The Rise of Benito Mussolini i'm the artistic director! "War is to man what motherhood is to a woman" - Benito Mussolini

Early Life Benito Mussolini was born at Dovia di Predappio, Italy, on July 29, 1883. It was a small town in the Emilia-Romagnia region  and the family was rather poor. Raised in a Catholic household. His father was an active socialist. Named Benito after Mexican Socialist President Benito Pablo Juárez García.  His two middle names, Amilcare and Andrea, came from Italian socialists Amilcare Cipriani and Andrea Costa. Before being involved in politics, Mussolini was a newspaper editor (where he learned all his propaganda skills) and elementary school teacher.   

The Mussolinis The Mussolinis were a poor family who lived in a crowded two-bedroom apartment. His father was a blacksmith and a follower of socialism (a system providing for the sharing of land and goods equally among all people); his mother taught elementary school. Benito, although intelligent, was violent and had a large ego.

Expelled from boarding school for violent behavior (throwing rocks at monks and a wee bit o' stabbing). He was a poor student at school and learned very little. As a student at a boarding school in Faenza, Italy, Mussolini stabbed another student, and as a result he was expelled. After receiving his diploma in 1901 he briefly taught secondary school. He went to Switzerland in 1902 to avoid military service, where he associated with other socialists. Mussolini returned to Italy in 1904, spent time in the military, and engaged in politics full time thereafter.

Mussolini had a penchant for violence even as a youth Mussolini had a penchant for violence even as a youth.Important for violence as a method of consoliaftion of power At age 10 he was expelled from a religious boarding school for stabbing a classmate in the hand, and another stabbing incident took place at his next school. He also admitted to knifing a girlfriend in the arm. Meanwhile, he purportedly pinched people at church to make them cry, led gangs of boys on raids of local farmsteads and eventually became adept at duelling with swords. When the New York Times reported on Mussolini’s May 1922 duel against a rival newspaper editor, it mentioned that he bore over 100 wounds received in battle

Socialism to Fascism While living in Switzerland from 1902 to 1904, he cultivated an intellectual image and wrote for socialist periodicals such as L’Avvenire del Lavoratore (The Worker’s Future). He then served in the Italian army for nearly two years before resuming his career as a teacher and journalist. In his articles and speeches, Mussolini preached violent revolution, praised famed communist thinker Karl Marx and criticized patriotism. In 1912 he became editor of Avanti! (Forward!), the official daily newspaper of Italy’s Socialist Party. But he was expelled from the party two years later over his support for World War I. By 1919 a radically changed Mussolini had founded the fascist movement, which would later become the Fascist Party.

Mussolini was anti-Church before becoming pro-Church. As a socialist youth, Mussolini declared himself an atheist and railed against the Catholic Church, going so far as to say that only idiots believed Bible stories and that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were lovers. He even authored an anti-clerical pulp novel.

Church But after taking power, Il Duce began working to patch up that relationship. He outlawed freemasonry, exempted the clergy from taxation, cracked down on artificial contraception, campaigned for an increased birth rate, raised penalties for abortion, restricted nightlife, regulated women’s clothing and banned homosexual acts among adult men.

Church Despite having many mistresses himself, he also put in place harsh punishments for adultery. In 1929 Mussolini signed an agreement with the Vatican under which the Church received authority over marriage and was compensated for property that had been seized decades earlier. Pope Pius XI afterwards referred to Mussolini as the “man whom providence has sent us.” Nonetheless, tensions between the two eventually resurfaced over such things as Mussolini’s racial laws, where were similar to those in Nazi Germany.

Ideology Mussolini was initially a member of Italy's socialist party. However, he was thrown out because of his view that Italy should join WWI.  He created a new ideology called Fascism out of a combination of much out of Nationalist and Socialist views.    Fascism is a system where one leader has complete power over a nation, with a goal of making it completely independent of other nations. Fascism also states that the goals of the nation being more important than anything else, including citizens. Fascism is thus an example of a totalitarian ideology. "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."  - Benito Mussolini

"War is to man what motherhood is to a woman" - Benito Mussolini Rise to Power In 1922, he took power over Italy by having a large group of his supporters known as "Black Shirts" march on Rome and threaten to take over the government. Kind Vittorio Emanuele III gave in, allowed him to form a government, and made him prime minister. In the following five years, he gained power, and in 1927 created the OVRA (Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism), his personal secret police force. Using the agency to arrest, scare, or murder people against his regime, Mussolini was dictator of Italy by the end of 1927. "War is to man what motherhood is to a woman" - Benito Mussolini

"Peace is absurd: fascism does not believe in it." - Benito Mussolini Reign over Italy Mussolini wanted Italy to become a new Roman Empire.    In 1923, he attacked the island of Corfu, and in 1924, he occupied the city state of Fiume.  In 1935, he attacked the African country Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia). His forces occupied it in 1936.  Italy was thrown out of the League of Nations because of this aggression.   In 1939, he occupied the country Albania. In 1936, Mussolini signed an alliance with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany. "Peace is absurd: fascism does not believe in it." - Benito Mussolini

World War II In 1940, Mussolini sent Italy into the Second World War on the side of the Axis countries. Mussolini attacked Greece, but he failed to conquer it.  In 1943, the Allies landed in Southern Italy. The Fascist party and King Vittorio Emanuel III deposed Mussolini and put him in jail, but he was set free by the Germans, who made him ruler of the Italian Social Republic puppet state.

This man mercilessly slaughtered millions upon millions of people.   This man mercilessly slaughtered millions upon millions of people.

Including that little girl.   Including that little girl.

  Like 5 seconds later.

Seriously. Just look at that face.   Seriously. Just look at that face.

  He's a monster.

Downfall and Death When the war was almost over, Mussolini tried to escape to Switzerland with his mistress, Clara Petacci, but he was captured and shot by partisans.  Mussolini's dead body was hanged upside-down, together with some of Mussolini's helpers, on a pole at a gas station in the village of Mezzegra, which is near the border between Italy and Switzerland.