How to Explore the Life of Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini was the fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943. The most destructive aspect of his years in charge was as a role model for eventual German dictator Adolf Hitler, who followed his fascist beliefs. Mussolini later became Hitler's pawn, following him blindly during World War II. Read on to explore the rise and fall of Benito Mussolini.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Understanding of Italy's role in World War II

1. Study Mussolini's upbringing as the son of a socialist father in a desperately poor family. Young Benito was once expelled from school for stabbing a classmate in the hand and throwing an inkwell at his teacher.

2. Learn about Mussolini's discarding of his father's socialist beliefs to embrace a nationalistic, far right-wing view after World War I. Mussolini soon spearheaded the Fascist movement in Italy.

3. Consider Mussolini's rapid political rise from National Fascist Party leader to prime minister to dictator of Italy by 1925. All opposition was broken when every other political party was banned in 1928.

4. 
   Mussolini became increasingly militaristic in the 1930s and early 1940s.

   Find out more about Mussolini's growing militarism. Italy invaded and brutalized helpless Ethiopia in 1936. He ordered that mustard gas be dropped from airplanes to quell any rebellion from the Ethiopians.

5. Explore Mussolini's growing dependence on the work Hitler was doing in Germany. Mussolini ordered his military to use the German goose step during parades and adopted Germany's anti-Semitic laws barring "Aryan" Italians from marrying Jews.

6. Read about how Mussolini used his influence to help Hitler annex Austria and dismember Czechoslovakia as a prelude to the German invasion of Poland in 1939 that began World War II.

7. Study the Italian ineffectiveness during the war, which they entered only when Germany had already all but defeated France. Mussolini's troops couldn't prevent the Allies from winning in North Africa, which opened the door for D-Day and the Axis defeat.

8. Delve into the fall of Mussolini, who was arrested and replaced by Pietro Badoglio in September 1943 after the defeat in North Africa. Though rescued through a daring German operation and propped up as the puppet leader in Northern Italy, Mussolini no longer had the stomach to lead.

9. Discover how Mussolini met his demise. He and mistress Clara Petacci attempted an escape to Switzerland during the closing months of World War II, but were captured and killed by Italian communists. Their bodies were hung upside down for public viewing and scorn in Milan.

Tips & Warnings

• Purchase books or rent movies about the life of Mussolini. Though he caused nothing but misery to the world and to the Italian people, his story is fascinating.
• Don't underestimate Mussolini's negative impact on the world. It was from Mussolini that Hitler developed much of the Fascist beliefs that he would use to cause so much death and destruction.