What is the mafia and how did it arise?

The Mafia is a hierarchical community of Italian criminals, and the term denotes a traditional criminal organization in Sicily as well as a criminal organization in the United States of America.

Mafia boom

The Mafia flourished in Sicily in the late Middle Ages, and is believed to have started as a secret organization dedicated to overthrowing the island's various foreign conquerors, such as the Arabs, Normans and Spaniards. The mafia brought its elements from several small private armies, which were hired by feudal lords to protect their possessions from bandits in the illegal situation that has prevailed in Sicily through the centuries.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the active members of these private armies organized themselves and became very powerful and turned against the feudal lords, becoming the sole law on many estates, and again extorting money from them to protect new crops.

The mafia has survived in the face of successive foreign governments because the latter were often too tyrannical and alienated the islanders from them, and made the strange mafia system of justice somewhat acceptable, organized by a complex moral code, based on the omertà.

Around 1900 various mafia families and groups based themselves in the villages of western Sicily, came together in a loose confederation and controlled most of the economic activities in their respective locations.

By the beginning of the 1930s, Italian criminals organized in the United States of America seized control of the various illegal activities of Irish rivals, Jews and other gangs, and after a bloody struggle on a wide national scale, organized themselves in a free alliance and a clearly defined supreme leadership.

Mafia ranks and titles

The master or chief Don : He is at the head of every family, and has an authority that only the committee can contest.

Underboss : Under each master there is a smaller boss who acts as a deputy or advisor and wields great power and influence.

Caporegime Aides : They come under the rank of Vice President and serve as a liaison between the lower level workers and the President himself, protecting him from being linked too closely to the work of the illegal organization.

Soldiers : Supervised by lieutenants, often responsible for a legal family business (food processing companies, restaurants, or machinery) or illegal business involving drugs, gambling, or prostitution.

How the mafia works

The Mafia controls everything from the street drug trade to the highest government positions, has been glorified by movies and television, and law enforcement has chased after it. It is characterized by inflicting death on its enemies, its members are violent, and their lives are often short. The whole core of the Mafia revolves around money, and there are still secret rituals, complex laws and tangled webs of family loyalty.