1920's-Prohibition Era Topics

Prohibition Era Topics

1.)  The 18th Amendment- The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. It was ratified on January 16, 1919 and repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. In the over 200 years of the U.S. Constitution, the 18th Amendment remains the only Amendment to ever have been repealed.

2.) Speakeasies- A place for the illegal sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks, as during Prohibition in the United States.

3.) Bootlegging- To make, sell, or transport alcoholic liquor for sale illegally.

4.) Organized Crime- Organized crime may be defined as systematically unlawful activity for profit on a city-wide, interstate, and even international scale. Prohibition forced anyone wanting to purchase and consume alcohol to look for illegal ways of getting it. The criminals that were supplying that alcohol had to get it from somewhere and to protect it until they sold it, which led to the growth of crime empires that manufactured, transported, smuggled, and distributed alcohol (as well as running illegal gambling and other illicit activities).

5.) Flappers- A young woman, especially one in the 1920s who showed disdain for conventional dress and behavior.

Age of Imperialism

Imperialism, as defined by the Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." Imperialism, as described by that work is primarily a Western undertaking that employs "expansionist, merchantilist policies".
The term as such primarily has been applied to Western political and economic dominance in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some writers, such as Edward Said, use the term more broadly to describe any system of domination and subordination organized with an imperial center and a periphery. According to the Marxist historian, Walter Rodney, imperialism meant capitalist expansion. It meant that European (and North American and Japanese) capitalists were forced by the internal logic of their competitive system to seek abroad in less developed countries opportunities to control raw material, to find markets, and to find profitable fields of investment.