History-crime and corruption-prohibition

• Prohibition


  Time period when no alcohol was allowed to be bought or sold
• Bootlegger


  • One who produced or sold alcohol illegally
• Moonshiner


  • One who distilled alcohol illegally
• Speakeasy


  • Illegal drinking saloon
• Rum runner


  • Someone who transports illegal alcohol
• Still


  • A device for distilling alcohol
• Teapot Dome Scandal


  Government minister Albert Fall scandal where he leased out government land for drilling oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming in exchange for legal payments of $400,000 from Henry Sinclair and Edward Doheny
• The secret deals were leaked to the press in 1922
• The enquiry was not completed until 1927
• Fall was found guilty of bribery, fined $100,000, and sent to prison
• Sinclair was also sent to prison
• Doheny was acquitted
• Al Capone and Gangsters


  • Increase of organised crime in the 1920s
  • Control of speakeasies/legal alcohol
  • Gangs compete and fought over each other's trade
• Al Capone's rise


  1. 1921-Capone in Torrio gang and rose up the ranks

  2. 1925 takes control of Torrio's gang in Chicago

  3. 1925-1929 Capone killed more than 200 rivals

  4. Capone bribes police and mayor
• 1929-St Valentine's Day Massacre- an attempt to kill Bugs Morgen = 7 of his gang members killed
• 1931 Capone found guilty of tax evasion
• Alcohol causes


  • Crime
  • Low working standards
  • Child neglect abuse at home
• Reasons for Prohibition


  • Protests from Anti-Saloon League
  • Protests from The Women's Christian Temperance Union
• Britain faced challenges from other countries such as Japan during World War II, which further complicated its position on Indian independence.
• In 1942, Churchill announced that Britain would support India's independence movement as long as it did not lead to violence or communal conflict.
• Economic boom


  A period when individual and company profits increased
• Consumer


  Someone who spends their money on non-essential items such as vacuums, radios etc.
• Hire purchase


  Not being able to afford to pay for an item in one go, so you pay it in weekly or monthly deposits
• Speculating


  Buying shares hoping their value will increase so that they can be sold later for higher profit
• Assembly line


  A line of workers and machines in a factory assembling a product
• Mass production


  Manufacture of goods on a large scale using mechanical processes
• Laissez-faire


  A policy of no interference in the running of the economy
• President Harding 1921-1923 wanted to limit government interference - laissez-faire
• President Coolidge 1923-1929 believed the government should have only limited involvement in the economy by reducing regulations, so businessmen would be free to make their own decisions
• However, by the end of the war, public opinion had shifted significantly towards supporting Indian independence, and the British government was under increasing pressure to make concessions.