Benito Mussolini
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Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 1883 - 28 April 1945) ruled Italy as a dictator from 1922 to 1943.
[edit] Early life
Benito Mussolini was named after Benito Juarez in Mexican history. Before being involved in politics, Mussolini was a newspaper editor (where he learned all his propaganda skills).
At first Mussolini was a socialist, but when he wanted Italy to join the First World War he was thrown out of the socialist party. He 'invented' a new ideology, fascism. Fascism means a system where the state controls very much. Therefore it is called a totalitarian ideology. In 1922, he let his "black shirts" march on Rome. King Vittorio Emanuele III allowed him to form a government, and made him prime minister.
Mussolini wanted Italy to become a new Roman Empire. In 1923, he attacked the island of Corfu, and in 1924, he occupied the city state of Fiume. In 1935, he attacked the African country Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia). His forces occupied it in 1936. Italy was thrown out of the League of Nations because of this aggression. In 1939, he occupied the country Albania.
In 1936, Mussolini signed an alliance with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany. In 1940, he sent Italy into the Second World War on the side of the Axis countries. Mussolini attacked Greece, but he failed to conquer it. In 1943, the Allies landed in Southern Italy. King Vittorio Emanuel III deposed Mussolini and put him in jail, but he was set free by the Germans, who made him ruler of the Italian Social Republic puppet state. When the war was almost over, Mussolini tried to flee to Switzerland with his mistress, Clara Petacci, but he was captured and shot by partisans. Mussolini's dead body was hanged upside-down, together with some of Mussolini's helpers, in Milan.
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