Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as <a href="/facts/Prime_Minister_of_Italy/LRTyxot6">Prime Minister</a>, became the dictator of <a href="/facts/Fascist_Italy/6LEsbKQM">Fascist Italy</a> from the <a href="/facts/March_on_Rome/t0s2bmYK">March on Rome</a> in 1922 until <a href="/facts/Fall_of_the_Fascist_regime_in_Italy/8UJ0JU2z">his overthrow</a> in 1943. He was also <a href="/facts/Duce/EfpFyQAX">Duce</a> of <a href="/facts/Italian_fascism/xkN6bT7a">Italian fascism</a> from the establishment of the <a href="/facts/Italian_Fasces_of_Combat/xKchucVa">Italian Fasces of Combat</a> in 1919, until <a href="/facts/Death_of_Benito_Mussolini/62d7rRhf">his summary execution</a> in 1945. He founded and led the <a href="/facts/National_Fascist_Party/XPehTujF">National Fascist Party</a> (PNF). As a dictator and founder of <a href="/facts/Fascism/EhQWcPsE">fascism</a>, Mussolini inspired the <a href="/facts/List_of_fascist_movements/U5fvE1RB">international spread of fascism</a> during the <a href="/facts/Interwar_period/EWLuS41R">interwar period</a>.
Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and journalist at the <a href="/facts/Avanti!_(newspaper)/V8YQxb9A">Avanti! newspaper</a>. In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the <a href="/facts/Italian_Socialist_Party/c0zcxwU3">Italian Socialist Party</a> (PSI), but was expelled for advocating military intervention in <a href="/facts/World_War_I/vITTUanQ">World War I</a>. In 1914, Mussolini founded a newspaper, <a href="/facts/Il_Popolo_d%2527Italia/jNe04vlk">Il Popolo d'Italia</a>, and served in the <a href="/facts/Royal_Italian_Army/leQ0FTm0">Royal Italian Army</a> until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. He eventually denounced the PSI, his views now centering on <a href="/facts/Italian_nationalism/mWTURY9K">Italian nationalism</a>, and founded the fascist movement which opposed <a href="/facts/Egalitarianism/ggyw0hYI">egalitarianism</a> and <a href="/facts/Class_conflict/HUQIUXTj">class conflict</a>, instead advocating "<a href="/facts/Revolutionary_nationalism/U6BUQrWU">revolutionary nationalism</a>" <a href="/facts/Class_collaboration/qd0hte4P">transcending class lines</a>. In October 1922, following the March on Rome, he was appointed prime minister by <a href="/facts/Victor_Emmanuel_III/swYWoPeV">King Victor Emmanuel III</a>. After removing opposition through his secret police and outlawing <a href="/facts/Labour_strike/aCsc26tR">labour strikes</a>, Mussolini and his followers consolidated power through laws that transformed the nation into a <a href="/facts/One-party_state/bTmHoaGu">one-party dictatorship</a>. Within five years, he established dictatorial authority by legal and illegal means and aspired to create a <a href="/facts/Totalitarianism/Txc6sJvM">totalitarian</a> state. In 1929, he signed the <a href="/facts/Lateran_Treaty/GMN1qXYV">Lateran Treaty</a> to establish <a href="/facts/Vatican_City/JTKnEt6J">Vatican City</a>.
Mussolini's foreign policy was based on the fascist doctrine of <a href="/facts/Spazio_vitale/0jLdB11Y">spazio vitale</a> ('living space'), which aimed to expand Italian possessions and have an Italian sphere of influence in southeastern Europe. In the 1920s, he ordered the <a href="/facts/Pacification_of_Libya/QUQHeHj3">Pacification of Libya</a> and the bombing of Corfu over an <a href="/facts/Corfu_incident/rTHmTbj6">incident with Greece</a>, and his government annexed <a href="/facts/Fiume/6WS5rse2">Fiume</a> after <a href="/facts/Treaty_of_Rome_(1924)/hrNBKL3j">a treaty</a> with <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Yugoslavia/IRNUtvxW">Yugoslavia</a>. In 1936, <a href="/facts/Italian_Ethiopia/2faxBWVX">Ethiopia</a> was conquered following the <a href="/facts/Second_Italo-Ethiopian_War/D1XDMLRT">Second Italo-Ethiopian War</a> and merged into <a href="/facts/Italian_East_Africa/QMMfjSGU">Italian East Africa</a> (AOI) with <a href="/facts/Italian_Eritrea/gbvGE6W6">Eritrea</a> and <a href="/facts/Italian_Somaliland/lYyjaCSv">Somalia</a>. In 1939, Italian forces <a href="/facts/Italian_invasion_of_Albania/t2nG7us8">annexed Albania</a>. Between 1936 and 1939, Mussolini ordered an <a href="/facts/Italian_military_intervention_in_Spain/0YvhzIf8">intervention in Spain</a> in favour of <a href="/facts/Francisco_Franco/uSnuj0gf">Francisco Franco</a>, during the <a href="/facts/Spanish_Civil_War/YykcMvC5">Spanish Civil War</a>. Mussolini took part in the <a href="/facts/Treaty_of_Lausanne/u3edX8Q9">Treaty of Lausanne</a>, <a href="/facts/Four-Power_Pact/H2seYwLj">Four-Power Pact</a> and <a href="/facts/Stresa_Front/BJGB9ksy">Stresa Front</a>. However, he alienated the democratic powers as tensions grew in the <a href="/facts/League_of_Nations/PQlcKzXs">League of Nations</a>, which he left in 1937. Now hostile to France and Britain, Italy formed the <a href="/facts/Axis_alliance/Q3z1D8R9">Axis alliance</a> with <a href="/facts/Nazi_Germany/8kRbqRpo">Nazi Germany</a> and <a href="/facts/Empire_of_Japan/gMpNKg2W">Imperial Japan</a>.
The wars of the 1930s cost Italy enormous resources, leaving it unprepared for the Second World War; Mussolini initially declared Italy's non-belligerence. However, in June 1940, believing Allied defeat imminent, he joined the war on Germany's side, to share the spoils. After the tide turned, and the <a href="/facts/Allied_invasion_of_Sicily/nN55UqQ7">Allied invasion of Sicily</a>, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini as <a href="/facts/Head_of_government/eHYPvGWL">head of government</a> and placed him in custody in July 1943. After the king agreed to an armistice with the Allies, in September 1943, Mussolini was rescued in the <a href="/facts/Gran_Sasso_raid/1xyJETMA">Gran Sasso raid</a> by Germany. <a href="/facts/Adolf_Hitler/3zyXG1L8">Adolf Hitler</a> made Mussolini the figurehead of a puppet state in German-occupied north Italy, the <a href="/facts/Italian_Social_Republic/r7wyfRWh">Italian Social Republic</a>, which served as a <a href="/facts/Collaborationism/KptAjrkH">collaborationist</a> regime of the Germans. With Allied victory imminent, Mussolini and mistress <a href="/facts/Clara_Petacci/4EcSkMmg">Clara Petacci</a> attempted to flee to Switzerland, but were captured by communist partisans and <a href="/facts/Death_of_Benito_Mussolini/62d7rRhf">executed</a> on 28 April 1945.

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Benito Mussolini