What is the Mafia? In everyday language it is synonymous with organized crime. However, this has not always been the case and the name was associated with a certain romanticism. The Mafia appeared on the Italian pre-unitary political scene to carry out the work of Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the fathers of the Italian nation. The word Mafia is nothing more than an acronym, a mission order given by the one who was known as the apostle, to the present phalanxes composed of Italian patriots who were fighting against the Austrian occupiers present in the north of Italy or the Spanish in the Kingdom of Naples. This book goes into detail about the origins of the Mafia, too often erroneously associated with Cosa Nostra, the Camorra or the 'Ndrangheta.