Raab notes that until the 19th century, the word “mafioso” did not refer to someone who was a criminal, but rather a person who was suspicious of central authority. From this history, the Sicilian Mafia emerged as a collection of criminal clans or families.ĭid you know? The Sicilian Mafia is one of four major criminal networks currently based in Italy the other three are the Camorra of Naples, the Ndrangheta of Calabria and the Sacra Corona Unita of Puglia.Īlthough its precise origins are unknown, the term Mafia came from a Sicilian-Arabic slang expression that means “acting as a protector against the arrogance of the powerful,” according to Selwyn Raab, author of “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. By the 19th century, small private armies known as “mafie” took advantage of the frequently violent, chaotic conditions in Sicily and extorted protection money from landowners. ![]() These groups, which later became known as clans or families, developed their own system for justice and retribution, carrying out their actions in secret. The residents of this small island formed groups to protect themselves from the often-hostile occupying forces, as well as from other regional groups of Sicilians. ![]() For centuries, Sicily, an island in the Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and the Italian mainland, was ruled by a long line of foreign invaders, including the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, French and Spanish.
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