When was the Mafia founded?
The Mafia originated some time during the mid 19th Century in the island of Sicily, at around the same time as the emergence of the new Italian state driven by industrialization and trade. The Sicilian mafia has always been at its strongest in the west of the island, especially around its birthplace in the city of Palermo. Palermo was the center of trade, commerce and politics of Sicily. The mafia originated around the affluent estates of lemon and orange groves in Palermo, as opposed to the economically backwards and underdeveloped interior of the island. The mafia was initially involved in the business of protection and extortion in and around Palermo’s lemon and orange farms.dtr According to some sources, members of the ruling aristocracy were also members of the “sect” (as the mafia was known in those days). Among those sources are Baron Turrisi Colonna, who wrote the first ever account of the organised criminality in Sicily in the mid 1800’s. In 1864, He estimated the age of the “
