In the 19th century, Europe underwent major transformations resulting from the struggle against the Ancien Régime and the installation of liberal regimes. In this process, several nations experienced economic crises that motivated the formation of groups of immigrants who tried another life on the American continent. Among other nationalities, the Italians were responsible for the arrival of more than four million travelers to the American continent.
In most cases, they were poor peasants from the regions of Sicily, Naples and Calabria. Far from their homeland, many of these immigrants gathered in neighborhoods that, in a short time, became ghettos concentrating Italians willing to overcome the hostilities of their time. Preserving characteristics of social relations rooted in their homeland, they sought the same rise and prestige previously won by Jews, Germans and Irish.
The somewhat more privileged economic condition of certain Italian families ended up imposing power relations similar to those imposed by large landowners on small peasants. Through violence, loans and illegal economic activities these slightly more privileged families formed the mafias that would be so well known in the first decades of the 20th century. During this period, the so-called Black Hand was the first criminal organization formed by several Sicilian families.
Initially, Giuseppe Lupollo, Mont Tennes and Big Jim Colosimo were the big names in the mafia responsible for coordinating gambling, extortion and prostitution in large urban centers like Chicago and New York. After World War I, the history of the North American Mafia underwent major transformations, mainly with the implementation of the Volstead Act, a law that, in 1920, prohibited the sale and transport of alcoholic beverages in the United States.
The ban took place at the same time when the euphoria of the “American way of life” was showing its first signs of crisis, boosting the involvement of several gangs with the trafficking and distribution of drugs. drinks nationwide. It was at this time that the names of Frank Costello, John Torrio and Al Capone became great icons of the American mafia. Accompanying the huge profits, competition from other mafia and the persecution of the authorities promoted several murders and kidnappings.
In the 1930s, the failed moralizing effort of Prohibition forced the country's authorities to carry out a reform of the law to be published in 1933. By the new amendment, commerce and Beverage making was legalized again, and with that, the mafia's biggest source of profit would be extinguished. Allied to this fact, the effects of the 1929 crash forced the mafiosi to invest in other activities that could still sustain the families and their huge profits.
The economic hardship brought the tension between the different gangs that sought to preserve every inch of their areas of influence. The war between Giussepe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano was one of the best known disputes that took place in the early 1930s. After that, the new era in the mafia abandoned personal feuds and the influence of local power, to infiltrate public offices and networks of much broader crime.
The new generations of the Mafia were composed of figures who completed their studies and, from then on, were able to establish links with judges, police and prosecutors. In fact, the mafia of the 1930s was more discreet and articulate, not carrying out criminal actions in broad daylight or promoting public spectacles of violence. The so-called “Cosa Nostra” – the new name given to the mafia at the time – was oblivious to gang disputes to seek profit and group cooperation.
The power achieved by the Mafia in the United States was a clear consequence of the specific historical conditions responsible for triggering this type of situation. The names and fringe glamor given to the Mafia went against the patriotic, familial, and liberal ideals that so deeply marked American culture. In contrast, a number of indications suggest that the Mafia has preserved its power and influence among US economic elites.