thumb|right|Mussolini (â manu manca) cu [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler ntô 1940 ]]
'''Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini''' (Hitler duranti la secunna guerra munniali sinnau la fini dô sò riggimi.

==Biografìa==

Accuminzau la sò carrera di pulìticu comu  sucialista, ma quannu vosi ca l'Italia pigghiassi parti â Prima guerra munniali appi a lassari lu partitu pi forza. Mussolini criau l'idialuggìa dû fascismu chi è nàutra forma di tutalitarianismu, chi signìfica ca lu statu cuntrolla tutti l'affari dâ sucitati. 

Nta lu uttùviru dû 1922, accumpagnatu dî soi camisi niuri, fici la sò cèlibbri ''marcia su Roma''.  Lu re Vittorio Emanuele III lu ammitau a furmari nu cuvernu e lu fici primu ministru.  Mussolini custituìu un cabinettu di larga cualizzioni e tanti spiraru ca era na ndicazzioni dâ nurmalizzazzioni d'affari dû cuvernu.

Ma Mussolini nun ntinnìu mai a riturnari ôn prucessu dimucràticu e anzi appi lu sonnu di ricriari nu Mperu rumanu mudernu. N'attribbutu dû Fascismu (e puru dû Nazismu) è lu cchiù granni militarismu.  Ntô 1923, attaccau l'ìsula di Corfù. Ntô 1935, attaccau lu paisi africanu di Abyssinia (chiamatu ora Etiopia), chi fu occupatu ntô  1936. Pi chissu l'Italia fu jittata fora dâ Liga di Nazzioni. Ntô 1939, occupau puru l'Albanìa.

Ntô partisani abbicinu Milanu.

Mussolini, Benito
Mussolini, Benito

eml:Benito Mussolini

{{Infobox President
| name          = Benito Mussolini
| Height        = 5' 6½" (1.69 m)
| nationality   = Italian
| image         = Mussolini young.jpg
| order         = 40th <br> Prime Minister of Italy
| monarch       = Victor Emmanuel III
| term_start    = October 31 1922
| term_end      = July 25 1943 
| predecessor   = Luigi Facta
| successor     = Pietro Badoglio ''(Provisional Military Government)''
| birth_date    = 
| birth_place   = Italy
| death_date    = 
| death_place   = Italy
| party         = Republican Fascist Party<br>(1943-1945)<br>National Fascist Party<br>(1921-1943)<br>Italian Socialist Party<br>(1901-1914)
| spouse        = Rachele Mussolini
| profession    = Politician, Journalist
| religion      = Converted to Roman Catholicism in 1927, irreligious in earlier life.
| order2        = Duce of the Italian Social Republic
| term_start2   = September 23, 1943
| term_end2     = April 26, 1945
| president     =
| predecessor2  =
| successor2    =
|}}
'''Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini''' (Italian Il Duce'' by 1925.  Mussolini continued on in this role until he was replaced in 1943; for a short period after this until his death Mussolini was the leader of the Italian Social Republic.

Mussolini was among the founders of corporativism, national syndicalism, expansionism, social progress and anti-communism in combination with censorship of subversives and state propaganda. In the years following his creation of the fascist ideology, Mussolini influenced, or achieved admiration from, a wide variety of political figures.<ref></ref>

Among the domestic achievements of Mussolini from the years 1924&ndash;1939 were: his Kingdom of Italy and the Italy's colonies and commercial dependencies.<ref></ref> 

Although he initially favoured siding with Allied invasion. Soon after his incarceration began, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the daring German special forces.

Following his rescue, Mussolini headed the summarily  executed near Lake Como by Communist Italian partisans. His body was taken to Milan where it was hung upside down at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.
== Early life ==
thumb|190px|right|Birthplace of Benito Mussolini, today used as a museum.
Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a humble Mexican reformist President Benito Juárez; while his middle names ''Andrea'' and ''Amilcare'' were from Italian socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani.<ref name="Living History 2">Living History 2; Chapter 2: ''Italy under Fascism'' - ISBN 1-84536-028-1</ref> Benito was the eldest of his parent's three children.  His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed.<ref></ref>

As a young boy, Mussolini would spend time helping his father in his blacksmithing.<ref name="historylearning"></ref> It was likely here that he was exposed to his father's significant political beliefs. Alessandro was a socialist and a republican, but also held some expelled after a series of behaviour related incidents, including throwing stones at the congregation after Mass, stabbing a fellow student in the hand and throwing an inkpot at a teacher.<ref name="historylearning"></ref> After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901.<ref name="Grolier encyclopedia"/><ref name="Living History 2"/> 

===Political journalist and soldier===
In 1902, Mussolini emigrated to deported to Italy and volunteered for military service. Mussolini found a job in February 1908 in the city of irredentist politician and journalist Cesare Battisti, and to agree to write for and edit his newspaper ''Il Popolo'' ("The People") in addition to the work he did for the party. 
thumb|130px|left|Mussolini as an [[allies of World War I|allied soldier, during 1917.]]
In 1915, he had a son with Avanti!'' (''Forward!'').<ref name="Grolier encyclopedia"/><ref name="Living History 2"/> After initially writing on numerous occasions against the war in the socialist paper Avanti, Mussolini relented and he and his class were called up in August of 1915 for active duty.<ref name="kirkpatrick">Mussolini: A Study In Power, Ivone Kirkpatrick, Hawthorne Books, 1964. ISBN 0-837-18400-2</ref> 

Although his military record was unremarkable, it was without blemish and it has been suggested that he may have been prevented from moving further along in the ranks due to his ongoing political agitation in various periodicals.<ref name="kirkpatrick" />
Mussolini's military experience is told in his work ''Diario Di Guerra.'' Overall he totalled about 9 months of active, front-line trench warfare. During this time he contracted paratyphoid fever.<ref name="kirkpatrick" /> His military exploits ended in 1917 when he was wounded accidentally by the explosion of a mortar bomb in his trench. He was left with at least 40 shards of metal in his body<ref name="kirkpatrick" /> He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and resumed his editor-in-chief position at his new paper, ''Il Popolo d'Italia''.

==Creation of Fascism==

By the time Mussolini returned from Allied service in the First World War, he had decided that socialism as a doctrine had largely been a failure, although he still called his paper socialist. In early 1918, Mussolini called for the emergence of a man "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" to revive the Italian nation.<ref name="ww2timeline"></ref> Much later in life Mussolini said he felt by 1919 "Socialism as a doctrine was already dead; it continued to exist only as a grudge".<ref></ref> On March 23, 1919, Mussolini reformed the Milan ''fascio'' as the ''Fasci Italiani di Combattimento'' (Italian Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members.<ref name="ww2timeline"></ref>

thumb|250px|left|Blackshirts and Mussolini 1922
An important factor in fascism gaining support in its earliest stages was the fact that it opposed discrimination based on class war.<ref name="maifestoofstruggle"></ref> Fascism instead supported Roman past. This side of fascism endeared itself to the Russian Revolution, they had greatly feared the prospect of a bloody class war coming to Italy by the hand of the communists and the socialists. Mussolini did not ignore the plight of the working class, however, and he gained their support with stances such as those in ''The Manifesto of the Fascist Struggle'', published in June 1919.<ref name="maifestoofstruggle"></ref> In the manifesto he demanded, amongst other things, creation of a minimum wage, showing the same confidence in labor unions (which prove to be technically and morally worthy) as was given to industry executives or public servants, voting rights for women, and the systemisation of public transport such as railways.<ref name="maifestoofstruggle"></ref>

Mussolini and the fascists managed to be simultaneously communists, socialists and anarchists at parades and demonstrations; all of these factions were also involved in clashes against each other. The government rarely interfered with the blackshirts' actions, due in part to a looming threat and widespread fear of a communist revolution. The Fascisti grew so rapidly that within two years, it transformed itself into the Chamber of Deputies for the first time.<ref name="Living History 2"/>

==March on Rome and early years in power==

The March on Rome was a Italy and ousted King Victor Emmanuel III refused his support to Facta and handed over power to Mussolini. Mussolini was supported by the military, the business class, and the liberal right-wing.

As Popular Party. The Fascists made up a small minority in his original governments.  Mussolini's domestic goal, however, was the eventual establishment of a totalitarian state with himself as supreme leader (''Il Duce'') a message that was articulated by the Fascist newspaper ''Il Popolo'', which was now edited by Mussolini's brother, Arnaldo. To that end, Mussolini obtained dictatorial powers for one year. He favored the complete restoration of state authority, with the integration of the ''Fasci di Combattimento'' into the armed forces (the foundation in January 1923 of the ''Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale'') and the progressive identification of the party with the state. In political and social economy, he passed legislation that favored the wealthy industrial and agrarian classes (privatisations, liberalisations of rent laws and dismantlement of the unions).<ref name="Living History 2"/>

In 1923, Mussolini sent Italian forces to invade Corfu Incident." In the end, the League of Nations proved powerless and Greece was forced to comply with Italian demands.

===Acerbo Law===
In June 1923, the government passed the Acerbo Law, which transformed Italy into a single national constituency. It also granted a two-thirds majority of the seats in Parliament to the party or group of parties which had obtained at least 25 percent of the votes. This law was punctually applied in the elections of April 6, 1924. The "national alliance", consisting of Fascists, most of the old Liberals and others, won 64 percent of the vote largely by means of violence and voter intimidation. These tactics were especially prevalent in the south.

===Squadristi violence===
The assassination of the socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti, who had requested the annulment of the elections because of the irregularities committed, provoked a momentary crisis of the Mussolini government. The murderer, a squadrista named Amerigo Dumini, reported to Mussolini soon after the murder. Mussolini ordered a cover-up, but witnesses saw the car used to transport Matteotti's body parked outside Matteotti's residence, which linked Dumini to the murder. The Matteotti crisis provoked cries for justice against the murder of an outspoken critic of Fascist violence. The government was shocked into paralysis for a few days, and Mussolini later confessed that a few resolute men could have alerted public opinion and started a coup that would have swept fascism away. Dumini was imprisoned for two years. On release he told others that Mussolini was responsible, for which he served further prison time. For the next 15 years, Dumini received an income from Mussolini, the Fascist Party, and other sources. This may have been hush money, for he left a dossier full of incriminating evidence to a Texas lawyer in case of his own death. 

The opposition parties responded weakly or were generally unresponsive. Many of the socialists, liberals and Aventine Secession, hoping to force Victor Emmanuel to dismiss Mussolini. Despite the leadership of communists such as Antonio Gramsci, socialists such as Pietro Nenni and liberals such as Piero Gobetti and Giovanni Amendola, a mass antifascist movement never caught fire. The king, fearful of violence from the Fascist squadristi, kept Mussolini in office. Because of the boycott of Parliament, Mussolini could pass any legislation unopposed. The political violence of the squadristi had worked, for there was no popular demonstration against the murder of Matteotti.  

Within his own party, Mussolini faced doubts and dissension during these critical weeks. The militant members of the party were angry that only a few dozen had been killed and a bloodbath ensued, causing thousands of casualties.

On December 31, 1924, 31 MVSN consuls met with Mussolini and gave him an ultimatum--crush the opposition or they would do so without him.  Fearing a revolt by his own militants, Mussolini decided to drop all trappings of democracy.<ref name="Paxton"></ref> On January 3, 1925, Mussolini made a truculent speech before the Chamber in which he took responsibility for squadristi violence (though he did not mention the assassination of Matteotti).  He also promised a crackdown on dissenters. Before his speech, MVSN detachments beat up the opposition and prevented opposition newspapers from publishing. Mussolini correctly predicted that as soon as public opinion saw him firmly in control the "fence-sitters", the silent majority and the "place-hunters" would all place themselves behind him.  This is considered the onset of Mussolini's dictatorship.  From late 1925 until the mid-1930s, fascism experienced little and isolated opposition, although that which it did was memorable.

While failing to outline a coherent program, Fascism evolved into a new political and economic system that combined corporatist system (the "Third Way"). This was a new system in which the state seized control of the organisation of vital industries. Under the banners of nationalism and state power, Fascism seemed to synthesise the glorious Roman past with a futuristic utopia.

==Building a dictatorship==
right|thumb|220px|Standard of the Prime Minister of Italy under Fascism from 1927 until 1943, effectively Mussolini's personal standard.
===Assassination attempts===
Mussolini's influence in propaganda was such that he had surprisingly little opposition to suppress. Nonetheless, he was "slightly wounded in the nose" when he was shot on Irish woman and sister of anarchist American anarchist Michael Schirru, which ended with Schirru's capture and execution.<ref>[http://www.libcom.org/history/articles/murder-michael-schirru 1931: The murder of Michael Schirru]</ref> Members of TIGR, a Slovene anti-fascist group, plotted to kill Mussolini in Kobarid in 1938, but their attempt was unsuccessful.

===Police state===
At various times after 1922, Mussolini personally took over the ministries of the interior, foreign affairs, colonies, corporations, defense, and public works. Sometimes he held as many as seven departments simultaneously, as well as the premiership. He was also head of the all-powerful Fascist Party and the armed local fascist militia, the MVSN or "Blackshirts," who terrorised incipient resistances in the cities and provinces. He would later form the OVRA, an institutionalised secret police that carried official state support. In this way he succeeded in keeping power in his own hands and preventing the emergence of any rival.

Over the next two years, Mussolini progressively dismantled virtually all constitutional and conventional restraints on his power, thereby building a Italian constitution stated that ministers were only responsible to the sovereign, in practice it had become all but impossible to govern against the express will of Parliament.  The Christmas Eve law ended this practice, and also made Mussolini the only person competent to determine the body's agenda. Local autonomy was abolished, and podestas appointed by the Italian Senate replaced elected mayors and councils.

All other parties were outlawed in 1928, though in practice Italy had been a one-party state since Mussolini's 1925 speech. In the same year, an electoral law abolished parliamentary elections. Instead, the Grand Council of Fascism selected a single list of candidates to be approved by plebiscite.  The Grand Council had been created five years earlier as a party body but was "constitutionalised" and became the highest constitutional authority in the state.  The Grand Council also had the power to recommend Mussolini's removal from office, and was thus theoretically the only check on his power.  However, only Mussolini could summon the Grand Council and determine its agenda.

===Economic policy===
thumb|right|200px| Benito Mussolini visiting [[Alfa Romeo factories. ]]

Mussolini launched several public construction programs and government initiatives throughout Italy to combat economic setbacks or subsidies given to farmers pushed the country further into debt. Mussolini also initiated the "Battle for Land", a policy based on unemployed and allowed for great land owners to control subsidies, other areas in the Battle for Land were not very successful. This program was inconsistent with the Battle for Grain (small plots of land were inappropriately allocated for large-scale wheat production), and the Pontine Marsh was lost during World War II. Fewer than 10,000 peasants resettled on the redistributed land, and peasant poverty remained high. The Battle for Land initiative was abandoned in 1940.

He also combated an economic recession by introducing the "Gold for the Fatherland" initiative, by encouraging the public to voluntarily donate gold jewellery such as necklaces and wedding rings to government officials in exchange for steel wristbands bearing the words "Gold for the Fatherland". Even Rachele Mussolini donated her own wedding ring. The collected gold was then melted down and turned into gold bars, which were then distributed to the national banks.

Mussolini pushed for government control of business: by 1935, Mussolini claimed that three quarters of Italian businesses were under state control. That same year, he issued several edicts to further control the economy, including forcing all banks, businesses, and private citizens to give up all their foreign-issued stocks and bonds to the Bank of Italy. In 1938, he also instituted wage and price controls.<ref>[http://www.mises.org/story/1935 The Vampire Economy: Italy, Germany, and the US], Jeffrey Herbener, Mises Institute, October 13, 2005</ref> He also attempted to turn Italy into a self-sufficient autarky, instituting high barriers on trade with most countries except Germany.

===Government by propaganda===

thumb|right|A [[Fascism|fascist propaganda poster]]

As dictator of Italy, Mussolini's foremost priority was the subjugation of the minds of the Italian people and the use of propaganda to do so; whether at home or abroad, and here his training as a journalist was invaluable. Press, radio, education, films&mdash;all were carefully supervised to create the illusion that fascism was ''the'' doctrine of the twentieth century, replacing liberalism and democracy. 

The principles of this doctrine were laid down in the article on fascism, written by Vatican was signed, the baptised by a Roman Catholic priest in order to take away certain Catholic opposition, who were still very critical of a regime which had taken away papal property and virtually blackmailed the Vatican. However, Mussolini was never known to be a practicing Catholic, and was privately very hostile to the church. Since 1927, and more even after 1929, Mussolini, with his anti-Communist doctrines, convinced many Catholics to actively support him. In the encyclical ''Non abbiamo bisogno'', Pope Pius XI attacked the Fascist regime for its policy against the Catholic Action and certain tendencies to overrule Catholic education morals. 

The law codes of the "corporative" system. The aim (never completely achieved), inspired by medieval guilds, was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or "corporations", all of which were under clandestine governmental control. 

Large sums of money were spent on highly visible public works, and on international prestige projects such as the ''SS Rex'' Blue Riband ocean liner and aeronautical achievements such as the world's fastest seaplane the Macchi M.C.72 and the transatlantic flying boat cruise of Italo Balbo, who was greeted with much fanfare in the United States when he landed in Chicago.

===Foreign policy===

In pacifist anti-puppet regime in Mediterranean ''mare nostrum'' ("our sea" in Latin), and he established a large naval base on the Greek island of Leros to enforce a strategic hold on the eastern Mediterranean. 
However, his first 'baby steps' into foreign policy seemed to portray him as a 'statesman', for he participated in the Locarno Treaties of 1925 and the attempted Four Power Pact of 1933 was Mussolini's brainchild. Following the Stresa Front against Germany in 1935, however, Mussolini's policy took a dramatic turning point and revealed itself once again to be that of an aggressive nature. This domino-effect of war began with the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

===Conquest of Ethiopia===

right|thumb|200px|''Il Duce'' standing on top of a tank
In an effort to realise an Ethiopia with an invasion that was carried out rapidly. Italy's forces were far superior to the Abyssinian forces, especially in regards to air power and were soon declared victors. Emperor Haile Selassie was forced to flee the country, with Italy entering the capital Addis Ababa to proclaim an Empire by May 1936, making Ethiopia part of Italian East Africa.<ref name="Red"></ref> 

Despite the fact that all of the major European powers of the time had also colonised parts of Africa, including some who maintained power by particularly brutal means such as the French<ref></ref> and British,<ref></ref> detractors of Mussolini commonly choose to single out Italy's actions. Retroactively, Italy was criticised for its use of mustard gas and phosgene against its enemies and also for its zero tolerance approach to enemy guerrillas, allegedly authorised by Mussolini.<ref name="Red"></ref> 

When East African Campaign's conclusion in 1941 that Italy lost its East African territories, after taking on a fourteen nation allied force.

===Spanish Civil War===

His active intervention in 1936–1939 on the side of Franco in the Britain. As a result, his relationship with Adolf Hitler became closer, and he chose to accept the German annexation of Austria in 1938 and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in 1939. At the Munich Conference in September 1938, he posed as a moderate working for European peace, helping Nazi Germany seize control of the Sudetenland. His "axis" with Germany was confirmed when he made the "Pact of Steel" with Hitler in May 1939, as the previous "Rome-Berlin Axis" of 1936 had been unofficial. Members of TIGR, a Slovene anti-fascist group, plotted to kill Mussolini in Kobarid in 1938, but their attempt was unsuccessful.

==Axis power==
===Rome-Berlin relations===

The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious one early on. While Hitler cited Mussolini as an influence, Mussolini had gone as far as deriding Hitler as "a Italianise" the parts of the Italian Empire he had desired to build.<ref name="cultural"></ref> A cultural superiority, rather than a view of racialism, was the basis of Mussolini's fascism.<ref name="cultural"></ref> The difference was that a culture can be learned, while a race cannot.

</ref>}}