1. PROHIBITION IN 1920s Project made by: Anhelina Kovach Sebastian Scociu Roberto González

2.  What it was?  Life Before Prohibition  Why was it introduced  How it was enforced  Effects and financial losses  Was it easy to find alcohol?  Black market and mafia  Why did prohibition end?  Relation with The Great Gatsby

3. What it was? Measure designed to reduce drinking Adopted in 1919 – 18 th Amendment Ended in 1933 – 21 st Amendment Noble Experiment It was a failure People drunk more than ever Drunkenness caused low productivity and inefficiency.

4. Life before Prohibition WWI had ended and people wanted to have fun Immigrants from Europe came to the United States Alcohol abuse They consumed three times the alcohol we drink nowadays Alcohol was destroying families

5. Why was it introduced? Woman´s Christian Temperance Union The Anti – Saloon League Persuaded the government to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Anti – alcohol educational campaign. Social ills. They said that saloons were dens of vice. Saloons were destroying family life.

6. How was it enforced? Reduce crime and poverty and improve quality of life. Volstead Act: Prohibited the manufacture, sale and possession of alcohol in America. It went into effect on 1920 It gained approval in rural areas It wasn´t popular in urban areas.

7. EFFECTS OF THE PROHIBITION -Financial losses -Effects on the people Black market -Organized crime and Mafia (AL Capone) Results when the prohibition ended

8. Financial losses As the prohibition started as a law to be performed, the police took most of the alcoholic drinks from the bars and locals and where dumped to the sewers of the cities. This action made that most of the owners had to close their locals and bars, so they where like “unemployed” due to the fact that they didn`t have got any incomes to pay the taxes. Finally, the banks couldn`t receive any money from the owners an this led to a financial loss (but in the 1920s, this wasn´t very important because the United States thought they would prosper even with some “little losses)

9. Police obliging some owners to dump the alcohol Police confiscating a shipment of alcohol

10. In those days, alcohol was controlled by the gangster. You could find alcohol in a speakeasy, they sell and manufacturise alcohol. In New York City alone, there were from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs.

11. Chicago: 21 minutes Atlanta: 17 minutes Pittsburg: 11 minutes New Orleans: 35 seconds An speakeasy is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic drinks. Like saloons of the past, betting was common in speakeasies. But, they also introduced a new element, drugs. They found a new source of "entertainment”.

12. Effects on the people The people who were consuming alcohol before the law had been approved protested against the law in several demonstrations and strikes. Even if the law was approved, people continued drinking alcohol in speakeases, which were places where alcohol was illegally sold. As a consequence of the prohibition, people started to drink more than before (like when you say to a little child to don´t do something and he does that thing worse), and this caused more deaths by the intoxicating of alcohol.

13. Men and women drinking beer on a speakeasy Cartoon criticising the alcohol

14. The black market By the time the years of the prohibition progressed, the black market was another method of buying the alcoholic drinks. On the black market, the prices for the alcoholic drinks were enormous (not everyone could afford to buy it there), but people didn´t cared much about the price The money that the black market gained was illegal, so it wasn´t destined to the government, just for the people who controlled the most part of it, which it was the mafia.

15. Clubs bought alcoholic drinks from the black market Rich people having a party with alcoholic drinks

16. Organized crime and mafia (Al Capone) During the 1920s, the organized crime was very known in cities like Chicago for example (home of Al Capone). The mafia was the organization that most distributed alcohol during the prohibition thanks to the black market. They were also responsible for murdering people, corruption and illegal sale of weapons Al Capone was the most known leader of the Italian mafia in all history. He was the person that controlled Chicago during the 1920s by fighting against other leaders of other mafias. He died on the 25 th of January 1947.

17. Chicago in the 1920s Al Capone

18. The purpose was to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, improve health in America. The Government thought that was a good idea, but this leads to the increase of alcohol, corruption and the gangster begin to sell alcohol.

19. In St. Valentine´s Day of 1929, there was a massacre organized between Gangster, in which Al Capone was the leader of one of the gangs, in order to take control to Chicago. There were a lot of fights between gangs to take more control of the alcohol, so the Government decided to end Prohibition President Franklin Roosevelt on March 22, 1933, authorized the sale of 3.2 percent beer and wine, which allowed the first legal beer sales since the beginning of Prohibition on January 16, 1920. On the 21 st Amendment December 5 th state conventions repealed Prohibition.

20. Results when the prohibition ended After the prohibition, people celebrated its end the day the president Roosevelt declared the law absolved. Many councils could declare as a kind of “prohibition” after the law ended (for example in a council that still uses some terms of the law there is a timetable to buy alcoholic drinks) The economy started to grew up little by little and there were not many cases of death by alcoholic drinks than during the prohibition.

21. A map of the U.S showing in colours the declaration of the councils after the prohibition

22. During the novel, alcohol was illegal, and when Gatsby return to New York he started working as a “bootlegger” that cause Gatsby’s grand wealth. In addition to the wealth obtained by him due to Prohibition, Gatsby’s popularity comes from celebrating parties to his guests with alcohol.