Benito Mussolini
29 July 1883 - 28 April 1945
1922 - 1945 Leader of Italy (became Dictator in 1925)
Benito Mussolini was born in 1883 in North-Eastern Italy. His father , Alessandro was Socialist and a Nationalist. As an adult, Mussolini was a member of the Socialist Party, but he opposed the government and the Socialist Party when they did not join the Triple Alliance led by Germany during World War I, and left the Socialist party when they supported the Allies in WWI. Mussolini felt that Italy did not receive good terms in the Versailles Treaty and he formed the Fascist Party in Italy. The Fascist party oppressed any party that could support Communism. Significantly, Mussolini created a party that supported strong, classless Nationalism as opposed to the Socialism that promoted class struggle. In 1929, Italy became a one-party Fascist state. Italy had already colonized Eritrea and Somalia; Mussolini wanted to show Italy’s strength by also colonizing Ethiopia. Mussolini also sent troops to Spain in support of General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. In 1935, the League of Nations condemned Italy for beginning a war in Ethiopia. Italy sent 400,000 troops to Ethiopia and quickly took over the country, causing the Emperor Haile Selassie to flee. Adolf Hitler admired Mussolini for this achievement and in 1936, Hitler signed an alliance with Mussolini. Italy invaded Albania in 1939 and then signed a full Pact of Steel with Germany. In 1940, Italy declared war against Greece but the army was pushed back. Italy entered World War II with Germany in Northern Africa, where Italy had 1,000,000 troops in Libya. Suffering massive defeats in North Africa, including the loss of the Battle of El Alamein, Mussolini and Italy's position in the war became unstable. By 1943 Mussolini was ousted and took refuge in a mountain retreat while the Socialist Party took over and opposed the Germans. The Germans then rescued Mussolini after two months, but Mussolini was unable to restore Fascism. In retaliation, Germany annexed the Italian states of Split and Kotor, in modern day Croatia. While Mussolini and Hitler had different philosophies, they both garnered support by promoting strong nationalism and gained power by oppression. In the years before WWII, Mussolini supported expansionism and other oppressive regimes. Both Italy and Nazi Germany armed their militaries in preparation together to begin a new campaign of war which resulted in them