Prohibition Dbq Essay

Prohibition was the period of time where the manufacture, transportation and sale of any intoxicating liquors. This was because of the nationwide constitutional laws that were put in place because of the 18th amendment and the volstead act. This period lasted from 1919 when the 18th amendment was ratified and ended in 1933 when the United States ratified the 21st amendment which repealed the 18th amendment. The amendment was repealed because of significantly increasing changes in the crime rate throughout the United States as well as how difficult it was for the government to enforce the laws regarding prohibition. The United states was also able to place a tax on the sale of these liquors which was made legal again and this tax would pay for

The Prohibition Unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue was in responsible for enforcing these laws. State agents were and flying quadrants were stationed throughout the country but they still only 3,500 agents which compared to the country and how many people were breaking the laws of prohibition was significantly low and was not enough to enforce prohibition throughout the entire country. Bootleggers constantly had “large fleets of trucks and other automobiles running on regular schedules between mexican and canadien points” to smuggle their liquor in and out. (doc C) There were even fleets of vessels on the coast just far enough from land that the government could not interfer with them. Even people such as government officials were constantly breaking the laws of prohibition and not even hiding it well because there was a small chance they would even face consequences for it because of how many people in the country also broke those same laws with an insignificant amountof agents to prevent

There were various variables that played a role in the increasing crime rate alongside prohibition, though, prohibition was the main cause of these other crimes. Since the sale of all liquors was made illegal it benifited criminals such as racketeers, drug dealers, and most of all bootleggers because it gave them a country full of oportunities to exploit the fact that alcohol was made illegal. There would be plenty of more people that would need alcohol throughout prohibition because they couldnt just buy it from a store and bootleggers would be right there to step in and profit off of those people illegally. One of Cartoonist Winsor McCay’s political cartoons from the early 1930’s portays this perfectly by illistrating prohibition alongside other crimes that it had caused an icrease of walking into a depression together because they would take away money from the economy while simotaniasly increasing the illegal sale of liquors and other crimes. U.S. Census and FBI Uniform Crime Reports in Drug War Facts shows a spike in homicides right around the time prohibition began and dramaticly increased until 1933 when prohibition ended and then shows a very significant drop right after the 18th amendment was