Benito Mussolini Free Essays

Mussolini is considered to be the founding Father of Fascism, seizing power by a combination of terror and persuasion. He held Italy firmly in his grasp by crushing his enemies while still promising glory. Mussolini was able to successfully turn Italy into a We will write a custom essay sample on Benito Mussolini or any similar topic only for you Order Now com/world-history-unit-3/"dictatorship under a fascist regime because of the country’s internally divided war-torn society as well as the weak state of Italy’s minority governments which could not unite to oppose fascism and finally because of his ability to appeal to this country through a false sense of security and nationalism. Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born in Predappio on July 29, 1883. Son of a socialist blacksmith, he grew up to be a self-proclaimed â€Å"anti-patriot† like his father (The Columbia Encyclopedia 33087). He hadn’t taken to school and rebelled against most things. He had gotten expelled from his first school, which was a catholic school ran my monks, though he did better in his second. He went on to become a qualified school teacher, even though he wasn’t interested in teaching. Benito Mussolini had a passion for politics. In June 1902, Mussolini went to Switzerland and got involved with some Italian socialists and got a job as a brick layer and joined the trade union. When he had suggested the very revolutionary idea for a general strike, he got expelled from Switzerland in 1903. He then went to an area called Trentino, which was ruled by the Austrians. The authorities soon labeled him as a trouble-maker; he encouraged the trade unions and attacked the Catholic Church. He was then expelled from Trentino in 1909 (Hibbert 4-10). Throughout Mussolini’s life, he had made his rise to power, many accomplishments, and in the end he had made a huge effect on his country. After being wounded in the trenches during World War I, he was sent home because of an injury only to become editor of his own newspaper. It was called Il Popolo d’Italia or The People of Italy. This represented his changing of his pacifist views, he used his paper to spread his new ideas and gain support. Mussolini also organized a pro-war group called Fasci d’Azione Rivoluzionaria. After the war he joined a different group called the Arditi Association, which was a military assembly composed of WWI veterans. Both of the associations contributed to the beginning of fascism. In 1919, Mussolini founded the Fasci de Combattimento, which was the skeletal structure for what was to become the political movement of Fascism. This attracted the attention of the lower-middle class with its nationalistic, anti-liberal ideas (The Columbia Encyclopedia 33087). During the 1920’s the Black Shirt Militia was formed by Mussolini due to his disgust with the corruption of the liberal and later socialist Italian government. Originally, they were reformers but then their methods became harsher and they used violence, intimidation, and murder. One of their typical techniques was to force-feed they’re opponents castor oil, which was often laced with petrol. Another method was to force them to swallow live frogs! Mussolini slowly began to back away from the Arditi Association as his Fascist movement became more powerful. In 1921 he was elected to parliament and the National Fascist party was organized. When his Fascists were sent to march on Rome they were permitted to enter the city and King Victor Emmanuel III called on him to form a cabinet (Lewis 16). This helped him gradually transform the government into a dictatorship. He soon got the official title of head of the government. His ambition to restore greatness found expression in pretentious slogans and speeches in the creation of monumental buildings which helped his encouragement of extreme nationalist groups. The fascist regime turned society into individuals who would just obey and distrust reason as well as understand violence as an essential tool to order. Ideally the country would transform into a totalitarian state; where the government would have total control over the lives of individuals and this would mean that anything is justified if it serves the states ands. Fascism emphasized victory, glorified war, is cruel to the weak, and is irrational and intolerant. Mussolini used the condition of the country to his advantage in his journey to becoming the dictator of Italy. Mussolini actually began his political career as a socialist and then became attracted to fasces, the ancient Roman symbol of the life-and-death power of the state, bundles of the lictor’s rods of chastisement which, when bound together, were stronger then when they were apart – reflecting the intellectual debt that fascism owed to socialism and presaging the symbolism of the renewed Roman imperium Mussolini promised to bring about. Mussolini claimed that it would help strengthen a relatively new nation (which had been united only in the 1860’s in the Risorgimento), although some would say that, like Lenin, he wished for a collapse of society that would bring him to power. Evidently, Mussolini accomplished many things during WW II on the Axis side. He started taking over Italy when he was dubbed Dictator. This was when he first was addressed as Il Duce, which means â€Å"the leader. † Since he had all the power of Italy, he began to take over and make all of the decisions. Mussolini started building roads, kept rivers from over-flowing, increased over production and ran the trains on time. He also extended his control over other countries. He invaded Ethiopia in 1935 and took over Albania in 1939. Not only was Benito Mussolini the leader of Italy, he was also the youngest dictator of Italy. Mussolini’s main role during WW II was being the leader of Italy. As earlier stated, he had tried taking over Ethiopia and seized Albania. Later on, the axis powers took over countries such as: Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Poland, Romania, and many more. Mussolini soon became known as Hitler’s right hand man, and this helped him become very popular. Through his accomplishments, he pushed Hitler to make his own Fascist party. They became known as the Nazis. The axis power created a Rome-Berlin alliance of totalitarianism. As the axis power had every say in what people did, German, Italy, and Japan felt as though they could do anything. Mussolini had been a huge part with the axis powers during WW II (Lewis 15- 16). Once the Allies had occupied the southern part of Italy in 1943, the King had ordered Mussolini to be arrested in order to sign the peace agreement. He had then been imprisoned and then liberated by the Germans, Mussolini lived in northern Italy until his capture by the Italian Monarchy. He was then executed by the monarchy on April 28, 1945 along with his mistress, Claretta Petacci, by military forces of the Italian Resistance. The next day, their corpses and those of Mussolini’s henchmen were hanged in the Piazzale Loreto, Milan, for public view (Antliff 1). Antagonisms between political parties had given rise to a civil war that continued for about three more years. Italians then decided, in 1946, to vote to dissolve the Monarchy. Then in 1948, the first political elections were held. Mussolini’s dictatorship will forever be remembered for bringing on many Mafia and Mani Pulite scandals and for political disillusion among Italian youth which escalated into such terrorist acts as Brigate Rosse and the Moro Affair. The Brigate Rosse was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization that arose out of a student protest movement in the late 1960’s. They had wanted to separate Italy from NATO and promoted violence in the service of class warfare and revolution. The original group concentrated on assassination and kidnapping of Italian Government and private-sector targets. They haven’t conducted an act since 1988, and have been largely inactive since the Italian and France police arrested many of the group’s members. In 1978, the BR had kidnapped Aldo Moro who was the Italian president-to-be. This became known as the Moro Affair. The 50 year period that Mussolini ran as dictator is now labeled as the First Republic which renewed Italian confidence in the democratic process (Lewis 17). The recent appearance of skinhead guards of honour at Mussolini’s tomb had provoked a controversy about how Italians should view their fascist period. Unlike Germany, Italy has never faced up to its role in WW II, preferring to see itself in the role of victim. The national narrative omits the first part of the war, in which Italians fought along side the Germans, and committed crimes in Albania, Greece, and Yugoslavia. Today, a resurgent nationalism has continued to gloss over the more shameful parts of Italian history, while at the same time allowing fascist apologists to exalt Italy’s most notorious 20th leader (Antliff 1). As the great dictator of Italy Benito Mussolini had rose to power by forcing his way to the top. He didn’t let anything stand in his way, even if it meant scamming. He achieved whatever he felt needed to happen, which finally, effected Italy’s history. All in all, Italy unlike the rest of Europe was greatly affected by the first World War and the state that the country was left in made it vulnerable to the extremist view of Mussolini and was easily transformed into a dictatorship and lead into a fateful alliance with Germany. Mussolini and his fascist ideals were able to overthrow Italy and turn it into a dictatorship and lead it into the second World War behind Hitler’s Germany. Mussolini was able to successfully turn Italy into a dictatorship under a fascist regime because of the country’s internally divided war-torn society as well as the weak state of Italy’s minority governments which could not unite to oppose fascism and finally because of his ability to appeal to this country through a false sense of security and nationalism. In my opinion, Mussolini played a negative role in the course of history. He led the Italians into the Second World War and so happened to join the wrong side. Subsequently, the country suffered lasting physical, political, and cultural damage. Their government remains constantly in turmoil. His methods and tactics fostered the rise of the Mafia in Italy. The Mafia and related activities gave the Italians an unfavorable international reputation with crime and trust even today. He fostered distrust of the government by the Italian people, which in itself was not bad, but his chosen methods of accomplishing objectives were proven to be ineffective. His leadership led to the eventual dissolution of the Italian Monarchy, which could have helped stabilize the country had it remained intact much like Britain’s and Sweden’s. His effect on Italy, in many ways, is still being felt today. Works Cited Antliff, Mark. Fascism, Modernism and Modernity. The Art Bulletin, Vol. 84, 2002. Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy. Berkeley: U of California P, 1997. Fermi, Laura. Mussolini. University of Chicago Press, 1966 Hibbert, Christopher. Il Duce: The Life of Benito Mussolini. Little, Brown, 1962. Lewis, Paul H. Latin Fascist Elites: The Mussolini, Franco, and Salazar Regimes. Praeger, 2002. Mussolini, Benito. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2004. How to cite Benito Mussolini, Papers Benito Mussolini Free Essays string(42) " an oath to secure the regime of Fascist\." A fascist leader of Italy form 1922 to 1943, BENITO MUSSOLINI, centralized all of his power as the leader of the powerful fascist party and tried to make an Italian empire in coalition with the German dictator Adolph Hitler. The conquering of the Italian army in WW2 led to the end of his grand dream and the downfall of his empire. He was born in the town of Predappio close to Forli in Romagna in July 29 1883 to a Black smith name Alessandro and a School teacher Rosa. We will write a custom essay sample on Benito Mussolini or any similar topic only for you Order Now Just like his father, Mussolini became a keen socialist. In 1901 he qualified as an elementary schoolmaster. The next year he migrated to Switzerland. There he was having difficulty in finding a stable job and was later arrested because of vagrancy, he was barred from Switzerland and was returned to his native land of Italy to serve in the Military. Due to some more trouble with the police, he started working in a newspaper in the town of Trento in Austria where he wrote a novel The Cardinal’s Mistress which was later translated into English. Socialist Associations He was later barred by the Austrians too. He later became an editor of a socialist newspaper La Lotta di Classe (The Class struggle) in Forli. His early passion for Karl Marx was enhanced by a combination of ideas from the innovative policy of Auguste Blanqui, syndicalism of Georges Sorel and the thinking of Friedrich Nietzche. Benito later became a secretary of a local Socialist party in Forli in the year 1910. At this point of life, he had a political view totally opposite to what was to come later. He was antipatriotic. In 1911 when Turkey was to be attacked by Italy, he was jailed for his propaganda of peace keeping. He was later editor of an official Socialist newspaper by the name of Avanti in Milan where he recognized himself as one of the most powerful labor leaders in the Italian communism. He had a viewpoint that the working class should unite into a formidable unit prepared to seize power at any time. From here on than the Fascist movement started. When the WW1 started in 1914, Benito along with other communists agreed that Italy should not be a part of it. The only war acceptable to him was the Class war, and he threatened the government that he will lead a When World War I broke out in 1914; Mussolini agreed with the other Socialists that Italy should not join it. Only a class war was acceptable to him, and he threatened to be the leader of a People’s revolt against the government if Italy was a part of the WW1. After several months he suddenly changed his viewpoint on the war and decided to leave the editorial chair along with the socialist party. Birth of Fascism He established a new paper in November of 1914 by the name of Popolo D Italia and prewar group Fascia d Azione Rivoluzionaria. He clearly hoped that the WW1 would result in the collapse of the Italian government which would gain him power. He was to serve in the military later where he was injured in a grenade practice and because of that he returned to his newspaper editing. In March 1919 Fascism developed into a planned political movement when Mussolini established the Fasci de Combattimento. He failed in the 1919 elections but later in 1921 he entered into the Parliament as a right wing member. Armed squads were established by the Fascist to terrify Benito’s former communist co workers. The government rarely hampered the movement. He got support from the industrialists and in return he gave his support to strike breaking and later he deserted radical demonstrations. The moderate governments of Giovanni Giolitti, Luigi Facta and Ivanoe Bonomi failed to prevent the increase of chaos, Benito was asked by king in October of 1922 to establish a government. Fascist Dictatorship He was supported by the Liberals in the parliament. With their support he initiated stringent censorship and changed the way elections were held in 1925-26 so that he had absolute power and could suspend all other political parties to work. As he had control over the press, he slowly made a legend of Duce, a human being capable of making everything right and had the ability to solve all the problems whether they are political or economic. Soon Italy became a police state. Whoever resisted him like Giacomo Matteotti did of the Socialist party he was very much cruel to them. He had a great skill in propaganda that he had very little opposition. After 1922, many time he personally took over seven departments at the same time like foreign affairs, ministry of the corporations, Army and other armed service, public works, interior ministry along with the premiership. He was the leader of the Powerful Fascist party which was established in the 1921 and also was the leader of the Fascist armed Militia. This made him to be successful in keeping power in his own hands and averting the surfacing of any competitor. This all came at a price of making a government which was corrupt, over centralized and totally inefficient. He spent most of his time on propaganda whether he was in Italy or some where else, here his training as a journalist was precious. Each and every mode of information was carefully monitored to create a fantasy that fascism was the main principle of the 20th century and was take the place of equality and freethinking. He wrote an article in which he laid down the principles of this policy which appeared in Encyclopedia Italiana in 1932. An agreement was signed in 1929 with the Vatican, which finally recognized the Italian State. His leadership finished the parliamentary system. He rewrote the law codes. The teacher teaching in universities or schools were swearing on an oath to secure the regime of Fascist. You read "Benito Mussolini" in category "Papers" Mussolini himself started choosing editors of the newspapers and no other editor could establish a newspaper without the permission of the Fascist party. Trade unions were not given total independence were included in what was called the corporative system. The main aim was to place all the Italian public in different organization and corporations which were professional but all under the rule of the government. Mussolini had the idea of shifting the industries from public to private owners with the help of his financial backers. But later in 1930 he started moving back to the conflicting intensity of inflexible governmental control of industry. A huge sum of money was spent on different public works due to which the Italian economy suffered a great deal as he had placed so much money on the heavy industry to make Italy self sufficient but this was not possible as Italy was lacking numerous resources. Military Aggression In his foreign policy Mussolini started shifting from a peace loving anti imperialism to a tremendous outline of violent self rule. In 1923 the bombing of Corfu is an example of his self rule. After setting up a dummy government in Albania and re capturing Libya, he had a dream of making the Mediterranean Sea Italian Sea. Later in 1935 he along with others established an anti Hitler policy at the Stresa Conference to protect the freedom of Austria. His successful battle against Ethiopia (than Abyssinia) was opposed by the League of Nations. Because of this he made a deal with the Nazi Germany, which before had been introverted from the league. Any prospect of a settlement between Britain and France ended when took an active part in the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War and took the side of General Francisco Franco. After having to make a deal with the Germans, he had to accept the German capturing of Austria and Czechoslovakia’s dismemberment. In 1938 at the Munich Conference, he portrayed himself as a fair person functioning for peace in Europe. His allegiance with Germany was later confirmed when in 1939 he made a Pact of Steel with Adolph Hitler. Being an inferior partner to the Germans, Benito followed the same racial policy as did the German’s did against the Jews. When World War 2 was coming nearer, Mussolini made his intention clear to conquer Tunisia, Malta and Corsica. He conquered Albania after a short war in 1939. He didn’t realize that by gaining more power he would have a power balance in Europe, instead he favored a policy pretending and threaten to persuade the Western powers to make way for his growing territorial demands. He lectured for 15 years regarding the merits of war and the military keenness of Italy to battle, but his army was totally unprepared when the attack on Poland by Hitler led to the World War 2. He remained quite for a while until n unless he was sure who will win. He declared war in1940 after the collapse of France, thinking that the war will only last for a few weeks. He later attacked Greece which showed everyone that he was not prepared for a successful military machine. He had no alternative left but to pursue Hitler in announcing war on Russia and United States both in 1941. After Italy was defeated all ends, and the landing of Anglo American in Sicily in 1943 led to many of Benito’s co workers to turn against him at a conference in Fascist Grand hall on July 25, 1943. This also led to the king dismissing him and ordered for his arrest. The Germans rescued him after a couple of months, after being rescued he set up a Republican Fascist state in north of Italy. Under the German’s he was not more than a dummy. Benito later returned to his ideas of collectivization and communism. He executed the Fascist leader who turned against him including his own son in law. He blamed the Italian public for this although they had been supporting all along his colonial dream. When the Allied Armies reached Milan on April 27 in 1945, Benito along with his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by the Italian enthusiasts, when he was trying to flee into Switzerland. Assassination A day later, Benito and his mistress were both shot dead near a village of Dongo, along with his 15 colleagues, comprising of ministers and officials. The killings were conducted by Colonel Walter Audisio; he was given the order to kill Benito by the National Liberation Committee. Later a witness by the name of Bruno Giovanni confessed that he had killed Benito and his mistress but these reports were never confirmed. After the killings, both the bodies were hanging upside down on meat hooks in Milan along with the fifteen colleagues killed, to confirm that the once mighty leader has been killed. This was to discourage the fighting by the fascists. The body was to become a thing of mockery and mistreatment by those who felt he was a cruel ruler. His body was later taken down and buried in an unmarked grave in Milan. Later his body was stolen but retrieved and brought to Predappio. Here he was buried in his family vault. A large marble of himself sits on top of the tomb. He was survived by his wife, Rachel, two sons Romano and Vittorio and his daughter Edda, whose husband was killed by Benito. His third son was killed in an air incident. Bibliography †¢ Benito Mussolini from Answers. com. Retrieved March 27, 2007. From http://www. answers. com/topic/benito-mussolini †¢ Benito Mussolini from Wikipedia (2007). Retrieved on March 28, 2007. From http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini †¢ Benito Mussolini Background. Retrieved on March 28, 2007. From http://library. thinkquest. org/17120/data/bios/mussolini/background/backg1. html †¢ Mussolini, Benito from BartleBy (2005). Retrieved on March 28, 2007. From http://www. bartleby. com/65/mu/Mussolin. html †¢ Benito Mussolini. Retrieved on March 28, 2007. From http://www. info. tampere. fi/a/amuri/tyot/ilduce3. htm †¢ Benito Mussolini from Spartacus Educational. Retrieved on March 28, 2007. From http://www. spartacus. schoolnet. co. uk/2WWmussolini. htm †¢ Benito Mussolini. Retrieved on March 28, 2007. From http://www. moreorless. au. com/killers/mussolini. html How to cite Benito Mussolini, Papers