While concern over the excessive consumption of alcohol has been around since the American colonial era, it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the temperance movement truly began to make headway. By the 1840s the temperance societies were actively encouraging individuals to refrain from consuming alcohol, hoping to reduce alcohol consumption within the United States. At first, the temperance movement simply pushed moderation, but after several decades, the movement decided to instead seek the complete prohibition of alcohol consumption. Three major players in the temperance movement were the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1874, the Prohibition Party, organized in 1859, and the Anti-Saloon League, formed in 1895. In the years leading up to World War I, …show more content…
Anti-German sentiment also helped propel the national prohibition cause to greater heights due to the fact that most of the breweries in the 19th century were founded by German immigrants to the United States, and retained German names. Wartime hostility toward Germans gave prohibition a certain sense of patriotism and condemned those who opposed the implementation of prohibition laws as traitors. In addition, prohibiting the production of alcoholic beverages would save millions of bushels of grain and other resources that many believed should be devoted to the war effort. In December 1917, eight months after the United States declared war on the German Empire, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, accomplishing nationwide Prohibition, which banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Yet, while WWI was undoubtedly the catalyst for national prohibition, the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect on January 1920, nearly two years after the end of