Prohibition is one of those moments in American history that is often painted as one of the great missteps in the nation’s timeline. Amongst other things. But it wasn’t as clear-cut as it initially seemed. Alcohol has been part of the culture for a very long time.

In the relatively new US The Revolutionary War had left a noticeable dent in the nation’s finances. To ease the strain tax was proposed on alcohol products within the nations. The idea to tax alcohol wasn’t random. It was considered a luxury to an extent and therefore the assumption was that the response would be relatively calm. At the same time those who believed alcohol caused great pain in society through abuse, addiction, and drunkenness favored the tax to discourage its use. The response to this wasn’t quite as calm as originally planned. Rebellion, death, and military response formed the core of the Whiskey Rebellion.

The reasoning of it all

Alcohol was important to many. To some, it was a necessary part of life. An extension of the freedom Americans fought to gain. To others, it corrupted good men into shells of their former selves. Throughout the year resistance to alcohol consumption grew. The resistance formed the core of the Temperance movements that popped all over the world during the 1830s. As the 1800s went on resistance to alcohol transformed from stopping alcoholism to stopping consumption in general.

Religion was quite core to the movement with the drink being seen as immoral. As well as various women’s rights movements as drunk men could return home from bars to commit violence against family members. At the same time, poor water in the nation made alcohol quite the go-to drink for not catching various diseases.

The Main law seems to be a bit catalyst in the advent of the prohibition movement. For the first time state law dictated the sale of all alcohol except for medicine. Particularly popular with many it eventually led to a violent riot. Regardless it inspired the other states to seek prohibition. Even though this major riot caused the appeal of the law only to again be legislated just 3 decades later.

The Anti Saloon League

It would be in the 1890s when more serious movements against alcohol started. The most important of these would be The Anti-Saloon League. ASL was promoted as a religion-based organization that existed solely to combat alcohol. The goal was to ban it outright and the means of doing this were quite shady. ASL truly mastered the art of influencing the mass media. It would function as a group that screamed the loudest, fought the dirtiest, and would refuse to stop its goals.

It would gain political allies through failed corruption. Basically, ASL would confront a politician and if they agreed to join the cause they would almost have a guaranteed spot in the office. If they refused they would nearly be guaranteed to lose the election. ASL was a political powerhouse that got whatever it wanted. They gained a fervent following among many.

The leader of this league was Wayne Wheeler. As fear against ASL rained down on politicians Wheeler was by any means not a man to argue with. He was unwilling to change his mind and his beliefs and instead opted to resort to pushing for laws that would be obviously against the general public.

Why so many supported the prohibition?

Many citizens supported ASL simply because they believed alcohol was genuinely making the world a worse place. For many, the idea was that if alcohol were eliminated, the crime associated with alcohol would be gone. This leads us to December 18th, 1917. On this day, the 18th Amendment was passed, which banned the creation and sale of alcohol. The wartime Prohibition Act of 1917 would be passed, banning all alcohol over 2.75%. While it was intended to ration grain for the war effort, this wouldn’t be its final purpose, as the war ended just a week earlier.

By January 16th, 1919 the 18th Amendment was ratified and all alcohol would be made illegal. On January 17th, 1920 the Volstead Act was introduced to set forth more standards such as specific percentages of alcohol allowed at home beverages. The immediate response to this was actually what was intended. Fewer people drink and it seemed like overall the goal of the Temperance movement succeeded. But this would start the downfall of the prohibition movement.

Problems and crime

Crime leaders saw an opportunity in the passing of the Act. The demand for alcohol would rise and only those willing to operate outside of the law would be willing to supply it. As the illegal sale of alcohol became more fruitful violence began to grow.

Gang leaders became wealthy men and this wealth brought them to power. Crime rose and many died. It seemed fairly evident the movement was failing. The American government wasn’t too happy with the changes that were happening. The ASL was supportive of their movement but their support has plummeted. It was soon apparent that the prohibition movement lost most of its support.

As the Great Depression cause major financial issues for the nation, legalization of alcohol became quite less of a necessity for the US. After the crime lords made billions of untaxed alcohol money now America needed some of that. In March 1933 this would lead to the Cullen-Harrison Act which would legalize alcohol below 3.2%. With this came the 21st Amendment on December 5th, 1933 which effectively repealed the 18th Amendment. For good this time we hope.