Another Benito Mussolini Essay, Research Paper

Benito Mussolini was born in Predappio on July

29, 1883, the son of a socialist blacksmith.

Largely self-educated, he became a schoolteacher

and socialist journalist in northern Italy. In 1910

he married Rachele Guidi, who bore him five

children. Mussolini was jailed for his opposition to

Italy’s war in Libya. Soon after that, he was

named editor of Avanti!, the Socialist Party

newspaper in Milan. When World War I began, in

1914, Mussolini first denounced it as ‘imperialist,"

but he soon reversed himself and called for Italy’s

entry on the Allied side. Expelled from the

Socialist Party, he started his own newspaper in

Milan, // Popolo d?ltalia, which translates ?The

People of Italy?, which later became the organ of

the Fascist movement.

When Fascists marched on Rome, King Victor

Emmanuel III invited Mussolini to form a coalition

government on October 28, 1922. By 1926 the

Fascist leader had transformed the country into a

single-party, totalitarian regime. In his new

"corporative state," employers and workers were

organized into party-controlled groups representing

different sectors of the economy. The system

preserved capitalism and expanded social services,

but abolished free trade unions and the right to

strike. The Lateran pacts with the Vatican ended a

half-century of friction between church and state

and proved to be long lasting. Another enduring

legacy of fascism was a system of industrial

holding companies financed by the state.

Adopting an aggressive foreign policy, Mussolini

defied the League of Nations and conquered

Ethiopia in 1936. This won him acclaim in almost

every sector of the populace. II Duce’s popularity

declined, however, after he sent troops to help

General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil

War, this linked Italy to Nazi Germany, enacted

anti-Jewish laws, and invaded Albania.

Because of military unpreparedness, Mussolini did

not enter World War II until June 1940, when the

Germans had overrun France. Italy fought the

British in Africa, invaded Greece, and joined the

Germans in carving up Yugoslavia, attacking the

Soviet Union, and declaring war on the United

States. After Italy’s many military defeats, King

Victor Emmanuel dismissed Mussolini on July 25,

1943, and in September obtained an armistice with

the Allies, who had invaded southern Italy. At the

same time, the Germans rescued the sickly

Mussolini and made him organize a brutal puppet

Social Republic in northern Italy. In the final days

of the war Mussolini attempted an escape to

Switzerland with his mistress Clara Petacci. Italian

partisans captured and shot them on April 28,

1945, at Giulino di Mezzegra near Lake Como. In

view of their country’s wartime disasters, few

Italians regretted the overthrow of the Fascist

regime and the death of its demagogic Duce.