What was Prohibition Introduced?
In the 1920’s American politics was dominated by democracy and the idea of isolationism to maintain America prosperous was extremely apparent. On the other hand in 1919, President Wilson passed the 18th Amendment to the American Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, distribution and consumption of alcoholic drinks (any drink containing more than .five% alcohol).
Prohibition was not just a novel American idea, at the turn of the Twentieth Century, other nations have been also experimenting with limiting or completely banning the production, distribution and consumption of alcoholic drinks the key origins can be located all over the planet. However, to find the origins for the American Prohibition we should appear back to rural America in the Nineteenth Century.
Wilson was also pressured into passing the Prohibition Act by the potent temperance movement throughout the Fantastic War, claiming that alcohol was unpatriotic as it was made by American’s from German descent. Even although he tried to veto the amendment, he was overturned by Congress and reluctantly passed the legislation.
The law itself was amazingly ambitious as alcohol was the seventh largest business in a nation which was ruled by “big business” and was an established and respected as aspect of the companies which provided the wealth of America.
Although the technical cause as to why the Prohibition Law was passed was because 66% of the Constitution voted for it, one of the key reasons why Prohibition occurred was simply because of its mass assistance. By 1920, thirty-three out of forty-eight states had passed Prohibition laws, making about 63% of the total population of America ‘dry’.
The major help for Prohibition came from moral crusaders in the South who have been incredibly anti-urbanisation like the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance in Boston and the Washington Temperance Society, whose groups grew in quantity involving the 1820’s and the 1840’s. These groups campaigned against the effects of drinking liquor. Typically this excessive drinking was blamed on the industrialisation of the rural areas in a lot of counties as a result of social and financial alter at this time. There were some protesters like the Irish Catholics who apparently have been against prohibition due to the fact of their appreciate of gin (!) as well as the congressmen of Massachusetts who famously stated that, “the superior the county the greater the alcohol content”. Nonetheless this was the beginning of the battle where it appeared that it was a case of “cornbelt over conveyor belt”.
Supporters claimed that alcohol deprived…