From political underground movements to criminal organisations

Thande

Donor
A fairly common trend seen in OTL is for an organisation founded as a political underground movement to gradually metamorphose into a criminal group. I suppose that they start stealing from the (corrupt, despotic, of course!) current regime they are opposed to, purely to fund their subversive operations naturally...and then one day they forget they had any cause to start with and the criminal operations become an end in themselves.

A prominent OTL example: the Chinese Triads are the descendants of the Three Harmonies Society, one of several underground movements in the 18th century dedicated to overthrowing the Qing dynasty and restoring native Han rule.

We're now seeing something similar happening with the IRA and some African acronym-happy rebel groups.

So, what other political underground movements could have taken the same route? How about the Jacobites turning into a Scottish Mafia? If the Nazis had won/stalemated WW2, would the same have happened to the French Resistance?
 

archaeogeek

Banned
The Carbonari were pretty much on the way to getting there before the unification of Italy, so were the Black Hand before the unification of Yugoslavia.
I could see a rather large place of former "Sons of Liberty" types in an "Imperial America" situation where Britain keeps America as an empire.

I think a few factions of the french revolutionaries might have had this potential. I sort of agree; a stronger Jacobite presence in Scotland would likely put them in a similar position to Sicily: the best way I can think of would be a much more centralizing act of union where Scotland becomes "just a bunch of counties" like Wales.

The former state apparatus of the barbary states during colonization would be interesting as the core of a colonial mafia I think. Not quite a terrorist political organization but a civilian political organization losing power. The Mameluks in egypt iirc filled an increasingly similar role until british policies broke a lot of things.
 

maverick

Banned
It'd be interesting to see some of the Maquis in France turn into the IRA or the FARC: indiscriminate bombing, extorting money out of civilians, resorting to drug trafficking and maybe the Unione Corse to fund their activities, keeping rackets.

The SA failing to take off during the 1920s and turning into a protection racket in Bavaria would also be interesting.

A potential Greek resistance to Soviet-Greece might turn into something of a Unione Corse itself.
 
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