The History of the Sicilian Mafia

By the 19th century these small gangs had become known as mafia and they charged landowners money in return for protection. The word, mafia, is believed by historians to come from a colloquial Sicilian Arabic phrase that roughly means acting as a protector against the arrogance of the powerful. After Sicily became part of Italy in 1861 these groups even cooperated with the government to keep other rival groups in check under control. This period also coincided with a period of mass emigration from Italy, in particular Sicily across the Atlantic to the United States. From the 1880s to the 1920s over 20 million immigrants arrived in the U.S looking for their slice of the American dream. A large chunk of