The Rise of
Benito Mussolini
Jared Milfred,
Francesca Frattaroli, Sam Kowash,
Martha Brown
Early Life
• Born in a small town in the Emilia-Romagnia region in 1883.
• Raised in a Catholic household. His father was an active socialist.
• Named Benito after Mexican Socialist President Benito Pablo
Juárez García.
• Expelled from boarding school for violent behavior (throwing rocks
at monks and a wee bit o' stabbing).
• Before being involved in politics, Mussolini was a newspaper
editor (where he learned all his propaganda skills) and elementary
school teacher.
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
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 AntiFascism), 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
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.
Including that little girl.
Like 5 seconds later.
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.