Carlo Cafiero was born in Barletta, in the Apulia region of Italy on September 1st, 1846 from a rich and noble family of Southern Italy. His father was Carbonari in 1821, one of his brothers and a brother-in-law were deputies, while Carlo Cafiero was always called the 'black sheep' of the family. In 1864 he went to Naples, where he got a degree in law. He then went to Florence and at the beginning of 1870 he was in Paris. The Paris he went to London, where he matured, renouncing his diplomatic career, his wealth and family, to join the revolution and socialism. In London Cafiero made contacts with Marx and Engels. He joined the International Workingmen's Association and was charged to go back to Italy and conquer it to Marx’s ideology, where instead there was the strong influence of the Anarchism of Mikhail Bakunin and the Republicanism of Giuseppe Mazzini. He restored the ancient section of 'L'Internazionale' in Naples, with the help of the young Errico Malatesta. There, during an assembly, he was imprisoned for the first time. 