This is not surprising at all, and it is precisely the main reason why the mafia can be so famous. No matter how the mafia is glorified, no matter how powerful the mafia is, in the final analysis, the mafia is only a kind of mafia, and its essence is still a gangster organization that is opposed to the government.
Italy
How can a gang grow? Quite simply, when government control is in steep decline and the country is in chaos. Today's Mexico is the best example, and today, Mexican gangsters and drug trafficking organizations even dare to openly oppose the government, and their power is still greater than that of the Italian mafia at its peak. The chaos of the situation in Mexico is self-evident.
The rise of the Italian mafia is also a product of the decline of the Italian government. Although today's Italy usually considers itself a descendant of the Roman Empire, in fact, modern Italy was not unified until the second half of the nineteenth century. Therefore, although Italy has not lagged behind for a long time, it is still several orders of magnitude worse than the old powers such as Britain, France and Germany.
During the two world wars, Italy's economy and industry were not only weaker than those of Britain and France, but the army became a joke, and during World War 2, the ambitious Mussolini-led Italy almost became the laughing stock of the world, and the combat effectiveness of the Italian army was even more jaw-droppingly weak.
However, the fact that the army is not good does not mean that Italy is useless, and the famous Italian mafia is still very famous, and even has a great reputation in the world.
The rise of the mafia is very early, although there is no accurate historical record, but it is generally believed that the Italian mafia was born as early as the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The place where the Italian mafia was born was Sicily in southern Italy.
Sicily
Before Garibaldi unified Italy, Sicily belonged to an independent kingdom, the Kingdom of Sicily. Moreover, thanks to Sicily's unique and privileged geographical location, the Kingdom of Sicily is one of the great powers in the Mediterranean region, especially after controlling the Mediterranean maritime trade routes, the amphibious Sicily Kingdom is very rich.
In 1860, after the outbreak of the Italian Unification War, Sicily eventually became part of Italy, but after the unification of Italy, it did not bring much good to the Sicilians, and the lives of the Sicilian people not only did not improve much, but with the Italian government's policy of focusing only on the development of the north, the economy became more and more difficult. This naturally made the Sicilians, whose lives were more difficult, very dissatisfied.
Mussolini
Moreover, due to its extremely important strategic position, historical Sicily has been the focus of foreign invasions, and Sicily has been conquered by almost all powerful peoples. But these powerful nations and governments, which once ruled the Sicilian people, did not bring them security and happiness, but on the contrary, took turns to squeeze the Sicilians to bring countless wars and sufferings.
For the Sicilians, since the government could not protect them, they could only rely on themselves, so that the social order in Sicily began to take a different path because of the incompetence and tyranny of the government: the mafia began to sprout and develop rapidly.
The most classic image of the Italian mafia
At its peak, the mafia was even able to compete with the Roman government and local government. In southern Italy, its influence even surpassed that of the Roman government and local government, and the depth of the mafia's penetration into Italy can be imagined. Moreover, the mafia also began to infiltrate its sphere of influence out of Italy, and even the United States had a mafia presence.
Of course, no matter what kind of power and position the mafia has, in the final analysis, it is still just a mafia-type organization. For example, after Mussolini's rise in Italy, although there was a history of cooperation between the fascist and mafia in the early days, when Mussolini decided to rectify the mafia, the Italian army, which had almost become a joke in the foreign war, was almost devastated by the mafia, which was almost devastated by Mussolini's sweep.
Of course, the mafia can have such a big reputation, of course, there are its outstanding points, the mafia not only has a great influence in Italy, but also went out of the country and spread to the whole world. Among them, the most famous mafia is the United States, and the five major mafia families in New York have a great reputation in the world.
In addition to the United States, Major European and American countries such as France, Britain, Germany, Russia, and Mexico, and even Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam in Asia, are said to have traces of mafia activities. So, in a sense, the mafia that originated in Italy has even become the most widely active gang in the world.