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Writer's pictureEmily

The Italian Fascist: Mussolini

The Italian fascist, Benito Mussolini was the dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945. Referred to as "II Duce" (the leader) he is largely known for relying on Hitler to boost his popularity during the Second World War.


Just as any other dictator, he was dangerous. His childhood wasn't a great start for this as he stabbed a fellow student at the age of 10 while he was in boarding school. He was further expelled for his actions. He continued to do it again at the age of 14, but wasn't expelled. Later on, he devoted his life to the Socialist Party in his early manhood years but separated in 1914 to create his own newspaper to explain the unrest he was seeing in his country of Italy.


It wasn't until after the Treaty of Versailles that his anger sparked and he gathered fascist groups among himself to more so protest the rules inflicted upon some European countries. He named his organization Fasci Italiani di Combattimento. The word fascism comes from Mussolini himself, the man who invented it.


(Briticanna.com)

(History.com)

Democracy is a kingless regime infested by many kings who are sometimes more exclusive, tyrannical and destructive than one, even if he be a tyrant.”

As an Italian citizen pressed with numerous charges for his wrongful actions, he was able to successfully rise to power later on. One of his many known actions, that of threatening to invade Rome with his fascist groups to gain control of the government in October of 1922.


The man himself stated that if he was not handed power of the government that the Italians would have no other option but to hand over control and for them to invade! While the government at the time was slow to react, they eventually sent troops to seize the moment. Photo below of him in Rome (Briticanna)



 

It was on the night of January 3, 1925 when Mussolini gave a speech and declared himself the formal dictator of Italy. Below shows a video of the biography of Mr Mussolini by WatchMojo on Youtube:


As soon as Benito Mussolini became the Prime Minister his first act was to gather followers. This was followed by such actions as literally engaging and messing around with the elections of Italy. Surely this did make many suspicious of him, but he won successfully gather the love of the country.


He later allowed such things as his famous newspaper collection of writers to criticize the before government, which also succeeded quite well. Moving along, as many know he was good friends with the Fuhrer of Germany, Adolf Hitler.


Adolf Hitler and Mussolini were iffy of each other at first but later became to realize they were both aiming for the same overall thing, power. So they linked hands and helped each other evolve in the 20th Century. There were a number of other things that also played a role, like the admiration of Anti-Semitic views and others.


Both seemed to help each other whenever needed such as when Mussolini provided over 50,000 troops to Germany in 1935 with the invasion of Ethiopia. Italy even left the League of Nations to stand side by side with Germany! Further relations continued until 1943.


In 1943, the citizens of Italy accepted the fate of their country. They were losing the war and in July, Mussolini was voted out of power. Sadly, Hitler was able to invite himself in and take upon 1 of the 2 Italian nations. Hitler rescued Mussolini and used him to help gather the Italian Jews for his plan, the Final Solution.


Rome, after figuring out that their dictator Benito Mussolini was removed (Briticanna)

 

No one quite knows how the dictator of Italy died, but an autopsy believes it was due to the execution done by a firing squad. "The bodies of both Mussolini and Petacci were hung upside down at the Piazzale Loreto in Milan and displayed for crowds to kick and spit on. One day later, Hitler committed suicide and the following week, Germany surrendered," says History.com


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