Running head: The Origins Of The Mafia.

The Origins Of The Mafia

http://www.history.com/topics/origins-of-the-mafia
Summary
Justyna Bieliska-Spodobalska
filologia angielska I rok SUM
The article The Origins Of the Mafia which is available on the website;
http://www.history.com/topics/origins-of-the-mafia introduces the reader into the world of
the Mafia and explains that the term Mafia had been evaluating for years and did not
always mean the same. At the beginning it was not connected to the criminal organizations.
According to the author, it initially described a person that was suspicious of central
authority. The Mafia has its roots in Sicilian family groups that protected themselves and
other landowners from foreign invaders. They had own system of justice and retribution
and kept it secret. Despite the Sicilian Mafia there are three other huge criminal networks
in Italy. What is more, the author adds that in the 1870s the Italian government wanted to
use Mafia to take charge of Rome but in fact, the Mafia rose in power up to the twentieth
century. In 1970s it became the most important member of the international drug
trafficking network. From the article, the reader learns also about the American Mafia
which benefits from whoredom, drugs and loansharking. Both American and Sicilian clans
have been successful inter alia because of using a code of conduct known as Omerta.
Although in the twentieth century Sicilian and American Mafia are not as powerful as they
used to be, the role of the Mafia is still changing.