History Coursework: Assignment 1 - Prohibition
History Coursework: Assignment 1 - Prohibition
. Why was Prohibition introduced in the USA in 1919?
The main reason prohibition was introduced in 1919 was that the alcohol people drunk was the blame for drunkenness, crime and poverty. Organisations such as the Anti-Saloon league had been campaigning for a total, state-wide ban on alcohol for a long time. The Anti - Saloon league was highly supported by the churches and many small towns and rural areas.
From the 1800s, temperance (Not Drinking Alcohol) was a common feature of religious groups that had settled in America in the 1800s. However, the dries (Supporters Of Prohibition) became stronger with the formation of the WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) in 1873 and the Anti - Saloon League in 1893.
The main differences between prohibition and temperance were that in Prohibition, all inhabitants of America were banned from selling and making Alcohol, but in temperance, they could sell it and make it as long as they didn't drink it. So they are very different, although they have the same aims.
The dries were mainly the strongest in the rural areas of the South and Mid-west of America. They campaigned in each of the states for alcohol to be banned. They had a large success, so much that by 1914 some states had already prohibited making alcohol within the states, but not the selling of it.
By the late 1800s, "King Alcohol" as it was known, caused more than 75% of paupery crime. More than 50% of insanity which must have meant that the government and the people would have believed that Prohibition would be a good idea, as it would reduce crime. Factory owners believed that until booze was banished, they could never have efficient workers. The factory owners were not interested in the moral side of the issue, just the matter of profits and production of goods.
By 1917, the Anti-Saloon league had managed to make prohibition one of the biggest issues of American politics. At election times, every politician was asked on their views on this issue. Any politician who admitted he was wet ( Pro Alcohol) knew that he would stand to lose hundreds of votes. This shows that people thought that prohibition would be a good idea, as they believed it would reduce crime, when in fact it increased organised crime.
When America entered the First World War in 1917, the "dries" had a massive advantage over the wets. It gave ...
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By 1917, the Anti-Saloon league had managed to make prohibition one of the biggest issues of American politics. At election times, every politician was asked on their views on this issue. Any politician who admitted he was wet ( Pro Alcohol) knew that he would stand to lose hundreds of votes. This shows that people thought that prohibition would be a good idea, as they believed it would reduce crime, when in fact it increased organised crime.
When America entered the First World War in 1917, the "dries" had a massive advantage over the wets. It gave their Anti - Drink propaganda a boost. This was because many of the big American brewers had originated from Germany and were therefore German and therefore bad. The Anti - Saloon league used this and told people it was their patriotic duty to refuse drink and people believed this.
People believed that the Germans were heavy drinkers and therefore did not want to be like them because people thought it would make them Anti - American. Propaganda told people that for every man working to buy alcohol instead of food, it was one less chance of America winning the war.
2. How Did Prohibition change US society in the 1920s?
The main impact of Prohibition on US society in the 1920s was that although prohibition was introduced, more people were drinking alcohol, although it went underground to avoid the law. The main aspect of society in the 1920s were that instead of the police and the local government running the towns and cities, Gangsters were running the city by bribing the police and government officials.
By the late 1920s, most alcohol was made at home in illegal stills. Home brewed "bathtub" gin could be made drinkable by adding other ingredients. In 1920, 122 illegal stills were seized from back rooms, bathrooms and garden sheds by government officials. Home made alcohol caused poisoning and blindness, sometimes death. This shows how the people that had voted for alcohol only a year before were now so desperate for alcohol that they would even risk death to drink it.
Bootlegging, the illegal transport of alcohol from countries outside the USA to states inside the USA were so profitable that the people were willing to risk going to jail or getting a fine (The fine was around $2000, but the bootleggers made this back in one week!).
To stop the illegal liquor trade, the prohibition bureau employed 2300 agents for the whole of the USA. Each agent had to cover about 260,000 square miles of land each, which is still almost an impossible task today, so it must have been a lot more difficult 80 years ago. They were also badly paid and most of them were on the payroll by Gangsters. Their choice was being bribed or murdered by Gangsters.
There were criminal gangs before prohibition, but their activity and profits increased greatly when prohibition was introduced. There were huge profits involved - Gangsters made about $2 million a year from it. Rival gangs fought each other to supply the speakeasies with alcohol, hijacking each other's supplies and murdering the opposition.
By the end of the decade, only the most powerful gangs survived. Violin cases containing sub-machine guns helped the gangsters to eliminate their competitors and helped gangsters have more success over entire cities. Government officials and judges were bribed high, if they didn't accept they were hunted down and killed like animals. Rackets like prostitution and protection could be run without interference from the police. George Remus paid thousands of dollars to government officials for protection from prosecution.
Prohibition was seen as the cause of the violent crime wave had swept the USA. More and more Americans turned against it. The AAPA blamed it for the ills of modern society just as the Anti - Saloon league blamed alcohol for the same crimes.
The Valentines Day Massacre on 14th February 1928 signalled the end of prohibition, as it showed what refusing Americans of their right to drink could cause - murders, gang warfare and organised crime. Prohibition finally ended in 1933.
3. Describe the main aspects of the economic boom in the 1920s.
The main aspects of the economic boom in America in the 1920s were the fact that Henry Ford, the US industrialist, developed mass production in order to make motorcars more cheaply. He used standardised parts, which could be put together quickly by unskilled workers. He began to build cars along a moving assembly line, with each worker repeating one small job. This cut the production time for a car from 2 - 3 days to 12 hours or less as the production line got better. This meant that the average working American could afford a car. His production techniques could also be ported across to other markets, reducing prices and making Americans wealthier than before.
Henry Ford founded his motor company at Detroit in 1903. Five years later, in 1908, he introduced a new small car, the Model T, which was tough, reliable and cheap to buy. It created a new revolution in transportation. By 1914 Ford had 45 factories producing cars on continuous assembly line in the United States and abroad. By 1920 half the cars in the world were Model T Fords. He was also an innoative employer. In 1914 he introduced a standardised wage of five dollars for an eight - hour day. This may not seem like a lot today, but it was a lot in 1914 and brought in profit sharing schemes for his employees.
Henry Ford wanted to build a "motor car for the great multitude", and he succeeded in this dream. In 1908, less than 200,000 people in the Untied States owned cars, by 1930 over 15 million Model Ts had been sold in America and abroad. People had a mobility unknown to even the very rich 50 years before.
4. Why did the boom suddenly come to an end in October 1929?
The biggest cause of the wall street crash was the fact that Henry Ford had introduced Mass Production which meant that the economy was becoming less and less strong as more people had more money, which meant shops could raise prices and the economy was suffering because of this.
Another reason for this was that Henry Ford was paying his workers much higher than the usual wage, which meant people had much more money to spend, which also contributed to the problem greatly.
Although less than one per cent of the American people actually possessed stocks and shares, the Wall Street Crash was to have a tremendous impact on the whole population. The fall in share prices made it difficult for entrepreneurs to raise the money needed to run their companies. Within a short time, 100,000 American companies were forced to close and consequently many workers became unemployed. As there was no national system of unemployment benefit, the purchasing power of the American people fell dramatically. This in turn led to even more unemployment.
Simon Cadman 10py
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