwelcome flavors or chemicals to the smoke. Many specialized gas and fluid lighters are made for lighting cigars. The tip of the cigar should minimally touch any flame, with special care used with torch lighters to avoid charring the tobacco leaves.

The third and most traditional way to light a cigar is to use a splinter of cedar known as a spill, which is lit separately before using. Some cigars come individually wrapped in thin cedar sleeves or envelopes, and these can be used to assist in lighting them.

Flavor
Each brand and type of cigar has its unique taste. Whether a cigar is mild, medium, or full bodied does not correlate with quality.

Among the factors which contribute to the scent and flavor of cigar smoke are tobacco types and qualities used for filler, binder, and wrapper, age and aging method, humidity, production techniques (handmade vs. machine-made), and added flavors. Among wrappers, darker tend to produce a sweetness, while lighter usually have a "drier", more neutral taste.

Evaluating the flavor of cigars is in some respects similar to wine-tasting. Journals are available for recording personal ratings, description of flavors observed, sizes, brands, etc. Some words used to describe cigar flavor and texture include; spicy, peppery (red or black), sweet, harsh, burnt, green, earthy, woody, cocoa, chestnut, roasted, aged, nutty, creamy, cedar, oak, chewy, fruity, and leathery.

Smoke
Smoke is produced by incomplete combustion of tobacco during which at least three kinds of chemical reactions occur: pyrolysis breaks down organic molecules into simpler ones, pyrosynthesis recombines these newly formed fragments into chemicals not originally present, and distillation moves compounds such as nicotine from the tobacco into the smoke. For every gram of tobacco smoked, a cigar emits about 120–140 mg of carbon dioxide, 40–60 mg of carbon monoxide, 3–4 mg of isoprene, 1 mg each of hydrogen cyanide and acetaldehyde, and smaller quantities of a large spectrum of volatile N-nitrosamines and volatile organic compounds, with the detailed composition unknown.

The most odorous chemicals in cigar smoke are pyridines. Along with pyrazines, they are also the most odorous chemicals in cigar smokers' breath. These substances are noticeable even at extremely low concentrations of a few parts per billion. During smoking, it is not known whether these chemicals are generated by splitting the chemical bonds of nicotine or by Maillard reaction between amino acids and sugars in the tobacco.

Cigar smoke is more alkaline than cigarette smoke, and is absorbed more readily by the mucous membrane of the mouth, making it easier for the smoker to absorb nicotine without having to inhale. A single premium cigar may contain as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.

Humidors
The level of humidity in which cigars are kept has a significant effect on their taste and evenness of burn. It is believed that a cigar's flavor best evolves when stored at a relative humidity similar to where the tobacco is grown, and in most cases, the cigars rolled, of approximately 65–70% and a temperature of 16-18 C. Dry cigars become fragile and burn faster while damp cigars burn unevenly and take on a heavy acidic flavor. Humidors are used to maintain an even humidity level. Without one, cigars will lose moisture and acquire the ambient humidity within 2 to 3 days. A humidor's interior lining is typically constructed with three types of wood: Spanish cedar, American (or Canadian) red cedar, and Honduran mahogany. Other materials used for making or lining a humidor are acrylic, tin (mainly seen in older early humidors) and copper, used widely in the 1920s–1950s.

Most humidors come with a plastic or metal case with a sponge that works as the humidifier, although most recent versions are of polymer acryl. The latter are filled only with distilled water; the former may use a solution of propylene glycol and distilled water. Humidifiers, and the cigars within them, may become contaminated with bacteria if they are kept too moist. New technologies employing plastic beads or gels which stabilize humidity are becoming widely available.

A new humidor requires seasoning, after which a constant humidity must be maintained. The thicker the cedar lining the better. Many humidors contain an analog or digital hygrometer to aid in maintaining a desired humidity level. There are three types of analog: metal spring, natural hair, and synthetic hair.

In recent times Electric Humidors, which feature a thermoelectric humidification system have become popular for larger cigar collections.

Accessories
A wide variety of cigar accessories are available, in varying qualities.

Travel case
Travel cases protect cigars from direct exposure to the elements and minimize potential damage. Most come in expandable or sturdy leather, although metal leather and plastic lined cases are found. Some feature cardboard or metal tubes for additional protection.

Tube
Cigar tubes are used to carry small numbers of cigars, typically one or five, referred to by their number of "fingers". They are usually made from stainless steel, and used for short durations. For longer, a built in humidifier and hygrometer is used.

Ashtray
Ashtrays are used for collecting the ash produced by the cigar. Such ashtrays are typically larger than those used for cigarette smoking.

Holder

A cigar holder is small tube in which the end of the cigar is held while smoked, to protect the hand from acquiring the odor of a burning cigar, historically used by women (for cigarettes as well). A cigar stand is a device used to keep a lit cigar out of an ashtray.

Health effects
Like other forms of tobacco use, cigar smoking poses a significant health risk depending on dosage: risks increase with exposure, with a review of 22 studies finding that cigar smoking is associated with lung cancer, oral cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, laryngeal cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD), and aortic aneurysm. Among cigar smokers who reported that they did not inhale, relative mortality (likelihood of death) risk was still highly elevated for oral, esophageal, and laryngeal cancers.

Danger of mortality increases proportionally to use, with smokers of one to two cigars per day showing a 2% increase in death rate, compared to non-smokers. The precise statistical health risks to those who smoke less than daily are not established.

While cigars smoke is typically not inhaled, the depth of its inhalation into the lungs appears to be an important determinant of lung cancer risk:

When cigar smokers don't inhale or smoke few cigars per day, the risks are only slightly above those of never smokers. Risks of lung cancer increase with increasing inhalation and with increasing number of cigars smoked per day, but the effect of inhalation is more powerful than that for number of cigars per day. When 5 or more cigars are smoked per day and there is moderate inhalation, the lung cancer risks of cigar smoking approximate those of a one pack per day cigarette smoker. As the tobacco smoke exposure of the lung in cigar smokers increases to approximate the frequency of smoking and depth of inhalation found in cigarette smokers, the difference in lung cancer risks produced by these two behaviors disappears.

Cigar smoking can lead to nicotine addiction and cigarette usage. For those who inhale and smoke several cigars a day, the health risk is similar to cigarette smokers. Cigar smoking can also increase the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

So-called "little cigars" are commonly inhaled and likely pose the same health risks as cigarettes, while premium cigars are not commonly inhaled or habitually used.

Specific risks
Cigar smoking carries serious health risks, including increased risk of developing various types and subtypes of cancers, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, periodontal diseases, teeth decay and loss, and malignant diseases.

Popularity

The prevalence of cigar smoking varies depending on location, historical period, and population surveyed. The United States is the top consuming country by total sales by a considerable margin, followed by Germany and the United Kingdom. The U.S. and Western European countries account for about 75% of cigar sales worldwide.

United States
Consumption of cigars in the U.S. rose from 6.2 billion in 2000 to the peak of an enormous "cigar boom" of 13.8 billion in 2012, which had receded to 11.4 billion by 2015.

Among US adults ages 18 and older, 3% reported that they smoke cigars some days or every day (6% of men, 1% of women) in the 2015 National Health Interview Survey.

Cigar use among youth declined sharply from 12% reporting having smoked a cigar within the past 30 days approaching the peak of the cigar boom in 2011 to 8% by 2016. Among high school students, cigar use is more common among males (10%) than females (6%). For African American high school students, cigar use is more prevalent (10%) than cigarette use (4%).

In popular culture

Historic portrayals of cigar smoking often caricatured the wealthy, portrayed with top hats and tailcoats like Rich Uncle Pennybags, the mascot of Monopoly board game. The parody extended to associations with both political and financial corruption, as in the cartoons of Thomas Nast. In the Western world, cigars are also stereotypically associated with mobsters, especially during the Prohibition era.

Culturally, cigars are often given out and smoked to celebrate special occasions, such as the birth of a baby, weddings, graduations, promotions, and other totems of status or success.

In a reversal of recent previous decades' portrayal, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s major U.S. print media began to feature cigars favorably. Cigar use was generally framed as a pleasurable and trendy indulgence, deemphasizing its health risks.

The expression "close but no cigar" comes from the former practice of giving away cigars as prizes in fairground games which require the player to hit a target (e.g., a bullseye).

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cigar


text:
Talk:Hosiery

Needed?
I don't see that hosiery is necessarily an undergarment. It is so only to the extent that it is not normally visible when worn. Legwear, to the extent that it is ordinarily worn in full view would not be underwear.

Sexual attitude.
This whole Hosiery series is so ridiculous in it's concept. It should be re-titled woman's hosiery since it deals with the subject as if male hosiery doesn't exist. Can the author please redo his articles and either make it clear that they are written with respect to female attire or include male aspects of the subject. It would also be sensible if the obvious "American" basis of a lot of the content could be made more international in it's outlook (Catholic school girls is one example of this). rturus (talk) 17:00, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Androgyny?
Is that second photo simply labelled 'stockings' a man? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Casdious (talk • contribs) 17:45, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

I think both those leg pics belong to guys. . . I think anyway. This article is a bit weird anyway, but if you're going to post pics of pantyhose, a woman should probably be wearing them. --Lindsay (talk) 03:05, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Odd redirect
Why on earth does "legwear" redirect here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.175.37.34 (talk) 19:28, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

How Bout Medical Support Hosiery?
I came here looking for information about Medical Support Hosiery. Anti-embolism stockings, Compression hose, For both men and women. But what I find is Extra weak sauce on a weak burrito. And the discussion for this page is also weak. I need to write an article for work and if anyone ever writes this article, they may reference it if they give us a link and attribution. 70.89.245.137 (talk) 22:34, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hosiery


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Descent

Descent may refer to:

Genealogy and inheritance

 * Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology
 * Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology
 * Pedigree chart or family tree
 * Ancestry
 * Lineal descendant
 * Heritage
 * Royal descent - lineal descent from a monarch
 * Phylogenetics
 * Tree diagram (disambiguation)
 * Inheritance (law and property)

Mathematics

 * Infinite descent, a method going back to Fermat to solve Diophantine equations
 * Descent (mathematics), an idea extending the notion of "gluing" in topology
 * Hadamard's method of descent, a technique for solving partial differential equations
 * Gradient descent, a first-order optimization algorithm going back to Newton
 * Descents in permutations, a classical permutation statistic in combinatorics

Other uses

 * Descent (aeronautics), the decrease of an aircraft in altitude during flight
 * Descent (font), the distance that a typeface descends below the baseline in typography
 * Katabasis

Film

 * The Descent, a 2005 horror film
 * The Descent Part 2, the 2009 sequel to the 2005 film
 * Descent (2007 film), a thriller film starring Rosario Dawson
 * Descent (2017 film), a Nigerian film

Gaming

 * Descent (video game), first in a series from Interplay Entertainment and Parallax Software
 * Descent II, sequel to Descent
 * Descent 3, sequel to Descent II
 * Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War, a 1998 space combat simulation computer game
 * Descent: Journeys in the Dark, a 2005 board game by Fantasy Flight Games
 * Dragon Age: Inquisition – The Descent, a 2015 downloadable content pack for Dragon Age: Inquisition

Literature

 * Descent: An Irresistible Tragicomedy of Everyday Life, a 2004 novel by Sabrina Broadbent
 * The Descent (novel), by Jeff Long
 * Descent (magazine), a magazine about caving
 * Descent (journal), a genealogy journal published by the Society of Australian Genealogists

Music

 * Descent, an album by the band This Burning Effigy
 * "Descent", a song by Celldweller from Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 01
 * "Descent" (song), a song by Fear Factory from Obsolete
 * "Descent", a song by Godflesh from Us and Them
 * "Descent", a song by Knut from Bastardiser
 * "Descent", a song by Neurosis from Times of Grace
 * "Descent", a song by Sylosis from A Sign of Things to Come
 * "A Descent", a song by Born of Osiris from A Higher Place
 * "The Descent", a song by Insomnium from Shadows of the Dying Sun (bonus track)
 * "The Descent", a song by Polaris from The Death of Me

Television

 * "Descent" (Star Trek: The Next Generation), a two-part 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
 * "Descent" (The Outer Limits), a 1999 episode of The Outer Limits
 * "Descent" (Stargate SG-1), a 2002 episode of Stargate SG-1
 * "The Descent" (The Vampire Diaries), a 2011 episode of The Vampire Diaries
 * "Descent", a 2013 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles

title: Descent


text:
United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo

The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (Misioni i Administratës së Përkohshme të Kombeve të Bashkuara në Kosovë, Привремена административна мисија Уједињених нација на Косову; UNMIK) is the officially mandated mission of the United Nations in Kosovo. The UNMIK describes its mandate as being to "help the United Nations Security Council achieve an overall objective, namely, to ensure conditions for a peaceful and normal life for all inhabitants of Kosovo and advance regional stability in the Western Balkans."

The UNMIK was established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1244, which was passed on 10 June 1999. The Resolution authorised an international civil and military presence in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In that Resolution, the UN decided to "[deploy] in Kosovo, under United Nations auspices, [an] international civil and security [presence]".

The Assembly of Kosovo adopted the declaration of independence on 17 February 2008; Kosovo Serb parliamentarians boycotted the session. The declaration violates the eighth article of the Constitution of Serbia. Hence, Serbia considers the declaration to be illegal under its constitutional law.

The UNMIK still exists today, but its day-to-day functions are relatively minor since Kosovo declared independence and adopted a new constitution, and following the creation of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), which itself operates within the framework of Security Council Resolution 1244. EULEX assists and supports the Kosovo authorities in the rule of law area, specifically in the police, judiciary and customs areas. In September 2012, international supervision ended, and Kosovo became responsible for its own governance.

Kosovo is the subject of a long-running political and territorial dispute between the Serbian (and previously, the Yugoslav) government and Kosovo's largely ethnic Albanian population. Public opinion polls indicate that a clear majority of the Kosovo's population support Kosovo's independence. Internationally, a majority of the United Nations' member states ( of 193) and a majority of European countries have recognized Kosovo's independence (although 10 countries have later been reported to have revoked their recognition).

The head of the UNMIK is the Special Representative of the Secretary-General ('SRSG') and is appointed by the Secretary-General under the advice of UN member states. Caroline Ziadeh was appointed SRSG in November 2021 and arrived in Kosovo in January 2022.

Structure
The UNMIK has been divided into four sections which it calls "pillars". These are:

 * Pillar I: Police and justice (United Nations-led)
 * Pillar II: Civil administration (United Nations-led)
 * Pillar III: Democratization and institution building (led by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE Mission in Kosovo)
 * Pillar IV: Reconstruction and economic development (European Union-led)

Responsibility for enforcement of Pillars I and II had been transferred to the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Kosovo. The UN, however, still monitored this enforcement.

Following a major internal restructuring of its activities, this Pillar structure underwent a change. Pillar I was dissolved causing Police Commissioner and the Director of the Department of Justice to report to SRSG instead of DSRSG as previously. Pillar II was reduced to a Department of Civil Administration and its Director also reporting directly to the SRSG. UNMIK oversees a substantial UN International Police force numbered at approximately 1,985 including Formed Police Units.

A NATO-led force called the Kosovo Force (KFOR) provides an international security presence in support of UNMIK's work, but is not subordinate to the UN.

The European Union led economic development includes the privatisation of former government enterprises. This policy has been opposed by Belgrade. This was formerly carried out by the KTA (Kosovo Trust Agency) an EU organisation with Jasper Dick as Managing Director. Since 2008 this role of the KTA has been taken over by The Privatisation Agency of Kosovo.

Current institutions

 * United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 – legal basis
 * United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
 * Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG)
 * European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX)
 * Kosovo Force (KFOR)
 * OSCE Mission in Kosovo (OMiK)

Duties
Resolution 1244 directed the UNMIK to:

 * perform basic civilian administrative functions;
 * promote the establishment of substantial autonomy and self-government in Kosovo;
 * facilitate a political process to determine Kosovo's future status;
 * coordinate humanitarian and disaster relief of all international agencies;
 * support the reconstruction of key infrastructure;
 * maintain civil law and order;
 * promote human rights; and
 * assure the safe and unimpeded return of all refugees and displaced persons to their homes in Kosovo.

As described above, the UNMIK no longer performs all of these functions.

2005
A UN-led political process began in late 2005 to determine Kosovo's future status. Belgrade proposed that Kosovo be highly autonomous and remain a part of Serbia — Belgrade officials repeatedly said that Kosovo's formal independence would be a violation of Serbia's "sovereignty" and therefore contrary to international law and the UN Charter. Representatives of Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian majority asserted that Kosovo must become independent, arguing that the violence of the Milošević years made continued union between Kosovo and Serbia impossible.

UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, led the status process with Austrian diplomat Albert Rohan as his deputy. Ahtisaari's office — the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Kosovo (UNOSEK) — was located in Vienna and includes liaison staff from the NATO, the European Union and the United States.

2006
The initial status negotiations focused on technical issues important for Kosovo's long-term stability, particularly the rights and protection of Kosovo's minorities (and especially the Kosovo Serbs). Ahtisaari brought the parties together for the first direct dialogue in February 2006 to discuss decentralization of local government, an important measure in the protection of Kosovo Serb communities. Subsequent meetings addressed economic issues, property rights, protection of Serbian Orthodox Church heritage and institutional guarantees for the rights of Kosovo's minorities.

On 24 July 2006, Ahtisaari brought the parties together in Vienna for the first high-level talks on the status outcome itself, where the parties presented their respective platforms for Kosovo's future status. Serbia was represented by its President, Boris Tadić and Prime Minister, Vojislav Koštunica, while Kosovo was represented by its President, Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister, Agim Çeku. Ahtisaari later told the press that the meeting resulted in no breakthroughs, but added that the discussion was "frank and candid" and the atmosphere was better than he could have expected.

Ahtisaari briefed Contact Group foreign ministers on 20 September 2006, in New York City at a meeting chaired by U.S. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. At that meeting, the Contact Group released a press statement that reaffirmed its desire to work towards a negotiated settlement in the course of 2006 and also endorsed Ahtisaari's plans to develop a comprehensive proposal for a status settlement.

As the end of 2006 neared, and despite progress on technical matters, both parties remained diametrically opposed on the question of status itself.

2007
On 2 February 2007, Ahtisaari delivered to representatives in Belgrade and Pristina a draft status settlement proposal. The proposal covered a wide range of issues related to Kosovo's future, in particular measures to protect Kosovo's non-Albanian communities such as decentralization of government, protection of Serbian Orthodox Church heritage and institutional protections for non-Albanian communities, which would remain in place for at least three years. Whilst not mentioning the word "independence," the draft included several provisions that were widely interpreted as implying statehood for Kosovo. In particular, the draft Settlement would give Kosovo the right to apply for membership in international organizations, to create a Kosovo Security Force and adopt national symbols. Ahtisaari conducted several weeks of consultations with the parties in Vienna to finalize the Settlement, including a high-level meeting on 10 March 2007 that brought together the Presidents and Prime Ministers of both sides. After this meeting, leaders from both sides signalled a total unwillingness to compromise on their central demands (Kosovo Albanians for Kosovo's independence; Belgrade for continued sovereignty over Kosovo). Concluding that there was little hope of the two sides reconciling their positions independently, Ahtisaari said he would submit to the UN Security Council his own proposed status arrangements, including an explicit recommendation for the status outcome itself, by the end of March.

Most international observers believed that these negotiations would lead to Kosovo's independence, subject to a period of international supervision. Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in September 2006 that Russia might veto a UN Security Council proposal on Kosovo's final status that applied different standards than those applied to the separatist Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russian ambassador to Serbia asserted that Russia will use its veto power unless the solution is acceptable to both Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians.

In a survey carried out by the UNDP and published in March 2007, 96% of Kosovo Albanians and 77% of non-Serb minorities in Kosovo wanted Kosovo to become independent within present borders. Some 78% of the Serb minority wanted Kosovo to remain an autonomous province within Serbia. Just 2.5% of the ethnic-Albanians wanted unification with Albania. Separately, the UN refugee agency made contingency plans for up to 70,000 further Serbian refugees in the wake of any successful independence claim by Kosovo Albanians.

In early May 2007, European members of the UN Security Council, Germany and the United States circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution that would replace UN Security Council Resolution 1244, endorse Ahtisaari's proposals and end the UN administration of Kosovo after a transition period of 120 days. The US Permanent Representative to the UN said that the European/US draft had enough support in the Security Council to be adopted unless Russia chose to object. Whilst most observers had, at the beginning of the talks, anticipated independence as the most likely outcome, others suggested that a rapid resolution might not be preferable.

The Contact Group said that, regardless of the outcome of the present negotiations, a new International Civilian Office (ICO) will be established in Kosovo to take up the civil administration provided for under UNSCR 1244, supervise the implementation of any status settlement and safeguard minority rights. NATO leaders said that the presence of KFOR will be maintained in Kosovo after any status settlement. The EU will establish a European Security and Defense Policy Rule of Law mission to focus on the policing and justice sectors.

As of early July 2007 the draft resolution, backed by the United States, the United Kingdom and other European members of the United Nations Security Council, was rewritten four times to try to accommodate Russian concerns, and despite talks between the Presidents of Russia and the United States. Russia stated that it would not support any resolution which was not acceptable to both parties. Representatives of the states backing independence expressed hope that agreement can be found amongst the Security Council. One Western diplomat, quoted by a British newspaper, offered an opinion on the state of negotiations: "I wouldn’t say it was game, set and match to the Russians but it is game and set".

Whilst the draft resolution on Kosovo's status had yet to be endorsed by the Security Council, senior US officials had been suggesting that an agreement might be reached by 2008. The US assistant secretary of state for European affairs told delegates at a NATO conference in Croatia that he hoped that Kosovo's future could be resolved in the months leading up to the alliance's next summit meeting in Romania in April of that year. Were the draft resolution to fail, observers had been speculating that fresh talks between the parties might follow.

On Monday, 16 July 2007, after many weeks of discussions at the Security Council, Russia rejected a fifth draft of a Security Council resolution based on the Ahtisaari proposals. British and European Union officials suggested on 17 July 2007 that a final draft would be presented 'within days' in an effort to secure Russian support. European Union foreign policy chief proposed new talks between Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians if this final draft failed, lasting for a period of four months and under the guidance of the Contact Group of leading nations.

Concerns remain that a failure to secure a resolution favourable to Kosovo Albanian opinion might lead to violence in Kosovo, including in the period up to a possible election in November 2007. Kosovo newspaper Zeri suggested, Reuters reported, that Contact Group nations might be considering an international conference on Kosovo in September in Paris.

The United States, United Kingdom and other European members of the Security Council formally 'discarded' a draft resolution backing Ahtisaari's proposal on 20 July 2007, having failed to secure Russian backing. Kosovo Albanian leaders reacted by proposing unilateral independence for 28 November 2007, though the UN would be required to overrule any such action.

Recognition of any unilateral declaration of independence would likely be of central importance; though US officials have indicated that they might support such a move, European nations have argued against unilateral moves by either side. French foreign minister and former UN Kosovo chief, Bernard Kouchner, warned that a unilateral declaration would split the European Union over recognition of the independence, whilst US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack commented that, 'There is nothing to be gained by short-circuiting the diplomatic process that is under way.' Violence is feared in Kosovo should Kosovo Albanian demands for independence not be met.

Despite the deadlock, the European Union has already drawn-up plans to admit the province. A 72-member European Union delegation with 200 local support staff would have a mandate to oversee implementation of the UN plan. An EU chief representative would continue to perform the same duties as the SRSG, with veto power over government decisions and the authority to fire officials found obstructing the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution.

After being posted to the UN Kosovo Mission as a corruption fighter, James Wasserstrom was later dismissed after reporting misconduct of UN personnel in Kosovo.

2008
After the war ended, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1244 that placed Kosovo under transitional UN administration (UNMIK) and authorized the KFOR, a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Almost immediately, returning Kosovo Albanians attacked Kosovo Serbs, causing some 200,000-280,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians to flee (note: the current number of internally displaced persons is disputed,   with estimates ranging from 65,000 to 250,000   ). Many displaced Serbs are afraid to return to their homes, even with UNMIK protection.

According to Amnesty International, the presence of peacekeepers in Kosovo led to an increase in the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation.

In 2001, UNMIK promulgated a Constitutional Framework for Kosovo that established the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG), including an elected Kosovo Assembly, Presidency and office of Prime Minister. Kosovo held its first free, Kosovo-wide elections in late 2001 (municipal elections had been held the previous year). UNMIK oversaw the establishment of a professional, multi-ethnic Kosovo Police Service.

In March 2004, Kosovo experienced its worst inter-ethnic violence since the Kosovo War. The unrest in 2004 was sparked by a series of minor events that soon cascaded into large-scale riots. This event was the motive for protests since no one was ever arrested nor personally accused in the case. Protesting, the Kosovo Albanians mobs burned hundreds of Serbian houses, Serbian Orthodox Church sites (including some medieval churches and monasteries) and UN facilities. Kosovo Police established a special investigation team to handle cases related to the 2004 unrest and according to Kosovo Judicial Council by the end of 2006 the 326 charges filed by municipal and district prosecutors for criminal offenses in connection with the unrest had resulted in 200 indictments: convictions in 134 cases, and courts acquitted eight and dismissed 28; 30 cases were pending. International prosecutors and judges handled the most sensitive cases.

Employees of the Yugoslav (now Serbian) government have since 1999 been receiving a stipend called kosovski dodatak.

On 17 February 2008, Kosovo declared independence; Kosovo Serb parliamentarians, boycotted the session. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica responded by stating, "Today, this policy of force thinks that it has triumphed by establishing a false state."

In August 2008 after the Kosovan Constitution came into play, the UN decided to cut staff levels by 70% during a UN reconfiguration in the country. Much of the UN powers in Kosovo were transferred to the Kosovan Government and the EU policing mission in Kosovo called the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX).

Post-declaration of independence
Plans for the UNMIK to hand authority over to the EULEX mission after Kosovo's constitution was approved faltered as a result of Russian opposition to Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon decided to reconfigure the mission for a temporary period. Reportedly the UN will give way to the EU mission in Albanian areas, but retain control over police in Serb-inhabited areas and set up local and district courts serving minority Serbs. The move is in response to opposition to the EU presence in North Kosovo and other Serb-dominated areas.

In December 2008, the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) assumed most of UNMIK's roles, assisting and supporting the Kosovo authorities in the rule of law area, specifically in the police, judiciary and customs areas. As of March 2011, UNMIK's recent work includes the overseeing the liquidation and privatization of failed businesses.

Two United Nations Specialized Agencies, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, granted membership to Kosovo in July 2009. Membership with the World Bank, under the aegis of Ranjit Nayak, the World Bank Representative in Kosovo (since February 2007), has resulted in Kosovo being treated by the World Bank as its 186th member country instead of being under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.

Criticism
The UNMIK has been criticized for failing to achieve many of its stated objectives and is widely resented by both Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians. After seven years of work :

 * Key infrastructure is not reconstructed; specifically, electric distribution is still very problematic;
 * The UNMIK created constitutional framework for Kosovo, while authorised to create only legal framework;
 * The UNMIK has been slow to transfer competencies to the provisional Kosovo institutions;
 * Ethnic violence has occasionally flared (most notably in March 2004);
 * Corruption, including allegations of corruption within UNMIK, remains endemic;
 * Human rights have been problematic, especially with Kosovo's minority communities;
 * There has been a failure to eliminate parallel structures, insofar as health and education within the Kosovo Serbian community remain dependent on Serbian budgets;
 * UNMIK has been accused of failing to implement an economic development strategy;
 * The government of Serbia claims there are around 250,000.  refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Kosovo, the vast majority of whom are Serbs, who still do not feel safe returning to their homes.
 * Amongst other things, according to SC Resolution 1244, Serbia is authorised to send a specific amount of its troops back into Kosovo. The UNMIK so far has prevented Serbia from doing so, thus in fact breaching the resolution.
 * Since the establishment of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in 1999, according to some international organizations Kosovo has become a major destination country for women and young girls trafficked into forced prostitution. There have also been allegations that the presence of UN/NATO peacekeeping troops helps "fuel the sex trafficking trade." According to Amnesty International, most of these women are trafficked from Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.
 * On 10 February 2007 UN police fired rubber bullets at unarmed demonstrators in Pristina, killing two and injuring 82. The Chief Constable resigned; however, the police unit that fired the rubber bullets returned to Romania, where it has not been investigated. Meanwhile, in Pristina, UNMIK arrested and detained the demonstration organiser, Albin Kurti of VETËVENDOSJE! (Albanian for self-determination).  He remained in detention without trial until July 2007 and was subsequently placed under house arrest. Amnesty International has criticised UNMIK's conduct of his prosecution.

In June 2005, a BBC article suggested that the European Roma Rights Centre were to sue UNMIK over the treatment of Roma refugees.

In July 2006, a book, Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo, written by two former senior staffers at UNMIK, outlined errors made by the institution between 1999 and 2006.