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This is to test if you have been paying attention.
1) What year was Mussolini born in?
2) what was the reason why he wasn't a star student?
3) what was one of two methods he used to gain power?
4) what does the propaganda poster say?
5) what is one of the policies that he has in place and how does he accomplish it?

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" But it is from a human point of view, because the thought that a family may suffer, causes myself a physical suffering because I know, I know because I've experienced it, what it means... what the deserted home and the bare table mean. Comrades of Turin, this really wonderful communion of spirits, for which at this moment we are one, just one heart and one soul, [we] cannot end [this] without turning our thoughts, with deep devotion, to his majesty the king, who embodies the continuity, the vitality, the holiness of the fatherland. Therefore, what is the watchword for the new decade we are going towards with the spirit of a 20 year old? The watchword is this: move forward, build, and if necessary fight and win." - Benito Mussolini, 1932

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was about the Ten years of the Fascist revolution

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(English subtitles), Mussolini's speech, Turin 1932

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October 23, 1932. Il Duce in Turin. Speech for the 10 years of the fascist revolution. Italian subtitles, English subtitles. Lausanne Conference, disarmament, world war debts and reparations, class collaboration.

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Thanks for watching!!!!!!! This video was made for my history class Feel free to like the video, leave a comment down bellow and subscribe. All the sources are listed here: The Ideology. (2015). Kira Collins. Available in: http://earnstwebsiteproject.weebly.com/the-ideology.html Benito Mussolini's religion and political views. (2016). Tom Kershaw. Available in: http://hollowverse.com/benito-mussolini/ Benito Mussolini.

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Born: July 29, 1883
Predappio, Italy
Died: April 28, 1945
Como, Italy
Italian dictator

Benito Mussolini was head of the Italian government from 1922 to 1943. He was the founder of fascism, and as a dictator he held absolute power and severely mistreated his citizens and his country. He led Italy into three straight wars, the last of which led to his overthrow by his own people.

Early life and career

Benito Mussolini was born at Dovia di Predappio, Italy, on July 29, 1883. The Mussolinis were a poor family who lived in a crowded two-bedroom apartment. His father was a blacksmith and a follower of socialism (a system providing for the sharing of land and goods equally among all people); his mother taught elementary school. Benito, although intelligent, was violent and had a large ego. He was a poor student at school and learned very little. As a student at a boarding school in Faenza, Italy, Mussolini stabbed another student, and as a result he was expelled. After receiving his diploma in 1901 he briefly taught secondary school. He went to Switzerland in 1902 to avoid military service, where he associated with other socialists. Mussolini returned to Italy in 1904, spent time in the military, and engaged in politics full time thereafter.

Mussolini had become a member of the Socialist Party in 1900 and had begun to attract wide admiration. In speeches and articles he was extreme and violent, urging revolution at any cost, but he was also well spoken. Mussolini held several posts as editor and labor leader until he emerged in the 1912 Socialist Party Congress. He became editor of the party's daily paper, Avanti, at the age of twenty-nine. His powerful writing injected excitement into the Socialist ranks. In a party that had accomplished little in recent years, his youth and his intense nature was an advantage. He called for revolution at a time when revolutionary feelings were sweeping the country.

From Socialist to Fascist

Mussolini deserted the Socialist Party in 1914 to cross over to the enemy camp, the Italian middle class. He knew that World War I (1914-18) would bury the old Europe, and he began to prepare for "the unknown." In late 1914 he founded an independent newspaper, Popolo d'Italia, and backed it up with his own movement, the Autonomous Fascists. He drew close to the new forces in Italian politics, the extreme middle-class youth, and he made himself their spokesman. The Italian working class now called Mussolini "Judas" and "traitor." Mussolini was wounded during army training in 1917, but he managed to return to politics that same year. His newspaper, which he now backed with a second political movement, Revolutionary Fascists, was his main strength. After the war, Mussolini's career declined. He organized his third movement, Constituent Fascists, in 1918, but it did not survive. Mussolini ran for office in the 1919 parliamentary elections but was defeated.

In March 1919 Mussolini founded another movement, Fighting Fascists, won the favor of the Italian youth, and waited for events to favor him. The elections in 1921 sent him to Parliament at the head of thirty-five Fascist deputies; the third assembly of his movement gave birth to a national party, the National Fascist Party, with more than 250 thousand followers and Mussolini as its uncontested leader. In October 1922 Mussolini successfully marched into Rome, Italy. He now enjoyed the support of key groups (industry, farmers, military, and church), whose members accepted Mussolini's solution to their problems: organize middle-class youth, control workers harshly, and set up a tough central government to restore "law and order." Thereafter, Mussolini attacked the workers and spilled their blood over Italy. It was the complete opposite of his early views of socialism.

Fascist state

Once in power, Mussolini took steps to remain there. He set general elections, but they were fixed to always provide him with an absolute majority in Parliament. The assassination of the Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti, a noted opponent, by Fascist followers reversed his fortunes and nearly brought him down. Mussolini, however, recovered. He suspended civil liberties, destroyed all opposition, and imposed open dictatorship (absolute rule). In 1929 his Concordat with the Vatican settled the historic differences between the Italian state and the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) said that Mussolini had been sent "by Divine Providence."

As the 1930s began, Mussolini was seated safely in power and enjoyed wide support. The strongest groups who had put Mussolini into power now profited from it. However, the living standard of the working majority fell; the average Italian worker's income amounted to one-half of that of a worker in France, one-third of that of a worker in England, and one-fourth of that of a worker in America. As national leader, Mussolini offered no solutions for Italy's problems. He surrounded himself with ambitious and greedy people and let them bleed Italy dry while his secret agents gathered information on opponents.

Mussolini's three wars

In 1930 economic depression (a decline in the production of goods because of a decline in demand, accompanied by rising unemployment) arrived in Italy. Mussolini reacted at first with a public works program but soon shifted to foreign adventure. The 1935 Ethiopian War was planned to direct attention away from internal problems. The "Italian Empire," Mussolini's creation, was announced in 1936. The 1936 Spanish intervention, in which Mussolini aided Francisco Franco (1892-1975) in Spain's civil war, followed but had no benefit for Italy. Mussolini then joined forces with German dictator Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and in 1938 began to attack Jewish people within the country just as Germany was doing. As the 1930s ended, Mussolini was losing all his support within Italy.

The outbreak of World War II (1939-45) left Mussolini an unimportant figure in world politics, and he worried that Hitler would redraw the map of Europe without him. He decided "to make war at any cost." The cost was clear: modern industry, modern armies, and popular support. Mussolini lacked all of these. Nonetheless, in 1940 he pushed Italy into war against the will of the people, ignoring the only meaningful lesson of World War I: the United States alone had decided that conflict, and therefore America, not Germany, was the most important power.

Disaster and death

In 1940-41 Mussolini's armies, badly supplied and poorly led, suffered defeats from Europe across the Mediterranean to the African continent. Italy lost its war in 1942; Mussolini's power collapsed six months later. Restored as Hitler's puppet in northern Italy in 1943, he drove Italy deeper into invasion, occupation, and civil war during 1944 and 1945. The end approached, but Mussolini struggled to survive. He was finally executed by a firing squad on April 28, 1945, at Dongo in Como province.

For More Information

Cassels, Alan. Mussolini's Early Diplomacy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970.

Kirkpatrick, Ivone. Mussolini: A Study in Power. New York, Hawthorn Books, 1964.

Mack Smith, Denis. Mussolini. New York: Knopf, 1982.

Mussolini, Benito. The Fall of Mussolini: His Own Story. Edited by Max Ascoli. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1948. Reprint, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1975.

Mussolini, Benito. My Rise and Fall. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998.

Ridley, Jasper Godwin. Mussolini. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

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Born: July 29, 1883 Predappio, Italy Died: April 28, 1945 Como, Italy Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was head of the Italian government from 1922 to 1943. He was the founder of fascism, and as a dictator he held absolute power and severely mistreated his citizens and his country.

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Mussolini had three major policies that he wanted to implement during his regime. The policies were called the three wars. The first one is the Battle for Land. This one entailed getting rid of the marsh lands of Italy to make room for agricultural advancements. His second one was called the Battle of the Lira. The lira was the national currency of Italy at the time and Mussolini wanted to increase the value of it through inflation that left many Italians without work. The final one was the Battle for Grain which was all about growing Italy's economy to be near self sustaining. He went about this by planting and growing immense amounts of grain crops. All three of these policies tied into his main plan, to attack the power of economic trade unions which meant that he controlled the entire working population of Italy.

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Il Duce converted Italy into a Dictatorship little by little when he was in power. The way that government like these work is through force. Though Mussolini didn't force himself into power, he did change Italy to a single party state which helped keep him in power. He implemented tactics of fear such as the Black Shirts to quiet those who opposed  him. By that point, it became a dictatorship because he tried and did everything in his power to stay in his position

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He used two methods, one was scare and the other was diplomatic. The diplomatic way included getting the approval of the Roman Catholic Church which would sway a majority of Italy. The second method, the scare method, involved a volunteer militia called the Black Shirts who would harass and go after people that opposed Mussolini

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" The Man of Destiny, The Duce[Leader]"
The propaganda that he put up always portrayed him as Italy's only hope to a united nation.

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He rose to power when the Fascist political party came to power and he became prime minister of Italy in 1922; the youngest one at that. He truly began being regarded as a dictator when he fully transformed the Italian government into a one party state.

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When Mussolini was a child, he was seen as a smart kid with real potential. The only thing that stopped his teachers from believing he was a star pupil though, was that he was a disobedient and disrespectful student. He was kicked out of multiple schools throughout his childhood due to misconduct and cases of extreme bullying

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Benito Mussolini was born on July 29 , 1883 in Predappio, Italy and died on April 28, 1945 by firing squad during the end of WWII when Italy was losing the war by anti-fascist party members.