The Mafia can be traced back to the ninth century, when Sicily was invaded and then ruled by Arabs. The Arabic word Mafia means "place of refuge," and this term gave meaning to those Sicilians who were hillside refuges to which suffering inhabitants of the island fled. In the eleventh century Sicily was overrun by Norman invaders. They captured Sicilians and turned their farms into grand and glorious estates. The Sicilians were made slaves and put to work on these estates. Thousands escaped to the hills to where the Mafia strongholds were. In the fifteenth century Sicily was invaded once again. This time by the Spaniards. They brought with them the Inquisition with all of its sadistic punishments and tortures. The Sicilian peasants again sought the protection of the Mafia strongholds. There has been speculation that even another version of the beginning of the Mafia began when the French i
seeking out a better life, in the land of opportunity.
The Mafia secretly ruled Sicily at the turn of the twentieth century. They had expanded into local police, the Sicilian army, and all the branches of the government. The foolishly brave government officials were inevitably murdered. Benito Mussolini attempted to wipe out the Mafia of its entirety during the 1920s. He sent his top police official Mori to destroy the Mafia, once and for all. With the scores of arrests Mori made few witnesses were willing to testify, fearful of their lives. The Mafia attempted to expand into other countries bur ran into a brick wall on mainland Italy were the Camorra had been The criminal power for quite some time. Operations in France and Spain along with other Latin-language countries were limited to cooperation with already es
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