Benito Mussolini Research Paper

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Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, he is credited to being a leader in the Fascist movement after World War 1. He was born on July 29th, 1883, in the town of Dovia di Predappio, Italy. He died on April 28th, 1945. The early life of Benito Mussolini is nothing glamorous, he lived in a small Italian town, in a two bedroom apartment. His father was a blacksmith and his mother was an elementary teacher. He moved to Switzerland in 1902 and was a socialist. He became a member of the socialist party in 1900. He held many positions within the socialist party, including editor and labor leader. In 1914 he left the Socialist Party to join the Italian middle class. He also founded a newspaper during that time called, Popolo d’Italia. …show more content…

The League of Nations started sanctions, but did not impose an oil sanction. But one country that was not horrified by Italy’s advances in Africa, was Germany. Adolf Hitler, Germany’s leader, admired Mussolini and eventually they created a Berlin Rome Axis, an alliance between the two fascist nations. In 1938, Italy’s government passed anti-Semitic laws that discriminated against Jews, it allowed the deportation of twenty percent of Italy’s Jews to death camps in Germany. As Germany entered the war Italy was watching from afar in awe as they defeated countries in days. Mussolini’s country was unprepared for war, Italy’s economy was down, his army was not well equipped since the country was not as advanced as the Allies, and he did not command as many troops as the rest of the world. But this did not stop Mussolini from joining the war, however not listening to his advisors and the people of Italy, who did not want to go to war because they knew it would be disastrous for the country. So, on June 10th, 1940, Mussolini officially joins the war. From the beginning, it was not looking good for Italy, every advancement would result in a defeat. Hitler did not share information of his military plans and so Mussolini decided to do the same against Hitler. However, this backfired when Italy attacked Greece through Albania in 1940. The Germans had to assist Mussolini because of the high price of this defeat. In 1941, Italy tried to help the Germans with the invasion of the Soviet Union, but even then they failed. Later, in 1943, Italy was forced to surrender in North Africa and Germany had to aid Italy once again. On July 24th, 1943, the Fascist Grand Council conducted a meeting, and passed a resolution to dismiss Mussolini from office. Mussolini did not approve of the vote and thought nothing of it. But, the next day he was arrested by royal command at Villa Savoia. He was later imprisoned on the

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