Prohibition

Question 1

What was prohibition?

Answer 1

• prohibition was the nationwide ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcohol from 1920 to 1933

Question 2

Why was it introduced?

Answer 2

• Rural America: people in rural areas saw the new and growing towns and cities as places where alcohol-fuelled violence and crime were commonplace. There had been a strong campaign against alcohol, led by pressure groups like the Anti-Saloon League
• Religious organisation: many religious organisations and churches opposed alcohol because they claimed it caused a variety of social problems such as violence, poverty, addiction and debt

Question 3

Why was it difficult to enforce?

Answer 3

• around 1500 ‘Prohibition agents’ tried to enforce the law. However:
• the USA has 18,600 miles of coastline and land borders to patrol. The agents faced a near impossible task of trying to prevent alcohol being smuggled in by sea or over the border (known as ‘bootlegging’) from Mexico in the South or Canada in the North
• it was very easy to get alcohol because criminal gangs got involved in making and supplying it. These gangs ran illegal bars (‘speakeasies’), which sold bootleg alcohol
• the gangs made so much money that they were able to avoid arrest and prosecution because they bribed some of the police officers, Prohibition agents, border guards and judges

Question 4

What impact did prohibition have on America?

Answer 4

• by 1933, it was clear that Prohibition was not working
• there were approximately 200,000 speakeasies in the USA
• inNew York, there were more speakeasies than there were bars
  before Prohibition
• instead of America becoming a less violent, more honest and moral country, it had seen the rise of gangsters, organised crime and police corruption
• Roosevelt repealed (got rid of) Prohibition in early 1933