Benito Mussolini: Difference between revisions

|monarch = [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy|Victor Emmanuel III]]

'''Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini'''<!-- {{post-nominals|post-noms=[[Sovereign Military Order of Malta|KSMOM]] [[Order of the Tower and Sword|GCTE]]}} (see [[WP:INITIAL]]) -->{{efn|{{IPAc-en|UK|ˌ|m|ʊ|s|ə|ˈ|l|iː|n|i|,_|ˌ|m|ʌ|s|-}}, {{IPAc-en|US|ˌ|m|uː|s|-}}, {{IPA-it|beˈniːto aˈmilkare anˈdrɛːa mussoˈliːni|lang}}}} (29 July 1883{{spnd}}28 April 1945) was an Italian dictator who founded and led the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF). He was [[Prime Minister of Italy]] from the [[March on Rome]] in 1922, until [[Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy|his deposition]] in 1943, as well as {{lang|it|[[Duce]]}} of [[Italian fascism]] from the establishment of the [[Italian Fasces of Combat]] in 1919, until [[Death of Benito Mussolini|his summary execution in 1945]] by [[Italian resistance movement|Italian partisans]]. As a dictator of Italy and one of the principal foundersfounder of [[fascism]], Mussolini inspired andthe supportedinternational thespread of [[fascismList asof anfascist international phenomenonmovements|international spread of fascist movements]] during the [[inter-warinterwar period]].

Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and a journalist at the [[Avanti! (newspaper)|''Avanti!'' newspaper]]. In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI), but he 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 newspaper, ''[[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 opposeopposed [[egalitarianism]] and [[class conflict]], instead advocating "[[Revolutionary nationalism#Benito Mussolini's revolutionary nationalism|revolutionary nationalism]]" [[class collaboration|transcending class lines]]. On 31In October 1922, following the [[March on Rome]] (28–30 October), Mussolini was appointed prime minister by [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy|King Victor Emmanuel III]], becoming the youngestthen individualyoungest to hold the office up to that time. After removing all political opposition through his secret police and outlawing [[Labour strike|labour strikes]], Mussolini and his followers consolidated power through a series of laws that transformed the nation into a [[one-party state|one-party dictatorship]]. Within five years, Mussolini established dictatorial authority by both legal and illegal means and aspired to create a [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] state. In 1929, Mussolini signed the [[Lateran Treaty]] with the Holy See, to establish the [[Vatican City]].

Mussolini's foreign policy was based on the fascist doctrine of "''[[Spazio vitale]]''" (trans: "living space"); which aimed to expand Italian possessions. In the 1920s, he ordered the [[Pacification of Libya]], instructed the bombing of Corfu over an [[Corfu incident|incident with Greece]], established a protectorate over Albania through the [[Treaties of Tirana|Tirana treaties]], and annexed the city of [[Fiume]] into Italy, after the [[Treaty of Rome (1924)|Treatya of Rometreaty]] with [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. In 1936, [[Italian Ethiopia|Ethiopia]] was conquered following the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War]] and merged into [[Italian East Africa]] (AOI) with [[Italian Eritrea|Eritrea]] and [[Italian Somaliland|Somalia]]. In 1939, Italian forces [[Italian invasion of Albania|annexed Albania]]. Between 1936 and 1939-39, Mussolini ordered an [[Italian military intervention in Spain|intervention in Spain]] in favour of [[Francisco Franco]], during the [[Spanish Civil War]]. At the same time, Mussolini initially tried to retain much of the [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles]] status quo by sending troops to the [[Brenner Pass]] to delay [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s [[Anschluss]], and taking part in the [[Treaty of Lausanne]], the [[Lytton Report]], the [[Four-Power Pact]] and the [[Stresa Front]]. However, he ultimately alienated the democratic powers as tensions grew in the [[League of Nations]], which he left in 1937. Now hostile to France and Britain, Italy formed the [[Axis alliance]] with [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]].

The wars of the 1930s, although victorious, had cost Italy enormous resources, leaving the countryit unprepared for the upcoming [[Second World War]]. Therefore, when Poland was invaded on 1in September 1939, Mussolini declared Italy's non-belligerence. However, on 10in June 1940, believing that Allied defeat was imminent, he decided to joinjoined the war on theGermany's side of Germany, to share the potential spoils of victory. But after three more years of world war,After the tide of the conflict turned, in favour of the Allies. Followingand the [[Allied invasion of Sicily|invasion of Sicily]] and a motion of no confidence by the [[Grand Council of Fascism]], King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini as [[head of government]] and placed him in custody (25in July 1943). After the king agreed to an armistice with the Allies, on 12in September 1943 Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the [[Gran Sasso raid]] by [[German paratrooper]]s and ''[[Waffen-SS]]'' [[commando]]sGermany. After meeting with his fallen ally, Hitler made Mussolini the figurehead of a puppet state in German-occupied northernnorth Italy, the [[Italian Social Republic]] (Salò Republic), which served as a [[collaborationism|collaborationist]] regime]] of the Germans in their fight against the Allies, now including the Kingdom of Italy, and the [[Italian resistance]]. In April 1945, with Allied victory imminent, Mussolini and mistress [[Clara Petacci]] attempted to flee to Switzerland, but were captured by communist partisans and executed on 28 April near [[Lake Como]], and their bodies strung up in [[Milan]].