Benito Mussolini

Term Paper Title	Benito Mussolini
# of Words	467
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	1.87

Benito Mussolini

     Benito Mussolini was the founder of  Italian Fascism and premier of
Italy ruling as a dictator from about 1925 until his dismissal in 1943.
Mussolini was born to a socialist blacksmith.  As a child he was unruly and
undisciplined.  He shared his fathers views picking up other ideas from authors
of the time.  Mussolini became a schoolteacher and journalist.  He spent several
years in Switzerland and took Rachele Guidi as is wife, they had five children.
     In 1913 Mussolini became editor of the Milan Socialist newspaper Avanti!
When World War 1 began in 1914 he first opposed Italy's involvement, until he
changed his mind, saying that Italy should take a stand with the Allies.  This
got him expelled from the socialist party.  He soon founded his own paper, Il
popolo d'italia, which became the backbone of his Fascist movement.  He then
served in the Army until he was wounded in 1917.
     In 1919 Mussolini and some other war veterans founded a nationalistic
revolutionary group called the Fasci di Combattimento. His movement turned into
powerful radicalism, obtaining support from landowners in the Po valley,
industrialists, and many army officers.  Fascist blackshirt squads carried on
civil war with Socialists, Communists, Catholics, and Liberals.
     In October 1922 Mussolini  secured permission from King Victor Emmanuel
lll to form a coalition government.  In 1925-26, after a lengthy crisis with the
parliament following the killing of the Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti, he
imposed a Totalari...

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