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DBQ Essay: The Role Of Prohibition In The United States

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Prohibition was an amendment that caused the ban of alcohol and anything related to it. America was suffering because of alcohol, so prohibition was enforced. Little did the country know, prohibition would cause America to suffer far more. America was facing various problems due to alcohol such as death, crime, and loss of money. America expected to solve these problems by banning alcohol; never did the country expect the problems to worsen. The country was trying to control America’s alcohol problems by law. The ban on alcohol worsened America’s alcohol problem, in fact, it did quite the opposite of its intention. All caused by prohibition, America had an increased crime rate, death rate, and to top it off, America was losing slathers of money. …show more content…

By enforcing prohibition, the government hoped to decrease the death rate. But, prohibition did the opposite of its intention, it sparked an increase in death rates, both alcohol and non-alcohol influenced. During the preceding time period of prohibition, the rate of deaths from alcohol had begun to decrease, but around 1920 when prohibition was enforced, it suddenly increased again (Document F). This information shows that prohibition, specifically, triggered the death rate to ascend, again. Also, the death rate from alcohol poisoning was soaring during prohibition (IG). In 1920, the beginning of prohibition, there were roughly 1,064 deaths from alcohol poisoning. However, within 5 years, the alcohol poisoning death rate increased a whopping 500 percent. In the entire duration or prohibition, the alcohol poisoning death rate increased about 1000 percent. During all of prohibition, there were about 10,000 deaths from alcohol poisoning. Also, the homicide rate between 100 and 1950 was at its peak during prohibition (Document B). In that time period there were two tremendous wars, the world wars. Although, there were wars in that time period, prohibition still was the cause of the most homicides. In fact, prohibition caused just under the amount of homicides that both world wars caused, combined. The death rate was increasing solely because of prohibition, which caused the government to repeal

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Near the end of Prohibition, there was an average of 10 homicides per 100,000 people in America. Another way in which crime increased was the smuggling of alcoholic beverages. In Document C, it stated that "On the Atlantic Coast the smugglers are so numerous and so active that there is at all times a rum fleet standing off or anchored outside the 3-mile limit near New York and New Jersey.” The extreme increase in crime that the government couldn't really do anything about, changed Americans point of view on Prohibition.

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In 1920 The United States congress passed an amendment that banned the production of alcohol for recreational use but not for private use. The Prohibition Act or 18th Amendment was written to ban the selling, production, and transportation of alcohol. Famous mobsters like Al Capone and others decided to fill the void and America saw an increase in the consumption of alcohol. Rather than stopping crime in America the Prohibition Act actually created more crime with the creation of bootlegging and illegal saloons and pubs were formed.

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