Les Apaches was a Parisian Belle Époque violent criminal underworld subculture of early 20th-century hooligans, night muggers, street gangs and other criminals. After news of their notoriety spread over Europe, the term was used to describe violent street crime in other countries. In fact, the term crystallizes the anxiety aroused by urban youth since the 1880s: aging society sees in it the manifestation of a youth that refuses to work. The phenomenon also implicitly accused the Republic and the working-class world of "leaving young people to their own devices and neglecting education, that pillar of bourgeois culture", thus creating a generation destined to give birth to new criminals.
The Apache appears as an anti-social figure marked by hatred of the "bourgeois", the "cop" and "work", refusing to waste his youth on the factory floor.
Bringing all these realities together under a common banner gave rise to a veritable moral panic, developed by newspapers aware of the soap opera's popularity. Indeed, the Apache motif was used to excess in the press, and probably with exaggeration, particularly by major French dailies. He was assigned to Union Saint-Gilloise at the time. In 1901 the Apaches was the first second division champions, and with their rough play, they gave the honor division team a fright. "Apaches (subculture)".
