BENITO MUSSOLINI

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• Benito Mussolini was the 40th Prime Minister of the Italy. He Served Italy for almost 20 years.
• He is also known as Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini Il Duce.
• Although he was born in the Northern Central Italy on July 29, 1883, extreme poverty forced him to move to Switzerland in 1902.
• In his family, his mother, Rosa Maltoni, was an elementary school teacher and father was a blacksmith. He also had a brother and a sister named Arnaldo and Edvidge.
• Benito Mussolini was not an easy child. He used to be a disobedient boy with quite a short temper. He used to get agitated easily, which led him expelled from school twice. He was found to assault a fellow student with a penknife.

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• Luckily after all the hassles, Benito could manage to obtain his diploma and also had a short career of a school teacher.
• To be very exact, he was a politician, journalist and the leader of the National Fascist Party between 1922 and 1943.
• Mussolini used to work at various odd day jobs and spend evenings attending parties with the local socialists.
• He also pursued the career of a writer and editor in numerous socialist newspapers.
• Mussolini returned to Italy in 1904 and joined the army.

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• Although he moved to Austria in 1909 and stayed there for a short time, he was soon thrown out of the country because of his constant critique about nationalism and militarism. He came back to Italy after the forceful expulsion from Austria.
• After the WWI, residents of Italy were looking for a change to make Italy strong again and started forming small local groups. Mussolini brought all these groups together and took them under his leadership formally on March 23, 1919. The group was called Fasci di Combattimento, The Fascist Party.
• After getting majority support from his party, Mussolini was selected for the prime ministerial position of Italy on October 31, 1922. It made him the youngest prime minister of Italy.
• Under his Governance, Italy tried to invade Ethiopia, which led to a nasty war at the end. Mussolini was able to acquire Ethiopia in 1936.
• When Mussolini was planning an attack and trying to acquire Ethiopia, Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist German Worker’s Party leader offered support.