The Sicilian Connection: Tracing the Origins of the Cosa Nostra Mafia

The place where Cosa Nostra was born and still carries out its main activities today in Sicily, a territory in southern Italy that was repeatedly under foreign rule and which gained its independence from the oppressors only in the eighteenth century.
The first document referring to a typical group in Sicily dates from 1837 and represents a report by the prefect general of the High Criminal Court in Traponi, Pietra Cala Ula. To his superiors in Naples, regarding the existence of associations of persons engaged in criminal activities, such as the ransom of stolen cattle herds, the corruption of civil servants, etc.
The work "Vicariate Mafias", written in 1863 by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaetano Mosca, first defines the "mafia" as a common expression used to describe a group of arrogant and violent individuals, united by secret relations. and to be feared, you are at the origin of a criminal action.
The first signs that the mafia began to become a criminal organization appeared in 1893, with the appearance of the so-called "cosche" (gangs) of the mafia. During this period almost all the feudal properties fell into the hands of the mafia tenants, who would later become their owners. These tenants had absolute power over the lands, although they paid a share to the Italian nobles. The peasants began to hate the mobsters transformed from rescuers to executioners.

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