Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (Italian: [beˈniːto mussoˈliːni];[1] 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945)

was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime
Minister of Italy from the Fascist coup d'état in 1922 to his deposition in 1943, and Duce ("Leader")
of Italian Fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 to his execution in
1945 during the Italian Civil War. As dictator of Italy and founder of the fascist movement, Mussolini
inspired other totalitarian rulers such as Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, and António de Oliveira
Salazar.[2][3][4][5][6]
Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and a journalist at the Avanti! newspaper. In 1912, he
became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI),[7] but was expelled
from the PSI for advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party's stance on
neutrality. In 1914, Mussolini founded a new journal, Il Popolo d'Italia, and served in the Royal Italian
Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. Mussolini denounced the PSI,
his views now centering on Italian nationalism instead of socialism, and later founded the fascist
movement which came to oppose egalitarianism[8] and class conflict, instead advocating
"revolutionary nationalism" transcending class lines.[9] Following the March on Rome in October
1922, Mussolini became the youngest Italian prime minister up to that time. After removing all
political opposition through his secret police and outlawing labor strikes,[10] Mussolini and his
followers consolidated power through a series of laws that transformed the nation into a one-party
dictatorship. Within five years, Mussolini had established dictatorial authority by both legal and illegal
means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with
the Vatican, ending decades of struggle between the Italian state and the Papacy, and recognized
the independence of Vatican City.
Mussolini's foreign policy aimed to expand the sphere of influence of Italian fascism. In 1923, he
began the "Pacification of Libya" and ordered the bombing of Corfu in retaliation for the murder of an
Italian general. In 1936, Mussolini formed Italian East Africa (AOI) by
merging Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia following the Abyssinian crisis and the Second Italo–Ethiopian
War. In 1939, Italian forces occupied Albania. Between 1936 and 1939, Mussolini ordered the
successful Italian military intervention in Spain in favor of Francisco Franco during the Spanish civil
war. Mussolini's Italy initially tried to avoid the outbreak of a second global war, sending troops at
the Brenner Pass to delay Anschluss and taking part in the Stresa front, the Lytton Report,
the Treaty of Lausanne, the Four-Power Pact and the Munich Agreement. However, Italy then
alienated itself from Britain and France by aligning with Germany and Japan. Germany invaded
Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in declarations of war by France and the UK and the start
of World War II.