![]() ![]() Under the reunified Kingdom of Italy, the southern provinces were still desperately poor, and many chose to emigrate in search of prosperity. ![]() Wikimedia Commons Criminal societies like the Camorra imported omertà to the United States, frustrating early attempts to penetrate Italian organized crime. The penalty for violating this rule was, without exception, death. In response, the uomini d’onore, or “men of honor,” adopted a simple, brutal principle: never talk to the authorities, under any circumstances, about criminal activities of any kind or committed by anyone, even mortal enemies. When these institutions were extended to the south, organized clans found themselves facing powerful new rivals. This was the birth of the Mafia and the dawn of the culture that paid tribute to them.Īfter northern and southern Italy merged into a single kingdom in the 1860s, the reborn state built a new court system and police forces. ![]() In the ensuing chaos, bands of brigands began to function as private armies for those who could pay. By the beginning of the 19th century, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was crumbling. More likely, however, is that it was adopted as a natural consequence of early criminal societies’ outlawry. Public Domain As the Mafia grew in the lawless atmosphere of 19th-century Sicily, so too did omertà. ![]()
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