About Benito Mussolini

From 1922 to 1943, Benito Mussolini ruled Italy as a tyrant (Haugen). As the Fascist Party’s head, he consolidated all authority in himself and even sought to establish an Italian empire. And if his adult life was positive, he had a horrible childhood, despite the fact that he wanted to be in control one day. The dream of gaining influence drove him to implement fascism, which he used to gain the allegiance of the Italians. He turned the country into a powerful fascist nation that rallied behind him. Apart from mistreating his people, he led the country into several wars with the last one resulting in him being overthrown. To date, Benito Mussolini is one of the most widely known dictators alongside others like Adolf Hitler of Germany. This paper is to discusses Benito Mussolini as one of the most notorious dictators of the twentieth century. It discusses Mussolini’s birth and early life, his entry into the government and his dictatorial rule, wars and his ultimate death then end with a conclusion.

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883, in a tiny village called Varano di Costa in Dovia di Predappio, Forli Province, Italy (Roberts 9). He was the eldest of the three children in the poor family. His father was a blacksmith who was so passionate about socialism while his mother was an elementary school teacher. Even though the mother was a teacher, Benito was a poor in schoolwork and but had a big ego. His violent nature led to his expulsion from schools he attended and in one incident, he got expelled for stabbing another student. He went on with his education and in 1901, he earned a diploma and for a short period taught at a secondary school before moving to Switzerland in 1902 to associate with other socialists (Haugen 97). After his return to Italy in 1904 he embarked on politics fulltime. It is his father who made him passionate about socialist politics and also instilled in him defiance to authority.

In 1921, on June 15th Benito Mussolini took over the position of deputy speaker in parliament and what followed was trouble (Haugen 59). His leadership was marked by his strong opposition to Francesco Misiano, a communist who had been elected to the parliament. One key moment is when Mussolini called for physical removal of Misiano from the parliament buildings which they proceeded to do. Mussolini wanted to be promoted to the position of a prime minister and hence used violence to make Italy ungovernable. As years passed with Mussolini in government, he continually gained power and by the year 1930, every newspaper that was against his views had disappeared (Haugen 71). He came up with a new law, like one that allowed him to throw out members of parliament who opposed him and sent to jail without trial those who opposed fascist activities. People had high hopes that Mussolini would improve their living conditions and this made them even to give up some of their freedoms. To the Italians, he was the leader who would get them out of depression and it’s the same belief that earned him even support of the Catholic Church which was regarded as the state religion (Roberts 60).

In 1934, after meeting with Adolf Hitler for the first time in Venice, they discussed their expansion plans since both believed that it was important to add territory to their respective countries (Haugen 75). Mussolini decided to change the friendly relations that had grown between Italy and Ethiopia after the war that saw the Ethiopians defeat the Italians by revenging. He asked the Ethiopians to apologize and soon he demonstrated his seriousness by sending Italian troops into Ethiopia. However, the war was only meant to shift attention away from the internal problems that Italians were facing at that time. Britain and Italy had poor relations and in 1940, Winston Churchill, the British prime minister tried to mend the relationship but Mussolini refused to ally with them, instead, on June 10, he declared war on Great Britain and France (Haugen 83). He lost most battles that he engaged the nation in, but he worked hard to ensure his people believe that these defeats were victories or downplay the graveness of the losses. He blamed his generals for defeats and even blamed the Italians stating that they were weak and cowardly. The blame did not go down well with the Italians; they were angered. By the year 1940, Benito’s armies suffered from poor supply and lack of good leadership as he took time from war and other government duties (Roberts 83). They faced defeats from Europe to Mediterranean to Africa and ultimately in 1942 Italy lost its war leading to the collapse of Benito’s power around half a year later (Roberts 88). In a bid to regain the position of power that he held, he became Hitler’s puppet in northern Italy. Mussolini only pushed Italy into more problems including more wars. Unable to keep up, he struggled to survive but will everything working against him, it was evident the end for him was approaching. When all could not work for him, Italian underground captured him with his mistress Claretta Petacci as they attempted to escape to Switzerland. The next day, on April 28th 1945, they were executed by a firing squad alongside other twelve leaders (Roberts 99). Their bodies were later hung by the legs at a square in Milan for the Italian masses who showed no regret for his ultimate death.

Mussolini had promised his people great things and they supported him but he only brought them war and misery marked with regrets. However, his role in the Second World War cannot be ignored, having risen through nationalism, fascism, militarism and eventually great wars makes him one of the most interesting leaders of the twentieth century. It is clear that Mussolini was a leader who was destined to fail owing to his bad leadership style. Absolute power and influence is hard to achieve and it is dangerous to let such control and authority be in the hands of a single person. Having been brought up in a humble background and rising over the years to hold power over the large Italian population, he is a perfect case of an individual who self-destructed himself. His lack of common sense, violence and poor leadership that marked his time made him lose all the power and control he enjoyed. It is sad for one to be executed by his own people like Mussolini who went down unceremoniously after he was executed and later hung from a hook.

Works Cited

Haugen, Brenda. Benito Mussolini: Fascist Italian Dictator. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2007. Print.

Roberts, Jeremy. Benito Mussolini. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2006. Print.