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Benito Mussolini | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 29 July 1883 Predappio, Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 28 April 1945 Giulino, Kingdom of Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Political orientation | Fascism |
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was the fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943.
Early life[edit | edit source]
Mussolini was a member of the Italian Socialist Party until being expelled in 1914 for supporting the First World War. In November 1914, he founded the right-wing newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia. In 1919, Mussolini's Fascists burned down the headquarters of the PSI's newspaper and killed three socialists.[1]
While working as a journalist, Mussolini was recruited by British intelligence (MI5) to assist in suppressing Italy's anti-war movement and maintaining support for the war effort. He received regular financial support from Britain and, between 1917 and 1922, British officials advised, financed, and politically supported his rise, including the establishment of the Fascist movement. The British conservative establishment viewed fascism as a useful anti-socialist force capable of suppressing the growing Italian workers' movement and preventing the spread of revolutionary Marxism following the Russian Revolution.[2]
Rise to power[edit | edit source]
On 28 October 1922, Mussolini and his supporters carried out the March on Rome without resistance from the state or military. The following day, King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Mussolini prime minister.[1] The March on Rome has been heavily mythologized by fascists. In reality, only around 5,000 poorly equipped fascist militants initially answered Mussolini's call, with their numbers growing to roughly 15,000 by the following day. Meanwhile, Mussolini remained in Milan attending an opera, prepared to flee to Switzerland if the coup failed. The Italian army was fully capable of dispersing the fascist squads, and Prime Minister Luigi Facta ordered a state of emergency, but King Vittorio Emanuele III refused to sign it and instead invited Mussolini to form a government.[3]
Rule[edit | edit source]
Following Mussolini's seizure of power, sections of the British political establishment continued to view the Fascist regime favorably because of its anti-communist orientation. In 1927, Winston Churchill praised Mussolini's government for providing, what he called, "the necessary antidote to the Russian poison" and declared that, had he been Italian, he would have supported Mussolini's fight against Leninism.[2]
Mussolini pursued expansionist colonial wars to build a new Roman Empire. His regime conducted brutal colonial wars in Libya and Ethiopia, classifying Africans, Slavs, and Jews as "subhuman" and using the defense of a "pure Italian race" to justify massacres and genocide.[4] Italy, with Nazi Germany's support, launched a second invasion of Ethiopia on 3 October 1935 with roughly 200,000 troops from its colony of Eritrea, conquering Adwa and bringing Ethiopia under fascist rule by 1937. The invasion prompted pan-Africanist solidarity campaigns abroad, including the London-based International African Friends of Abyssinia, also known as International African Friends of Ethiopia (IAFE).[5]
Death[edit | edit source]
On 27 April 1945, Mussolini was captured by partisans near the town of Dongo on Lake Como while attempting to flee to Switzerland. The next day, he was executed, most likely by Walter Audisio, a communist partisan operating under the nom de guerre "Colonel Valerio." His body, along with that of his mistress Clara Petacci and other executed fascists, were taken to Milan and hung upside down from a girder in the Piazzale Loreto, the same square where fascists had publicly displayed the bodies of executed partisans the year before.[6]
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Luca Tavan (2022-10-28). "Lessons from the rise of Mussolini, 100 years on" Red Flag. Archived from the original on 2022-11-03. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mihalis Panayiotakis (2022-10-18). "From Churchill to NATO: How the west built and empowered Italian Fascism" Defend Democracy Press.
- ↑ Peter Schwarz (2022-10-31). "100 years since Mussolini’s March on Rome" World Socialist Web Site.
- ↑ Marianne Arens (2013-02-08). "Former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi praises Mussolini" World Socialist Web Site.
- ↑ "EDITORIAL: Abyssinia’s War and What Comes Next. Marcus Garvey, January, 1937". Black Agenda Report.
- ↑ Christopher Klein (2015-04-28). "Benito Mussolini’s Final Hours" History.