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Historically residents of European countries consumed lager, beer, wine, etc... in vast amounts because it was often much safer than water supplies. The crowded and filthy cities of Europe were much like many parts of India today with bodies of water basically open cesspools. Underground water supplies were not always safe either since everything from human/animal waste runoff to the dead (animals and humans), contaminated them as well. All this lead to the frequent outbreaks of typhoid, cholera and other diseases caused by consuming fouled water.
Tea and later coffee were the other choices of beverages since they were made with boiled water. It would be decades before the "germ theory" would be accepted so persons didn't know why exactly drinking "hot" drinks was better, they just knew it seemed a safer bet than getting one's water from wells or other local sources of water.
Thanks for the corrections on prohibition. In any case, I would say that taking Europe as a whole, that movement wasn't as strong as it was in the US.
Prohibition in the USA was lead by what would be called "Right Wing" activists today including the "Moral Majority".
The Temperance Movement as it started out was a reaction by at first mostly white Protestant middle to upper class women in reaction to what they saw as the "evil" and "sin" brought upon American families by booze, beer and the like. They saw in booze as the source of all sorts of vice that was destroying families; everything from wife/child abuse, rape, vice, criminal activity and so forth. Then there was the moral objection to men spending money that they felt should have been spent in/on the home in juke joints, saloons, bars or wherever you found booze. They also felt places like pool halls, saloons, bars etc... were where "innocent" American youth could be lured in and corrupted.
Carrie Nation was a leader in the temperance movement and actually went around with a very large axe. She would enter a bar/saloon and simply smash up the place destroying bars, bottles etc... Again these women say it as some sort of religious crusade to rid their areas of the evil of booze. Carrie Nation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There was also a strong anti-immigrant base to the temperance movement that lead up to prohibition.
America was being flooded by Europeans who had very different views about beer and booze than WASPS. Germans, the Irish and others drove such persons *NUTS* because they drank beer like water. First thing in the morning, with lunch, with dinner, after work, during social activity, picnics, etc.... Even more shocking these persons drank beer on SUNDAYS! That was more than some were willing to bare as it fit into their thinking that the white race of USA was being ruined by these immigrants and their bad habits.
Leaders of the temperance/prohibition movement in the USA felt strongly that if booze was banned demand/desire for the stuff would evaporate and society would be a purer and safer place. In realty that was not the case and prohibition proved to be a huge failure of an experiment, probably costing more lives and or harm directly or indirectly than drink ever did before or after. It also spawned the rise of organized crime (Italian, Jewish, German, etc....) that we are still dealing with today.
Prohibition in the US was driven by women concerned with the fact that in the days before easy divorce, women were stuck in marriages with alcoholic spouses who would turn violent. Women were getting bludgeoned and even killed. The Temperance Movement was an attempt to save women's lives. Now that divorce is easy, a movement like that is no longer needed.
Prohibition in the US was driven by women concerned with the fact that in the days before easy divorce, women were stuck in marriages with alcoholic spouses who would turn violent. Women were getting bludgeoned and even killed. The Temperance Movement was an attempt to save women's lives. Now that divorce is easy, a movement like that is no longer needed.
Many states had legal divorce going back to the 1800's. Also then as now the idea if you deprive someone of drink they will suddenly turn into the perfect model husband and father is rubbish. Wife beating has been going on ever since there was marriage, and it took much more than Prohibition to bring rates down.
Many states had legal divorce going back to the 1800's. Also then as now the idea if you deprive someone of drink they will suddenly turn into the perfect model husband and father is rubbish. Wife beating has been going on ever since there was marriage, and it took much more than Prohibition to bring rates down.
Nobody said Prohibition would be a panacea. It was one way of addressing the problem; women's attempt to do something about some extreme situations.
There was legal divorce, but mostly only men could petition for it.
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