MassiveStallion t1_irhgz9i wrote
Reply to comment by khaddy in Did the first crusade impact significantly the war-making capacity of states like england, west and east francia? And did later crusades impose equal burdens, or was the distribution of this burden different for the 2nd and 3rd crusades? by Qazwereira
To be fair the concepts of crime syndicates, crime and mafias are after feudalism.
"The mafia" doesn't really exist without 'the law" and the modern idea of 'the law' doesn't really exist without literacy or policemen.
In a time before laws were written, before police existed, an entity like mafia would essentially be the police. Who else was there? You'd have a nobles guards but those are more of a simple military force than people who investigate theft, murder or whatever.
The idea of a serial killer doesn't even exist until the 1910s because frankly no one actually cared or bothered to keep track of murders.
khaddy t1_irhltyo wrote
I meant mafia / organized crime as a group of (mostly men) who would use their strength, numbers, and organization (in the form of attacks on other people trying to live peacefully)... And furthermore that their growing power gave them confidence to increase their activities until they controlled a local area. Whether the "good" powers around them are a King, or a local government, the villagers nearby live by the rules that king or govt established, until the "mafia" gained enough power to undermine those rules and terrorize the people. Only those people who do what the mafia wants are left alone (pay protection money, or give up their harvest and women), others get attacked.
I suppose it's a stretch and I'm playing with words here but at its core, might makes right, and struggles for power are as old as time itself, and when the violent bands got big enough to undermine society, something had to be done with them.
MassiveStallion t1_irhotvi wrote
Yeah. The idea of a crime syndicate can only realistically exist in an area of laws.
If it's just kind of a no man's land like France was back then, it really is just kings and kingdoms.
Your traditional godfather style mafia family is a feudal power structure in of itself, with the Don at the top, sons as heirs and the Commission being like embassies of different kingdoms.
What makes them a mafia or criminals is that they exist inside of an existing nation with laws that outlaw them.
This is a time when 'crime' in the way we think of it honestly wasn't even a thing.
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