Mussolini

Essay by Evan EdbomHigh School, 10th gradeA-, December 1996

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        Benito Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism and premier of Italy ruling as a dictator from about 1925 until his dismissal in 1943. Mussolini was born to a socialist blacksmith. As a child he was unruly and undisciplined. He shared his fathers views picking up other ideas from authors of the time. Mussolini became a schoolteacher and journalist. He spent several years in Switzerland and took Rachele Guidi as is wife, they had five children.

        In 1913 Mussolini became editor of the Milan Socialist newspaper Avanti! When World War 1 began in 1914 he first opposed Italy's involvement, until he changed his mind, saying that Italy should take a stand with the Allies. This got him expelled from the socialist party. He soon founded his own paper, Il popolo d'italia, which became the backbone of his Fascist movement. He then served in the Army until he was wounded in 1917.

        In 1919 Mussolini and some other war veterans founded a nationalistic revolutionary group called the Fasci di Combattimento. His movement turned into powerful radicalism, obtaining support from landowners in the Po valley, industrialists, and many army officers. Fascist blackshirt squads carried on civil war with Socialists, Communists, Catholics, and Liberals.

        In October 1922 Mussolini secured permission from King Victor Emmanuel lll to form a coalition government. In 1925-26, after a lengthy crisis with the parliament following the killing of the Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti, he imposed a Totalarian Dictatorship. His Corperative State came to terms with Italian Capitalism but abolished the free trade unions. In 1929 he ended conflict with the church through the Lateran Treaty of 1929.

        In the 1930's Mussolini turned to an aggressive foreign policy, conquering Ethiopia(1935-36) and helping General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. In 1936 he joined with Hitler's Germany and soon...