Prohibition was a turn point in the history of America. In the 1920’s, an Amendment banned basically everything that had something to do with transport, production and sale in America. Even having banned alcohol, it became soon clear that the millions of American citizens would not obey this law. With the government not providing in the needs of their citizens, a certain group of gangsters saw their opportunity to provide the helping hand. This era of jazz music and young people got an answer for their cry for alcohol by a man who controlled the underworld of Chicago, mister Al Capone - also known as Scarface. Capone was notorious for intimidating people, especially rivals from other Gangster families. The reason why Al Capone is part of America’s history is his immense control in the city of Chicago and his immense profits due to illegalisation of alcohol. In his prime days, he made over 105 million per year. He also managed to bribe the politicians and police officers, and even provided protection to those politicians who he needed for his business. Capone was always under the supervision of bodyguards and drove in heavily armoured cars to not get killed by his enemies. He eventually got arrested for tax evasion in 1931 and had to serve an eleven-year sentence. After his prison sentence, he retired in Florida. 

Flawless curves, big and round body shapes, a rumbling noise, big tail pipes and of course a V8 engine – the American Muscle Car is one of the most iconic type of vehicles originating from the United States of America. Everything must be great and big in the US, and cars aren’t left behind. In the 50’s, performance was the main goal for vehicle manufacturers such as Chrysler and Pontiac. The development of these muscle cars grew fast and by the 1960’s, cars became heavier and bigger by the year. This caused manufacturers to upgrade their engines to become even more powerful and some engines even peaked up to 450 break horse power – that’s four times as much as your average commuting vehicle. Sadly, criticism was becoming more common because of the fact that these cars were being bought by young people, making them dangerous and very expensive to insure. Besides, during that era the health and environment parties became focussing on the emissions these cars would put out, forcing pressure on the car manufacturers to innovate on clean and economical engines instead of performance. Nonetheless, demand of muscle cars was always present and in the more recent years of the 21^st century Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet are back in the muscle car scene with new and improved cars such as the Mustang, Charger, Challenger and even the Hummer. Recently, videos went viral of the Ford Mustang crashing and hitting pedestrians because of their terrible handling, proving they are somewhat still dangerous and difficult to drive.

The Big Apple, better known as New York is famous for many reasons. It’s the largest city of the United States of America and has a leading role in trades, finance, media, art, fashion and education. Almost ten million people live in the city, existing of five boroughs named Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island. The area was first colonised by a group of Flemish families and later Dutch, German and British families joined them. The place was called New Belgium or New Holland. Later, the colony chose a governor, renaming the location to New Amsterdam. In 1664 however, the British conquered the land and renamed it, again, to New York, referring to duke of York. A century later, five years after the Revolutionary War, fighting for independence of the British Empire, New York became the capitol of the United States. The reason why New York is so populated, has to do with the Great Migration in the 1920’s, in which a lot of African Americans left the south of the US but moreover due to the return of veterans and immigrants from Europe after the Second World War. It really is the first mega city in the history of the Earth. The city had ups and downs, mostly due to economic changes, criminality and racial differences. But nonetheless the city bloomed through the uprising skyscrapers and the financial district. Its iconic buildings, huge Central Park and yellow cabs makes this the greatest city on Earth. I think its very sad that it's not called New Amsterdam. We as Dutch deserve it to be!