Benito Mussolini

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BENITO MUSSOLINI (1883-1945), Fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943. He centralized all power in himself as the leader “Il duce” of the Fascist party and attempted to create an Italian empire, ultimately in alliance with Hitler’s Germany. The defeat of
Italian arms in World War II brought an end to his imperial dream and led to his downfall.

BENITO MUSSOLINI Born in Predappio, near Forli, in Romagna, Northwestern Italy on July 29,1883. His father, Alessandro, was a blacksmith, and his mother, Rosa, was a schoolteacher. Like his father, Benito became a fervent socialist. He qualified as an
elementary schoolmaster in 1901. In 1902 he emigrated to Switzerland where he increased his knowledge of socialism. Unable to find a permanent job there and arrested for vagrancy, he was expelled and returned to Italy to do his military service and then taught
school again and became a local socialist leader. After further trouble with the police, he joined the staff of a newspaper in the Austrian town of Trento in 1908 and worked for a socialist newspaper. At this time he wrote a novel, subsequently translated into English as The Cardinal's Mistress.

SOCIALIST AFFILIATIONS In 1912, Mussolini became editor of the Italian Socialist Party's official newspaper. In this paper, he supported Italian involvement in World War I (1914-1918). Many socialists criticized this position. He then resigned as editor and, in November 1914, founded his own newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, in which he urged Italy
to enter the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. When World War I broke out in 1914, Mussolini agreed with the other Socialists that Italy should not join it. Only a class war was acceptable to him, and he threatened to lead a revolution if the government
decided to fight. But several months later he unexpectedly changed his position on the war, leaving the Socialist party and his editorial chair. Later that month, the Sociali...