HISTORY YEAR 9

WHO WAS MUSSOLLINI?

• Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on 29 July 1883 and he
died on 28 April 1945.
• He was one of the most famous Italian politician, a journalist, and
the leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime
Minister from 1922 until he was ousted in 1943.
• Benito Mussolini was born in Italy. His father was a socialist, and he
was named after and raised with strong socialist beliefs.
• He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped democracy
and set up a dictatorship.
• He was known as Il Duce (The Leader).
• Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism.
BIRTHPLACE
• Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the
province of Forlì in Romagna on 29 July 1883.
• During the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed "Duce's town", and
Forlì was "Duce's city".
Birthplace of Benito Mussolini in
Predappio, now used as a museum.
CHILDHOOD
• His father Alessandro Mussolini was a blacksmith and a Socialist,
while his mother Rosa Mussolini was a devout Catholic schoolteacher.
• Benito was the eldest of his parents' three children. His siblings
Arnaldo and Edvige followed.
• They lived in two crowded rooms on the second floor of a small old
palace.
• Mussolini’s father spent much of his time discussing politics in taverns
and most of his money on his mistress, the meals that his three
children ate were often meagre.
TIME IN SCHOOL
• A restless child, Mussolini was disobedient, unruly, and aggressive.
• He was a bully at school and moody at home.
• Because the teachers at the village school could not control him, he
was sent in a boarding school were he stabbed a fellow pupil with a
penknife and attacked another one.
• He was expelled and sent to another school, from which he was also
expelled after assaulting yet another pupil with his penknife.
CAREER
• He was also intelligent, and he passed his final examinations without
difficulty.
• After making good grades in school, Mussolini moved into a career in
teaching. He became an elementary school master in 1901.
• He obtained a teaching diploma and for a time worked as a school
master but soon realized that he was totally unsuited for such work.
• At the age of 19, a short, pale young man with a powerful jaw and
enormous, dark, piercing eyes, he left Italy for Switzerland with a
nickel medallion of Karl Marx in his empty pockets.
• For the next few months, according to his own account, he lived from
day to day, jumping from job to job.
STRANGE MAGNETISM
• Mussolini was gaining a reputation as a young man of strange
magnetism and remarkable rhetorical talents.
• While earning a reputation as a political journalist and public speaker,
he produced propaganda for a trade union, proposing a strike and
advocating violence as a means of enforcing demands.
• He was arrested and imprisoned. When he returned to Italy in 1904,
even the Roman newspapers had started to mention his name.
MILITARY WORK 1905
• Mussolini left Italy to avoid military service, and he relocated to
Switzerland. While there, he studied and became active in the Italian
socialist movement, and he was eventually arrested for spreading
propaganda.
• Upon returning home after his arrest, Mussolini found himself forced
to enlist in the military in Italy.
• He served dutifully for two years.
MUSSOLINI THE AUTHOR 1910
• Mussolini began writing and distributing socialist essays and even a
novel.
• His name and prominence as a socialist grew.
WORLD WAR 1
• When the war broke out, much of Italy supported the war.
• Socialist in Italy did not support war, but Mussolini took a stand for it,
though it was for his own selfish purposes.
THE MARCH ON ROME 1922
• After years of seeking support and raising funds, Mussolini and his
followers stormed the Prime Minister in Rome.
• They took over power from the king and began setting up a new form
of government.
THE START OF A NEW GOVERNMENT 1923
• Mussolini had much of the nation's support in the beginning.
• He passed laws and made changes that pleased nationalists, liberals,
and others, causing the people to place more trust in him.
SMALL CHANGES TOWARD DICTATORSHIP 1925
• Not everyone loved Mussolini, and a few on the opposing side tried
proving he had been dishonest in his political dealings.
• Mussolini came clean, admitting not all of his dealings had been
democratic.
A POLICE STATE 1927
• Over a period of 2-3 years, Mussolini slowly changed laws, giving
himself more and more power.
• By 1927 he had power to do whatever he pleased, making the nation
into a police state.
GAINING CONTROL OF THE BUSINESS SECTOR 1935
• By changing laws over time, Mussolini was able to gain control of many
of the Italian businesses.
• He claimed to control over two-thirds of the businesses in Italy by
1935.
WORLD WAR II 1940
• Mussolini had been strongly influenced by Hitler over the years, and
when World War II broke out, Mussolini sided with Germany.
• The Allied powers of Britain and later America would soon come after
Mussolini.
MUSSOLINI’S CAPTURE AND DEATH 1945
• Italians grew steadily unhappier with Mussolini's rule until they
finally fired him from his rule as supreme leader in 1942.
• He was captured by Allied powers in 1943, but escaped, and in 1945
he was captured once again where he was shot and killed.