| Named after the Mexican revolutionary Benito | | | | protests spread like wildfire. |
| Juarez, Benito Mussolini was born in 1883 in the | | | | Mussolini had begun to lose faith in the Socialist |
| small town of Dovia di Predappio in northern Italy. | | | | doctrine, he began to develop the concept of |
| Much of the man was molded while working the | | | | Fascism, he envisioned a clean sweep, he believed |
| bellows in his father's forge, listening to his | | | | that Italy required a strong leader to take it back |
| anarchist understanding of the world. | | | | to the lofty heights of it's glorious Roman past. He |
| His mother was a devout Catholic and although | | | | formed armed groups of war veterans, to |
| clashing with his father's ideologies, the young | | | | restore order to the chaotic Italian streets, due to |
| Benito was sent to a Catholic boarding school . Far | | | | their uniform, they became known as Blackshirts. |
| from being the model student he was expelled | | | | They clashed with communists, anarchists and |
| for riotous behaviour, he was sent to another | | | | socialists; the authorities left them to it, seeing |
| school where he knuckled down and achieved | | | | them as a prevention against their growing |
| good grades, qualifying as an elementary | | | | concern of a communist revolution. The Fascist |
| schoolmaster. He left Italy in 1902, partly to | | | | movement spread at a massive rate, the fact |
| escape military service and partly to break out of | | | | that it claimed to support a classless system |
| the small town mentality that he found himself | | | | appealed to the masses. Still being viewed as a |
| trapped in. He ended up in Switzerland but it didn't | | | | bulwark against Socialism, the Popolare party |
| go as well as he had hoped, he worked for a | | | | went into coalition with the National Fascist Party |
| while lugging bricks, tired of that and soon found | | | | in the 1921 elections, in which the Fascists |
| himself a vagrant. It was far from an auspicious | | | | managed to secure thirty-five seats. Popolare did |
| entry into the wider world as he begged for coins | | | | not know what they were getting into, the |
| and slept in alleyways. | | | | Fascists were not going to play second fiddle to |
| However, the molding of his mind continued at a | | | | anyone, immediately Mussolini began seeking ways |
| great pace, he gobbled up Nietzsche, Hegel and | | | | to consolidate his power. The moderate coalition |
| Marx; debated with immigrant communists and | | | | was falling apart, Mussolini was the strong arm, |
| investigated the theses of Pareto and Sorel. He | | | | when the Socialists proclaimed a general strike, it |
| was flung out of Switzerland for such political | | | | was he who crushed it, not the government. |
| leanings, he made his way back to Italy by way | | | | Mussolini now wanted to take complete control of |
| of France, volunteering for military service. The | | | | government; he planned a march on Rome, King |
| following two years in military service were | | | | Victor Emmanuel III invited Mussolini to the palace |
| undistinguished, however his mother died and this | | | | to form a new government. Mussolini played it |
| event severed all ties with his family, Mussolini | | | | cool, not revealing his true intention of creating a |
| was on his own. After he completed his military | | | | totalitarian state, he gave only four cabinet seats |
| service, he took up a teaching post, joined the | | | | to the Fascists. The ruse succeeded, the Senate |
| Marxian Socialist movement and began writing for | | | | granted him full power to reform the |
| the socialist newspapers Il Popolo and La Vita | | | | government, he then sneakily passed a law giving |
| Trentina. In 1908 he once again left Italy, he had | | | | the party with the most votes, two-thirds of the |
| been imprisoned for his political activities, and upon | | | | seats in the Senate. Things were going his way, |
| his release he departed for Austria. He replicated | | | | none more so than the Corfu incident in 1923. An |
| his Italian life in Austria, becoming Secretary of | | | | incident occurred in which several Italian citizens |
| the local socialist party and editor of it's | | | | were found dead in Greek territory near Albania. |
| newspapers, once again he fell foul of the | | | | Mussolini demanded an immediate apology and |
| authorities and was deported back to Italy. | | | | fifty million lira in restitution. |
| He located himself in Forli, once again becoming | | | | When the Greeks refused, Mussolini had the Italian |
| Secretary of the socialists and editing their | | | | navy bomb Corfu and landed marines on the |
| weekly publication, he was now one of the most | | | | island, Greece soon acquiesced, turning Mussolini |
| prominent socialists in Italy. In 1911, through a | | | | into a national hero. In the subsequent 1924 |
| combination of incendiary speeches and | | | | election, Mussolini landed two thirds of the vote |
| provocative articles he incited a general strike in | | | | and thus gained him his two-thirds majority in the |
| the city of Forli. Mussolini was imprisoned for a | | | | Senate. In June 1924, an outspoken critic of |
| number of months for leading the disturbance, it | | | | Mussolini, Giacomo Matteotti was kidnapped and |
| was exactly what he wanted, his star was in the | | | | murdered, the blame immediately fell upon |
| ascendant, he was a hero to the socialists. Upon | | | | Mussolini, he later admitted that if the opposition |
| his release he was appointed as editor of the | | | | had moved against him then, fascism would have |
| largest socialist paper, Avanti. | | | | been swept away but they didn't and it wasn't. |
| However his support for Italian involvement in | | | | Mussolini aware that his grip on power was fragile |
| World War I, angered his hitherto adoring fans, he | | | | moved to consolidate it; he censured newspapers, |
| was expelled from the Socialist party and he left | | | | closed down opposition offices and clubs, |
| Avanti, forming his own paper, Il Popolo d'Italia. In | | | | opponents of fascism were rather manically |
| 1915, he enlisted in the ranks, he saw action but | | | | punished in such imaginative ways as being forced |
| he was confined to the trenches, being discharged | | | | to drink castor oil and swallow live toads. |
| for shrapnel wounds which he received when a | | | | Attempts on the life of the burgeoning dictator |
| grenade launcher exploded in his hands. On his | | | | granted him an excuse to introduce further |
| return to civilian life he once again took up the | | | | draconian measures. He stripped the king of all |
| position of editor of Il Popolo d'Italia, writing pieces | | | | power, banned all opposition parties and passed a |
| to stir the nationalism of Italy with a view to | | | | bill granting him the power to issue decrees that |
| winning the war. The war was won but Italy was | | | | would have the full strength of law. |
| crippled, the economy was shattered, strikes and | | | | |