The Life Of Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 and would grow to lead Italy from 1922 until 1943. Mussolini is known for creating a fascist state by manipulating the people of Italy with his remarkable charisma, his complete control of the media and politcal rivals, terror campaigns, propoganda, as well as totally doing away with the democratic government system that had existed before his leadership. It would be Mussolini’s entry into World War II on the size of Nazi Germany that would make Italy a huge target for attacks. His involvement in the war would eventually lead to the the end of his politcal career as well as his death.

Born in the midsized villaged of Predappio, Benito was born to his father who was a blacksmith and his mother who was a teacher. Mussolini was given the name Benito after a well known Mexican reformist President Benito Juarez. Mussolini would follow in the footsteps of his father and would become a socialist. As a young boy Mussolini was known as a trouble maker and by the age of eight he was forbidden to attend his mothers church and by the age of nine he had been expelled from school after stabbing another student and throwing an object at a teacher. Though he was a trouble maker, Mussolini was a bright student, earning good grades. Oddly enough, in 1901 Mussolini was qualified as a schoolmaster. In 1902 Benito Mussolini fled to Switserland to escape military service. Mussolini was deported after being arrested for vagrancy and sent back to Italy and he remained there when his mother fell ill. He would join a socialist newspaper during this time and would also write a novel.

Mussolini became more involved with politics when a section of syndicalists separated from the Socialists when Italy entered the First World War. Mussolini sided with the group that broke away in 1914 when the war broke out. The group would eventually call themselves the Fasci d’azione rivoluzionaria internazionalista in October of 1914. In November Mussolini would start his own newspaper, the Il Popolo d’Italia. The pro-war groups were very attracted to the paper and the promises that Mussolini made in the paper about his hopes for Italy.

Benito Mussolini would be called for military service, but in 1917 he was wounded and returned home to continue to edit his newspaper. Mussolini would not fare well in the elections of 1919 but he would enter parliament in 1921. The Fasciti would work to form squads of armed war veterans that they called squadritsi whose job it was to terrorize individuals that were anarchists, socialists, and communists or those associated with them. By October of 1922 Mussolini was asked by Vittorio Emanuele III to create a new government which would make him the youngest Premier in Italy at the age of 39. The reason that Emmanuel III chose Mussolini is he was well aware that if he did not choose a government under the Fascist party that Italy would be headed toward civil war.

The Fascist state of Mussolini would be a model and inspiration to Adolf Hitler a decade later. Fascism lived on in Italy under Mussolini because the Italian people were tired of the failing economy, and fear of Soviet influence such as Bolshevism, as well as the fatalism that was abound in Europe postwar.

The general detachment from positivism allowed the Liberals in parliament to support Mussolini. With this support, Mussolini was able to alter the elections so that he was given the powers of a dictator as well as the ablility to censor all things. With the aide of the media, Mussolini built his self made leged of Il Duce, whom he described as a man that never slept and was never right, and would single handedly solve all politic and economic problems. Though Mussolini had much power, there were several attempts on his life during his first several years in power, but all attempts failed.

On June 10, 1940 Mussolini declared war on Britan and France. In October Mussolini ordered an attack on Greece, which resulted in the lost of 1/3 of Albania until Hitler assisted in the attack on Greece. In June of 1941 Mussolini then declared war on the Soviet Union as well as a declaration of war on the United States in December. The Italians were defeated time and time again and this had most people turning against Mussolini. On July 25, 1943 King Vittorio Emanuele III summoned Mussoloni to his palace and notified him that he would no longer have any power. Mussolini was then arrested and kept in isolation in Central Italy.

Mussolini would be rescued by a Nazi General just days after his arrest, and would subsequently set up the Italian Social Republic in Nothern Italy. Mussolini didn’t have all that much power during this time, but he did execute many of the people that had turned against him, including family members such as his son in law. My Rise and Fall would be written during this time, which were the memoirs of Mussolini.

On April 27, 1945 Mussolini and his mistress were captured by Italian communist partisans as they were attempting to flee to Switzerland. On April 29, 1945 both Mussolini and his mistress were executed. There had not been a plan to execute his mistress, but she refused to let go of Benito Mussolini. The bodies of Mussolini and his mistress were hung from the feet in Milan to prove to the people that Benito Mussolini truly was dead. The display of the body of Il Duce also was an attempt to disuade other fascists to continue the fight or commit acts of revenge.