Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was born July 29, 1883
near Predappio, Italy. He lived with his
family in a small cottage attached
to the school where his mother taught. His
mother was named Rosa Maltoni. His
father was a blacksmith named Alessandro
Mussolini. He had a brother
named Arnaldo, and a sister named Edvige. As a
child, Benito was very strong
willed, unruly, and violent. He was also mostly a
loner. He actually
preferred reading to playing with other children. His parents
thought he
would do better at a boarding school so, at age 9, he was sent
to
Salesian School. He hated it there and was as violent as ever. He
threw an
inkpot at a teacher and stabbed a child, just to name a couple of
his violent
outbursts. His parents then sent him to Royal Normal School, a
secular school.
He did much better there for it was less strict. He also
made some progress in
his academic skills there. In 1901, he graduated. He
became interested in
politics there so became an apprentice. In 1902,
Mussolini qualified as a
teacher. Later he left Italy for Switzerland to work
odd jobs and become a
political activist. In 1910, he got married to a lady
named Rachele. That same
year they had a child named Edda. In 1911, he got
arrested for protesting the
Libyan war. Also that year he became editor
of the Avanti! newspaper. Three
years later he started his own newspaper
called: Il Popolo d' Italia. Mussolini
had another child named Vittorio and
went off to fight in World War I. It is
said he also had three other
children, but their names and date of birth are
unmentioned. In 1917, he was
wounded in a training exercise so returned home.
Mussolini was the
founder and leader of Italian fascism, an authoritarian
political movement
developed in Italy and other European countries as a reaction
to social
changes brought by World War I and the spread of socialism and
communism.
Then King Victor Emmanuel III offered Mussolini a job as a figurehead
monarch
of Italy. Instead, Mussolini becomes prime minister after the
"March on
Rome," an event staged by the blackshirts, which lead
Mussolini to power.
In 1925, Mussolini took leadership, as dictator, from the
weak coalition
government. He did this by earning trust by building new roads,
houses, and
factories. One of his many boasts was he made Italian trains run on
time. In
1928, the Italian government was completely abolished. People had to
obey "Il
Duce," Mussolini's nickname, meaning "the leader,"
or be put in jail or,
worse yet, be killed. Mussolini formed an alliance with
Hitler in 1937.
Two years later, World War II broke out, and Mussolini signed
the "Pact of
Steel," a military alliance with Hitler. There were three
dictators of World
War II: Mussolini of Italy, Hitler of Germany, and Tojo of
Japan.
Mussolini mainly joined World War II because he was jealous of all the
land
Hitler and Germany were getting. However, Mussolini's old-fashioned army
was
not at all prepared, so it basically unsuccessful in attacking countries.
In
1943, Mussolini was dismissed by King Victor Emmanuel III then
arrested. After
that, King Victor made peace with the Allies. September
twelfth the Germans
rescued him and made him head of a "puppet government,"
or a
government with no power. On April 28, 1945, Mussolini, the great
Italian
dictator, was captured by partisans, shot, and hung in a public
square in Milan,
Italy.