BENITO MUSSOLINI: BIOGRAPHY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Benito Mussolini was one of the key figures in European history in the first half of the 20th century. Born in 1883 in Dovia di Predappio, Italy, he became dictator of his country after the so-called Fascist Revolution of 1922. Known by the nickname Il Duce, Mussolini began his political career in the Italian Socialist Party.

However, his position changed until he ended up embracing the fascist ideology and founding the movement that brought him to power. In his first years of public life, he stood out for his work as a journalist. He wrote for publications with a socialist tendency and took advantage of the platform offered by the media to acquire more and more influence.

Benito Mussolini at the March on Rome

The turning point in his career occurred with World War I. He was against the position held by the Socialists - who demanded neutrality - and supported Italian participation in the conflict on the side of the Entente. After the war he declared himself disappointed by the few concessions made to Italy by the victors.

In this context, Mussolini founded in 1919 the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, a precedent agitation group of the National Fascist Party. Already in government, Mussolini allied himself with Hitler in World War II. The impending defeat triggered events that included the death of the dictator and his wife at the hands of the partisans.

Early years

The full name of the future Duce was Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini. He came into the world on July 29, 1883, in Dovia di Predappio.

His father, a humble blacksmith, was one of the members of the Socialist Party in his place of birth and he wanted to pay a triple tribute when deciding the name of his son: Benito, after the Mexican leader Benito Juárez; Amilcare, by Amilcare Cipriani, an Italian patriot; and Andrea, for Costa, who was the first socialist elected in Italy as a deputy.

Until 1891, he made his first studies in the area where he lived. They say that, as a child, he worried his parents about his silence, since he did not start talking until very late. He also showed a certain violent character that, in fact, led him to be expelled from the Salesian school in Faenza for beating a colleague.

Later he continued his training at the Giosuè Carducci school in Forlimpopoli. There he obtained his lower technician license in 1898. Another violent incident with a classmate forced him to have to do the next educational stage as an external student.

Entry into politics

His first steps in politics were in Italian socialism. His father influenced him to join the party in 1900, even while he was finishing high school. When he obtained the corresponding title, his mother, a teacher, secured him a position as a substitute teacher.

In 1902 Mussolini went to Switzerland to avoid having to perform military service. In the Swiss country he joined a workers' union and came into contact with socialist circles. Likewise, he began to collaborate in the publication L'Avvenire del lavoratore.

His stay in Switzerland was not easy. On two occasions he was expelled, both for his political activities in favor of the Socialists. Similarly, he was in jail for a week, accused of falsifying his residence permit.

During his years in Switzerland he published articles in various local newspapers. In his writings his approach to so-called revolutionary syndicalism and revolutionary socialism began to be seen.

He also took the opportunity to finish his education. She entered the University of Lausanne, where she studied Social Sciences.

Return to italy

Mussolini returned to his country in November 1904. Upon arrival he had to carry out his postponed military service, otherwise he would have been forced into exile again.

When that period ended, he regained his old job as a teacher, this time in a town near Venice. Likewise, he returned to writing in various written media, all from the socialist sphere. He also stood out for delivering fiery speeches, in which the anticlerical and revolutionary content prevailed.

The Socialists of Trento, who at that time belonged to Austria, offered him to direct a weekly that was published in the region. From its pages, Mussolini defended the belonging of the Italy zone, which earned him being expelled by the Austrian authorities.

First steps towards radicalization

His next destination was Forli, the place where he began to live with Rachele Guidi, although he did not get married. Historians point out that, in the articles that he continued to publish, he began to see his change towards positions of what would later become fascism.

Italy's occupation of Libya led to Mussolini's first involvement in violence. The politician was against this conflict and tried to form a group to attack the railway and thus prevent the troops from moving. For that attempt he was arrested and was in prison until March 1912.

Ideologically, Mussolini was becoming radicalized. He began to attack the more moderate socialists, whom he managed to expel from the party. He was appointed director of the party's official newspaper, Avanti!, and moved to live in Milan. There he became one of the organizers of Red Week, a general strike that lasted for a week.

World War I and abandonment of socialism

The First World War broke out in late June 1914. As the Socialist International had established, the Italian Socialist Party called for neutrality in the conflict. At first Mussolini agreed with that position, but would soon change his mind.

In October one of his articles was clearly in favor of the Entente and advocated "active neutrality."

The party reacted by removing him from the leadership of Avanti!, but Mussolini continued to publish in other newspapers with a position increasingly in favor of Italian participation in the war. In the end, his opinions cost him to be expelled from the Socialist Party.

Fascism

Mussolini actively participated in the war. In fact, certain documents recently found suggest that he acted as a spy on behalf of the British.

When the conflict ended, the future dictator began campaigning for veterans to receive financial benefits. Likewise, he was very disappointed by the lack of recognition that the Entente had towards Italy after the Treaty of Versailles.

Politically, Mussolini had become a radical opponent of left-wing parties, both communist and socialist. In March 1919 he began to coordinate several nationalist groups, until then very poorly organized. The symbol of these small groups was the bundle of rods (fasces in Italian), which gave the movement its name.

Thus, he founded the Fasci di Combattimento ("Combat Fascios") and ran for election for this fascist movement in general elections. However, the electoral result was very poor.

Despite this, the country was very convulsed. Many workers' demonstrations were called and Mussolini took the opportunity to send his supporters to beat their leaders, violently suppressing the demonstrations. This earned him the support of the landowners and the middle classes of owners.

Entry into Congress

The next elections, held in April 1921, were better for Mussolini. On that occasion he and other members of his party managed to enter Parliament.

In September of that same year he changed the name of his organization, creating the National Fascist Party; In just two months, the new party reached 250,000 members. The next step was to organize fascist squads, called by their uniform “black shirts”, which began to carry out numerous violent actions.

From there, Benito Mussolini began to receive the name of Duce, the leader of the movement.

Take power

Black shirts were gaining more and more prominence in Italian public life. They were responsible for innumerable violent acts, especially against socialists and communists.

In October 1922 Mussolini struck the final blow. He ordered the militants of his party to begin to occupy the most important cities in Italy.

Little by little, in a very violent way, they managed to get the rulers of those towns to resign from their positions. Within days, unopposed by the army and the police, they controlled northern Italy.

The march on Rome

The last target was the capital, Rome. Once the most important cities of the country were controlled, Mussolini organized three columns of 26,000 men to occupy Rome. On October 28, 1922, without any opposition from the security forces, they achieved their purpose.

On the 30th the future dictator arrived, who was received by King Victor Emmanuel III. Given the circumstances, the monarch offered to take charge of the government. At just 39 years old, Mussolini became Italy's youngest prime minister.

Government organization

Mussolini himself also held the ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs. Parliament was against him, but he had the support of the monarchy, the army and a good part of the population.

Thus, he got the deputies to give him special powers and proceeded to arrest the communist leaders.

Two years later, in April 1924, the new elections were held. With everything in favor and with complaints of intimidation, the Fascist Party achieved 260 deputies out of 535. The opposition protested, as even one deputy was assassinated by the fascists.

From then on, Mussolini dedicated himself to persecuting, first the Socialists, and then members of other parties. Likewise, it banned all unions except the fascists, and strikes were declared illegal. In November 1926 the situation was, de facto, a dictatorship.

To broaden its support, it approached the Church, the most important organization in the country. He signed the Lateran Accords, by which the Pope formally recognized Rome as the capital of Italy; in return, the pontiff received Vatican City.

In October, Mussolini decided to do away with any democratic makeup and dissolved Parliament.

The 30s

The Great Depression of 1929 affected Italy like the rest of Europe. From 1929 Mussolini began to change the economic structures following the ideological postulates of fascism. Thus, he created what was called the corporate state, which, according to himself, was going to surpass capitalism and communism.

In 1934 he had his first meeting with Hitler, with whom at first he did not seem to get along very well. Other actions in his foreign policy showed the imperialist vocation of his government. At the end of that year he declared war on Ethiopia, achieving the conquest of the country.

Another conflict in which he got involved, in this case due to ideology, was in the Spanish Civil War. Italy supported Franco in his uprising against the republican government.

His performance was an approach to Hitler, who also collaborated with the Spanish rebels. Little by little an axis between Rome and Berlin was created, which would last for a decade.

Approach to Germany

It was then that he enacted the first markedly racist laws. These were against Somali and Ethiopian blacks, as well as Libyan Arabs. All three countries were under Italian rule.

Mussolini immediately recognized the situation created after the German invasion of Austria. He participated in meetings held on the Sudetenland, a Czechoslovak region that Germany claimed for itself. The English and French accepted the German position, hoping to avoid war.

As Hitler was doing, the Duce began to persecute Jewish citizens, and in 1939 invaded Albania. Finally, on May 22, he signed a pact with Germany, uniting the destinies of both countries.

Second World War

The German invasion of Poland marked the beginning of the Second World War. Mussolini was slow to enter the war, although he still considered himself an ally of Hitler.

Months later, on June 10, 1940, with Germany already in the power of half of Europe, Italy entered the conflict. The Italian king appointed Mussolini supreme commander of the armies. His first move was to try to invade North Africa, under French and English control; likewise, he launched his troops to conquer Greece.

However, the Greeks managed to stop the Italians, as did the Egyptians. They generally achieved few victories, except in some areas of East Africa. Hitler had to send troops to help the Italians, who annexed Dalmatia.

Towards defeat

In 1941 the situation began to go wrong for Mussolini. The English conquered Ethiopia and Italian casualties were piling up. Despite this, the Duce decided to help Hitler with troops in his attempt to invade the USSR.

The failure of that attempt caused Eastern Europe to begin to rebel. In Albania and Yugoslavia the first guerrilla resistance movements appeared.

Mussolini still had time to declare war on the United States along with Germany. However, by the end of 1942 the war was practically lost.

In April 1943, after suffering several Allied bombings, the Italian people began to react. In Milan a general strike began, and that same month the troops of the north of the country surrendered. At the same time, the Allies landed in Sicily.

Dismissal

Rome was bombarded by Allied planes in June 1943. Mussolini had lost the support of a large part of the population and the army was demoralized. Given this, the Great Fascist Council decided to remove the Duce from his functions.

On July 25, the king made the decision effective and Mussolini was arrested and imprisoned. Finally, he was transferred to the Gran Sasso.

Italian Social Republic

Italy had surrendered to the allies, but the country became in the hands of the German troops present there. A German commando released Mussolini from his prison on September 16 and he immediately moved to Munich.

From the German city he gave a speech to the Italians, stating that he had been betrayed by the king and his former companions. Likewise, he proclaimed the creation of the Italian Social Republic under his command. The capital of this new entity was established in Saló, at the foot of the Alps, far from Rome.

In October, a special court created in Saló declared traitors to the fascist rulers who had collaborated with the fall of Mussolini and they were sentenced to death.

However, in Italy a strong guerrilla movement had been created that did not give respite to the supporters of Mussolini. The reprisals taken by him were useless and the attacks and strikes were continuous.

What ended up condemning the Republic of Saló was the allied invasion from the south. The Allies arrived in Rome in June 1944, and on July 20 Mussolini and Hitler held their last meeting.

Death

With everything lost, Mussolini considered surrendering. He thus tried to use the Church as a mediator, but the surrender of the Germans who remained in Italy ruined his plans.

As soon as he learned of that surrender, he apparently tried to flee to Switzerland. In the city of Como he met his lover, Clara Petacci, and in a diversionary maneuver skirted the lake and away from the Swiss border.

On April 27, in Dongo, he was recognized by a group of partisans. He was immediately arrested; the next day the guerrillas carried out an order received from the new authorities and he was shot along with Petacci.

Two days later the bodies were transferred to Milan. An angry mob took them down, hanging them at a gas station.

References

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5. BBC. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Retrieved from bbc.co.uk
6. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Benito Mussolini. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
7. Smith, Steve. Biography of Benito Mussolini. Retrieved from thoughtco.com