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In this unification, most of the German-speaking states of Europe united under the crown of Prussia to form the German Empire. The second unification occurred in 1990 after the end of the Cold War.

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Germany is a federal multiparty republic with two legislative houses. Its government is headed by the chancellor (prime minister), who is elected by a majority vote of the Bundestag (Federal Assembly) upon nomination by the president (head of state).

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Germany is a federal multiparty republic with two legislative houses. Its government is headed by the chancellor ( prime minister), who is elected by a majority vote of the Bundestag (Federal Assembly) upon nomination by the president (head of state).

The table provides a chronological list of the leaders of Germany from 1871.
Kaisers of the German Empire

*Upon Hindenburg's death in 1934, the powers of the presidency were merged with those of the chancellor.

**Chancellor from 1933 and Führer ("Leader") from 1934.

***East Germany was governed by interim administrations from December 1989 until the two Germanys were reunited in October 1990.

Presidents of the Weimar Republic Leaders of the Third Reich (National Socialist regime) Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) First (or General) Secretaries of the Socialist Unity Party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany (reunited Germany)
Amy Tikkanen.

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Germany is a federal multiparty republic with two legislative houses. Its government is headed by the chancellor (prime minister), who is elected by a majority vote of the Bundestag (Federal Assembly) upon nomination by the president (head of state). The table provides a chronological list of the

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The formation of the modern Italian state began in 1861 with the unification of most of the peninsula under the House of Savoy (Piedmont-Sardinia) into the Kingdom of Italy.

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in the world of twentieth century dictators, Benito Mussolini was a pioneer. He created fascism, a movement that would plunge most of Europe into darkness. From undermining judges to indoctrinating children, he pioneered key tactics that other dictators would use to seize power.

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Early life

Mussolini was the first child of the local blacksmith. In later years he expressed pride in his humble origins and often spoke of himself as a "man of the people." The Mussolini family was, in fact, less humble than he claimed-his father, a part-time socialist journalist as well as a blacksmith, was the son of a lieutenant in the National Guard, and his mother was a schoolteacher-but the Mussolinis were certainly poor. They lived in two crowded rooms on the second floor of a small, decrepit palazzo; and, because Mussolini's father spent much of his time discussing politics in taverns and most of his money on his mistress, the meals that his three children ate were often meagre.

A restless child, Mussolini was disobedient, unruly, and aggressive. He was a bully at school and moody at home. Because the teachers at the village school could not control him, he was sent to board with the strict Salesian order at Faenza, where he proved himself more troublesome than ever, stabbing a fellow pupil with a penknife and attacking one of the Salesians who had attempted to beat him. He was expelled and sent to the Giosuè Carducci School at Forlimpopoli, from which he was also expelled after assaulting yet another pupil with his penknife.

He was also intelligent, and he passed his final examinations without difficulty. He obtained a teaching diploma and for a time worked as a schoolmaster but soon realized that he was totally unsuited for such work. At the age of 19, a short, pale young man with a powerful jaw and enormous, dark, piercing eyes, he left Italy for Switzerland with a nickel medallion of Karl Marx in his otherwise empty pockets. For the next few months, according to his own account, he lived from day to day, jumping from job to job.

At the same time, however, he was gaining a reputation as a young man of strange magnetism and remarkable rhetorical talents. He read widely and voraciously, if not deeply, plunging into the philosophers and theorists Immanuel Kant, Benedict de Spinoza, Peter Kropotkin, Friedrich Nietzsche, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Kautsky, and Georges Sorel, picking out what appealed to him and discarding the rest, forming no coherent political philosophy of his own yet impressing his companions as a potential revolutionary of uncommon personality and striking presence. While earning a reputation as a political journalist and public speaker, he produced propaganda for a trade union, proposing a strike and advocating violence as a means of enforcing demands. Repeatedly, he called for a day of vengeance. More than once he was arrested and imprisoned. When he returned to Italy in 1904, even the Roman newspapers had started to mention his name.

For some time after his return little was heard of him. He once more became a schoolmaster, this time in the Venetian Alps, north of Udine, where he lived, so he confessed, a life of "moral deterioration." But soon tiring of so wasteful a life, he returned to trade-union work, to journalism, and to extreme politics, which led yet again to arrest and imprisonment.

During a period of freedom in 1909, he fell in love with 16-year-old Rachele Guidi, the younger of the two daughters of his father's widowed mistress; she went to live with him in a damp, cramped apartment in Forlì and later married him. Soon after the marriage, Mussolini was imprisoned for the fifth time; but by then Comrade Mussolini had become recognized as one of the most gifted and dangerous of Italy's younger socialists. After writing in a wide variety of socialist papers, he founded a newspaper of his own, La Lotta di Classe ("The Class Struggle"). So successful was this paper that in 1912 he was appointed editor of the official Socialist newspaper, Avanti! ("Forward!"), whose circulation he soon doubled; and as its antimilitarist, antinationalist, and anti-imperialist editor, he thunderously opposed Italy's intervention in World War I.

Soon, however, he changed his mind about intervention. Swayed by Karl Marx's aphorism that social revolution usually follows war and persuaded that "the defeat of France would be a deathblow to liberty in Europe," he began writing articles and making speeches as violently in favour of war as those in which he previously had condemned it. He resigned from Avanti! and was expelled from the Socialist Party. Financed by the French government and Italian industrialists, both of whom favoured war against Austria, he assumed the editorship of Il Popolo d'Italia ("The People of Italy"), in which he unequivocally stated his new philosophy: "From today onward we are all Italians and nothing but Italians. Now that steel has met steel, one single cry comes from our hearts- Viva l'Italia! [Long live Italy!]" It was the birth cry of fascism. Mussolini went to fight in the war.

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Benito Mussolini | Biography, Definition, Facts, Rise, & Death

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Benito Mussolini, the controversial Italian dictator and founder of fascism, rose to power through his charismatic leadership but ultimately led Italy into disastrous alliances during World War II.

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On September 7, 1822, Prince Dom Pedro declared Brazil's independence from Portugal, founding the Empire of Brazil, which led to a two-year war of independence.

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Brazilian Independence | 3 Minute History

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The rule of Pedro II, a calm, serious, and intelligent man, brought stability and progress to the troubled economy. He encouraged coffee production instead of sugar, and under his guidance Brazil made significant gains in railroad, telegraph, and cable construction.

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This article is about the emperor of Brazil who also reigned as Pedro IV of Portugal. For his ancestor, see Peter I of Portugal.