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In July 1940, he was made minister of war and soon clashed with the prime minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, who had been fighting for reform of his government, namely, demilitarization of its politics. In October, Konoye resigned because of increasing tension with Tojo, who succeeded him as prime minister.

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In 1922 Mussolini led a coalition of fascist leaders to Rome and forced the king to yield the government. Mussolini was appointed prime minister. By 1925 he had dismantled Italy's democratic government and, acting as a dictator, declared himself Il Duce ("The Leader").

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Serving in the Russian Civil War before overseeing the Soviet Union's establishment in 1922, Stalin assumed leadership over the country following Lenin's death in 1924.

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Roosevelt became president following the assassination of McKinley by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York; Czolgosz shot McKinley on September 6, 1901, and McKinley died on September 14. Roosevelt was sworn into office on the day of McKinley's death at the Ansley Wilcox House in Buffalo.

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Hitler's rise to power completed in August 1934 when President Paul von Hindenburg died. Hitler merged the Chancellorship with the Presidency and became the Führer of Germany.

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After Neville Chamberlain's resignation in 1940, Churchill was chosen to be Prime Minister of an all-party coalition government.

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Conservative 1940 to 1945, 1951 to 1955

Winston Churchill was an inspirational statesman, writer, orator and leader who led Britain to victory in the Second World War. He served as Conservative Prime Minister twice - from 1940 to 1945 (before being defeated in the 1945 general election by the Labour leader Clement Attlee) and from 1951 to 1955.

Born

30 November 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

Died

24 January 1965, London

Dates in office

1940 to 1945, 1951 to 1955

Political party

Conservative

Major acts

Education Act 1944: raised the school leavers age to 14; introduction of the 11+.

Interesting facts

Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his many published works. More information including archive footage can be found at the Churchill War Rooms.

Biography

David Cameron's Favourite Past Prime Minister
Winston Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire and was of rich, aristocratic ancestry. Although achieving poor grades at school, his early fascination with militarism saw him join the Royal Cavalry in 1895. As a soldier and part-time journalist, Churchill travelled widely, including trips to Cuba, Afghanistan, Egypt and South Africa.

Churchill was elected as Conservative MP for Oldham in 1900, before defecting to the Liberal Party in 1904 and spending the next decade climbing the ranks of the Liberal government. He was First Lord of the Admiralty (the civil/political head of the Royal Navy) by the time of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, which he created. Heavily criticised for this error, he resigned from this position and travelled to the Western Front to fight himself.

The interwar years saw Churchill again 'cross the floor' from the Liberals, back to the Conservative Party. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924, when he controversially opted for Britain to re-join the Gold Standard. Following the Tory electoral defeat in 1929, Churchill lost his seat and spent much of the next 11 years out of office, mainly writing and making speeches. Although he was alone in his firm opposition to Indian Independence, his warnings against the Appeasement of Nazi Germany were proven correct when the Second World War broke out in 1939.

Following Neville Chamberlain 's resignation in 1940, Churchill was chosen to succeed him as Prime Minister of an all-party coalition government.

Churchill, who also adopted the self-created position of Minister for Defence, was active both in administrative and diplomatic functions in prosecuting the British war effort. Some of his most memorable speeches were given in this period, and are credited with stimulating British morale during periods of great hardship. However, Labour leader Clement Attlee 's unexpected General Election victory in 1945 saw Churchill out of office and once again concentrating on public speaking. In his 1946 speech in the USA, the instinctive pro-American famously declared that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent", and warned of the continued danger from a powerful Soviet Russia.

By his re-election in 1951, Churchill was, in the words of Roy Jenkins, "gloriously unfit for office". Ageing and increasingly unwell, he often conducted business from his bedside, and while his powerful personality and oratory ability endured, the Prime Minister's leadership was less decisive than during the war. His second term was most notable for the Conservative Party's acceptance of Labour's newly created Welfare State, and Churchill's effect on domestic policy was limited. His later attempts at decreasing the developing Cold War through personal diplomacy failed to produce significant results, and poor health forced him to resign in 1955, making way for his Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Anthony Eden.

Churchill died in 1965, and was honoured with a state funeral.

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Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, aimed to eliminate Europe’s Jews and other perceived enemies of Nazi Germany. Learn more.

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Contents

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt's Early Life and Career

2. FDR's Polio and Election as Governor

3. Roosevelt Enters the White House

4. Roosevelt and the New Deal

5. Roosevelt's Reelection and "Court-Packing"

6. FDR and World War II

7. Yalta Conference and Franklin D. Roosevelt's Death

Franklin D. Roosevelt was in his second term as governor of New York when he was elected as the nation's 32nd president in 1932. With the country mired in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt immediately acted to restore public confidence, proclaiming a bank holiday and speaking directly to the public in a series of radio broadcasts or "fireside chats." His ambitious slate of New Deal programs and reforms redefined the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans.

Reelected by comfortable margins in 1936, 1940 and 1944, FDR led the United States from isolationism to victory over Nazi Germany and its allies in World War II. He spearheaded the successful wartime alliance between Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States and helped lay the groundwork for the post-war peace organization that would become the United Nations. The only American president in history to be elected four times, Roosevelt died in office in April 1945.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's Early Life and Career

Born on January 30, 1882, on a large estate near the village of Hyde Park, New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the only child of his wealthy parents, James and Sara Delano Roosevelt. He was educated by private tutors and elite schools (Groton and Harvard), and early on began to admire and emulate his fifth cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, elected president in 1901. While in college, Franklin fell in love with Theodore's niece (and his own distant cousin), Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, and they married in 1905. The couple had a daughter, Anna Roosevelt, and four sons who survived into adulthood: James Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., Elliott Roosevelt, and Jr., John A. Roosevelt. A fifth son named Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. died in infancy.

Did you know? Encouraged by his wife, Eleanor, FDR appointed more women to federal posts than any previous president; he also included Black Americans in federal job programs (though they remained largely segregated).

Roosevelt attended law school at Columbia University and worked for several years as a clerk in a Wall Street law firm. In 1910, he entered politics, winning a state senate seat as a Democrat in the heavily Republican Dutchess County. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson named Roosevelt assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy. He would hold that post for the next seven years, traveling to Europe in 1918 to tour naval bases and battlefields after the U.S. entrance into World War I.

FDR's Polio and Election as Governor

In 1921, Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio when he was 39 years old. Unable to walk, he temporarily removed himself from public life and focused on rehabilitation at his home in Hyde Park, where he'd swim three times a week in the Astor pool, slowly regaining strength. By the spring of 1922, he was able to stand again with braces. In 1924, he traveled to Warm Springs, Georgia, hoping to be healed by the spring's mineral waters. He ended up purchasing the resort and turning it into a rehabilitation center for Polio patients.

With the support of his wife and his longtime supporter, the journalist Louis Howe, Roosevelt began to return to public life, issuing statements on issues of the day and keeping up a correspondence with Democratic leaders. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke publicly throughout New York State, keeping her husband's reputation strong despite his illness; she also organized the women's division of the Democratic Party. In 1924, Franklin made a triumphant public appearance at the Democratic National Convention to nominate New York's Governor Alfred E. Smith for president (though Smith lost the nomination and the Democrats lost the general election).

He nominated Smith again in 1928, this time successfully, and at Smith's urgings agreed to run for governor of New York. Smith lost to Herbert Hoover, but Roosevelt won. Governor Roosevelt grew more liberal in his policies as New York (and the nation) sank deeper into economic depression after the stock market crash of 1929. In particular, he set up the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA), which aimed at finding jobs for the unemployed, and by 1932 TERA was helping nearly one out of every 10 families in New York.

Roosevelt Enters the White House

Re-elected as governor in 1930, Roosevelt emerged as a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination two years later. He broke tradition and appeared in person in Chicago to accept the nomination, famously pledging himself to "a new deal for the American people." In the general election, a confident and exuberant Roosevelt triumphed by an overwhelming margin over the incumbent Hoover, who had become a symbol for many people of the ongoing Great Depression.

In addition, Democrats won sizeable majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. By the time Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, the Depression had reached desperate levels, including 13 million unemployed. In the first inaugural address to be widely broadcast on the radio, Roosevelt boldly declared that "This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and prosper...[T]he only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Roosevelt began the momentous first 100 days of his presidency by closing all banks for several days until Congress could pass reform legislation. He also began holding open press conferences and giving regular national radio addresses in which he spoke directly to the American people. The first of these "fireside chats," about the banking crisis, was broadcast to a radio audience of some 60 million, and would go a long way toward restoring public confidence and preventing harmful bank runs. After passage of the Emergency Banking Relief Act, three out of every four banks were open within a week.

Roosevelt and the New Deal

Other key pieces of legislation during FDR's first "Hundred Days" created some of the most important programs and institutions of Roosevelt's New Deal, including the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), the Civilian Conservations Corps (CCC) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). In addition to programs aimed at providing economic relief for workers and farmers and creating jobs for the unemployed, Roosevelt also initiated a slate of reforms of the financial system, notably the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect depositors' accounts and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock market and prevent abuses of the kind that led to the 1929 crash.

In 1935, after the economy had begun to show signs of recovery, Roosevelt asked Congress to pass a new wave of reforms, known as "Second New Deal." These included the Social Security Act (which for the first time provided Americans with unemployment, disability, and pensions for old age) and the Works Progress Administration. The Democratic-led Congress also raised taxes on large corporations and wealthy individuals, a hike that was derisively known as the "soak-the-rich" tax.

Roosevelt's Reelection and "Court-Packing"

Controversial but extremely popular with voters, Roosevelt won re-election by a huge margin in 1936 over Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas. He faced opposition from the Supreme Court over his New Deal programs, and proposed an expansion of the court that would allow him to appoint one new justice for every sitting justice 70 or older. After heated debate, Congress rejected this "court-packing" scheme, handing FDR the biggest setback of his career. Nonetheless, the Court abruptly changed direction, upholding both the Social Security Act and the Wagner Act (officially the National Labor Relations Act).

Labor unrest and another economic downturn in 1937 hurt Roosevelt's approval ratings, but the crisis had largely passed by the following year. Republicans gained ground in the midterm congressional elections, however, and soon formed an alliance with conservative Democrats that would block further reform legislation. By the end of 1938, as support for the New Deal was waning, Roosevelt faced a new looming challenge, this time on the international stage.

FDR and World War II

As early as 1937, FDR warned the American public about the dangers posed by hard-line regimes in Germany, Italy and Japan, though he stopped short of suggesting America should abandon its isolationist policy. After World War II broke out in September 1939, however, Roosevelt called a special session of Congress in order to revise the country's existing neutrality acts and allow Britain and France to purchase American arms on a "cash-and-carry" basis. Germany captured France by the end of June 1940, and Roosevelt persuaded Congress to provide more support for Britain, now left to combat the Nazi menace on its own. Despite the two-term tradition for presidents in place since the time of George Washington, Roosevelt decided to run for reelection again in 1940; he defeated Wendell L. Wilkie by nearly 5 million votes.

Roosevelt increased his support of Great Britain with passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941 and met with Prime Minister Winston Churchill in August aboard a battleship anchored off Canada. In the resulting Atlantic Charter, the two leaders declared the " Four Freedoms " on which the post-war world should be founded: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

On December 8, 1941, the day after Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress, which declared war on Japan. The first president to leave the country during wartime, Roosevelt spearheaded the alliance between countries combating the Axis, meeting frequently with Churchill and seeking to establish friendly relations with the Soviet Union and its leader, Joseph Stalin. Meanwhile, he spoke constantly on the radio, reporting war events and rallying the American people in support of the war effort (as he had for the New Deal).

Yalta Conference and Franklin D. Roosevelt's Death

In 1944, as the tide of war turned toward the Allies, a weary and ailing Roosevelt managed to win election to a fourth term in the White House. The following February, he met with Churchill and Stalin in the Yalta Conference, where Roosevelt got Stalin's commitment to enter the war against Japan after Germany's impending surrender. (The Soviet leader kept that promise, but failed to honor his pledge to establish democratic governments in the eastern European nations then under Soviet control.) The "Big Three" also worked to build foundations for the post-war international peace organization that would become the United Nations.

After Roosevelt returned from Yalta, he was so weak that he was forced to sit down while addressing Congress for the first time in his presidency. In early April 1945, he left Washington and traveled to his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia, where he had long before established a nonprofit foundation to aid polio patients. Roosevelt suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and died on April 12, 1945. He was succeeded in office by his vice president, Harry S. Truman.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as the nation's 32nd president in 1932. With the country mired in the Great Depression, Roosevelt immediately acted to restore public confidence, speaking directly to the public in a series of radio broadcasts or "fireside chats," and implementing his New Deal programs and reforms. The only American president in history to be elected four times, Roosevelt died in office in April 1945.

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Young Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili on December 18, 1878, or December 6, 1878, according to the Old Style Julian calendar (although he later invented a new birth date for himself: December 21, 1879). He grew up in the small town of Gori, Georgia, then part of the Russian empire. When he was in his 30s, he took the name Stalin, from the Russian for "man of steel."

Did you know? In 1925, the Russian city of Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad. In 1961, as part of the de-Stalinization process, the city, located along Europe's longest river, the Volga, became known as Volgograd. Today, it is one of Russia's largest cities and a key industrial center.

Stalin grew up poor and an only child. His father was a shoemaker and an alcoholic who beat his son, and his mother was a laundress. As a boy, Stalin contracted smallpox, which left him with lifelong facial scars. As a teen, he earned a scholarship to attend a seminary in the nearby city of Tblisi and study for the priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church.

While there he began secretly reading the work of German social philosopher and Communist Manifesto author Karl Marx, becoming interested in the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy. In 1899, Stalin was expelled from the seminary for missing exams, although he claimed it was for Marxist propaganda.

After leaving school, Stalin became an underground political agitator, taking part in labor demonstrations and strikes. He adopted the name Koba, after a fictional Georgian outlaw-hero, and joined the more militant wing of the Marxist Social Democratic movement, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin.

Stalin also became involved in various criminal activities, including bank heists, the proceeds from which were used to help fund the Bolshevik Party. He was arrested multiple times between 1902 and 1913, and subjected to imprisonment and exile in Siberia.

Children

In 1906, Stalin married Ekaterina "Kato" Svanidze, a seamstress. The couple had one son, Yakov, who died as a prisoner in Germany during World War II. Ekaterina perished from typhus when her son was an infant.

In 1918 (some sources cite 1919), Stalin married his second wife, Nadezhda "Nadya" Alliluyeva, the daughter of a Russian revolutionary. They had two children, a boy and a girl (Stalin's only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, caused an international scandal when she defected to the United States in 1967). Nadezhda committed suicide in her early 30s. Stalin also fathered several children out of wedlock.

Rise to Power

In 1912, Lenin, who was then in exile in Switzerland, appointed Stalin to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Three years later, in November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power during the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Union was founded in 1922, with Lenin as its first leader.

During these years, Stalin had continued to move up the party ladder, and in 1922 he became secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, a role that enabled him to appoint his allies to government jobs and grow a base of political support.

After Lenin died in 1924, Stalin eventually outmaneuvered his rivals and won the power struggle for control of the Communist Party. By the late 1920s, he had become dictator of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union Under Stalin

Starting in the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin launched a series of five-year plans intended to transform the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrial superpower. His development plan was centered on government control of the economy and included the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, in which the government took control of farms.

Millions of farmers refused to cooperate with Stalin's orders and were shot or exiled as punishment, particularly the kulaks, the more-prosperous farmers who owned land and hired paid workers. The forced collectivization soon led to widespread famine across the Soviet Union that killed millions.

Stalin ruled by terror, with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor camps.

During the second half of the 1930s, Stalin instituted the Great Purge, a series of campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party, the military and other parts of Soviet society from those he considered a threat.

Additionally, Stalin built a cult of personality around himself in the Soviet Union. Cities were renamed in his honor. Soviet history books were rewritten to give him a more prominent role in the revolution and mythologize other aspects of his life.

Stalin was the subject of flattering artwork, literature and music, and his name became part of the Soviet national anthem. He censored photographs in an attempt to rewrite history, removing former associates executed during his many purges. His government also controlled the Soviet media.

Joseph Stalin and World War II

In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Joseph Stalin and Germany's Nazi Party dictator Adolf Hitler signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland and Romania, as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He also launched an invasion of Finland.

Then, in June 1941, Germany broke the Nazi-Soviet pact and invaded the USSR, making significant early inroads. (Stalin had ignored warnings from the Americans and the British, as well as his own intelligence agents, about a potential invasion, and the Soviets were not prepared for war.)

As German troops approached the Soviet capital of Moscow, Stalin remained there and directed a scorched earth defensive policy, destroying any supplies or infrastructure that might benefit the enemy. The tide turned for the Soviets with the Battle of Stalingrad from August 1942 to February 1943, during which the Red Army defeated the Germans and eventually drove them from Russia.

As the war progressed, Stalin participated in the major Allied conferences, including the Tehran Conference (1943) and the Yalta Conference (1945). His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet empire.

Later Years

Joseph Stalin did not mellow with age: He initiated a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to labor camps and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign-especially Western-influence.

He established communist governments throughout Eastern Europe, and in 1949 led the Soviets into the nuclear age by exploding an atomic bomb. In 1950, he gave North Korea's communist leader Kim Il Sung permission to invade United States-supported South Korea, an event that triggered the Korean War.

How Did Joseph Stalin Die?

Stalin, who grew increasingly paranoid in his later years, died on March 5, 1953, at age 74, after suffering a stroke. His body was embalmed and preserved in Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square until 1961, when it was removed and buried near the Kremlin walls as part of the de-Stalinization process initiated by Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971).

How Many People Did Joseph Stalin Kill?

By some estimates, Joseph Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 6 million to 20 million people during his brutal rule, either though political executions or indirectly as a result of Stalin's policies. The killings first began in the 1930s, as a wave of executions swept the Soviet Union during Stalin's Great Purge.

"In some cases, a quota was established for the number to be executed, the number to be arrested," said Stanford University history professor Norman Naimark in a 2010 interview. "Some officials overfulfilled as a way of showing their exuberance."

Millions more were killed in the horrific famine that struck Ukraine in 1932-1933 and the Kazakh region from 1930 to 1933, as a of Stalin's cruel efforts to impose collectivism of agriculture and tamp down Ukrainian nationalism. Estimates vary, but about 4 million men, women and children are believed to have starved to death during the Holodomor (a combination of the Ukrainian words for "starvation" and "to inflict death").

Sources

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953). PBS.
Joseph Stalin: National hero or cold-blooded murderer? BBC.
Stalin killed millions. A Stanford historian answers the question, was it genocide? Stanford News.

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Joseph Stalin: Death, Quotes & Facts - HISTORY

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Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. Through terror, murder, brutality and mass imprisonment, he modernized the Soviet economy.

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Childhood

Born on July 29, 1883, in Verano di Costa, Italy, Mussolini was the son of blacksmith and ardent socialist Alessandro Mussolini and a devout Catholic mother, Rosa Maltoni. By most accounts, Mussolini's family lived in simple, small quarters.

Young Mussolini was expelled from his first boarding school at age 10 for stabbing a fellow student. At 14, he stabbed another student but was only suspended.

Socialist Activism

Much of Mussolini's early adulthood was spent traveling around Switzerland, getting involved with that country's Socialist Party and clashing with police. In 1909, he moved to Austria-Hungary to become editor of a socialist newspaper, but was deported back to Italy after being accused of violating laws meant to regulate press freedom.

In 1910, Mussolini became the editor for another Italian socialist newspaper, but soon spent six months in jail for inciting violence. During his incarceration, he began to write his autobiography-though still in his twenties-detailing his troubled school years and his many romantic conquests.

Mussolini split from the Socialist Party in 1914. Starting his own newspaper, he encouraged violence from his supporters as unrest spread across the country.

Italian Facism

In 1915, Mussolini joined the Italian army in World War I. He fought on the front lines and obtained the rank of corporal before being discharged for a war wound. Mussolini returned to newspapers and by 1918 called for a dictator to seize control of Italy. Pressure from Mussolini and his followers forced the government to order the internment of foreigners they considered enemies.

After the Treaty of Versailles in 1919-and his dissatisfaction with it-Mussolini gathered the various fascist groups into a national organization called Fasci Italiani di Combattimento. The Italian Fascists courted war veterans and encouraged violence against socialists. Mussolini stockpiled weapons and explosives in his newspaper offices.

Children and Marriages

Mussolini was married twice: to Ida Dalser in 1914, and to his longtime mistress Rachele Guidi one year later. Additionally, Mussolini had a number of other mistresses and liaisons.

His first marriage produced a son, Benito Albino Mussolini. Following Mussolini's second marriage, records of his first marriage and son were destroyed or suppressed, and both wife and son were kept under constant surveillance. Italian authorities sent Ida to an island near Venice, where she died in 1937. Her son was forced into an asylum near Milan, where he died in 1942 at age 26.

Mussolini's marriage to Rachele lasted until his death. The couple had five children: three sons, Vittorio, Bruno and Romano, and two daughters, Edda and Anna Maria. Rachele died in 1979 at age 89.

Rise to Power

By the end of 1919, Mussolini stood in a general election as the Fascist candidate but lost in a Socialist sweep. Two days later, Mussolini was arrested for allegedly collecting arms to overthrow the government. He was released without charges the next day.

In 1921, the Italian King Victor Emmanuel III dissolved Parliament amidst growing violence and chaos. Elections brought a huge win for the Fascists, with Mussolini taking a seat as a deputy in Parliament. The party changed its name to Partito Nazionale Fascista.

Fascists Seize Control of Italy

In 1922, Fascists were instructed to wear uniforms, including black shirts, in squads that were modeled after Roman army groups. All party members were considered squad members.

Soon after, several Italian cities were seized by Fascist squads, who also burned down communist and socialist offices.

In October 1922, Mussolini threatened to march on Rome to take control of the government through violent force if it was not handed over. King Victor Emmanuel and the government were slow to act, eventually dispatching troops, though Fascists had already seized control of some local governments.

Refusing to pass martial law, Victor Emmanuel watched as thousands of armed Fascists entered Rome. He dissolved the government and asked Mussolini to form a new one.

Prime Minister Mussolini

Mussolini became Prime Minister, as well as Minister of the Interior and Minister for Foreign Affairs. Mussolini did not become a dictator overnight, but a speech he gave to the Italian parliament on January 3, 1925, asserting his right to supreme power is generally seen as the effective date that Mussolini declared himself dictator of Italy.

Mussolini's first act as prime minister was to demand special emergency powers allowing him to rig elections in the Fascists' favor. Soon after, the Italian parliament made suspicion of being anti-Fascist punishable by imprisonment without trial.

The next year police rounded-up Socialists, and the government restricted their publishing activities. A Socialist deputy plotted to assassinate Mussolini, but the betrayal of a friend led to his arrest just before the attempt. Several other assassination attempts followed.

Italy Under Fascism

In 1926, Fascists created a youth group called the Opera Nazionale Balilla, pressuring children to join. The Catholic Boy Scouts were dissolved and the formation of other youth groups became illegal.

The same year, all communist members of Parliament were arrested, and all Socialist Party members expelled. Anyone who could not be prosecuted for a crime was detained for up to five years and placed in island internment camps.

Cinemas were required to screen government propaganda in the form of newsreels. Fascists owned 66 percent of the newspapers and controlled reporting, issuing daily editorial guidelines and threatening editors with arrest.

The Order of Journalists was created and membership was mandatory. Newspapers were allowed to criticize the government as long as they generally expressed support.
READ MORE: How Mussolini Seized Power in Italy
Mussolini and Hitler

At first, Mussolini disapproved of Germany's Adolf Hitler, but over time their partnership grew and Mussolini embraced Hitler's anti-Semitic measures.

Following Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, Germany was the second country to recognize Italy's legitimacy there. Both Hitler and Mussolini sided with Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, with Mussolini providing 50,000 troops.

In 1937, Italy left the League of Nations in solidarity with Germany, and in March of 1938, Hitler invaded Austria with Mussolini's support.

Mussolini wrote an article in 1938 that aligned Italians with the German concept of the Aryan race. When anti-Jewish laws began to appear in Italy, Germany felt they were weak, but Mussolini was prepared to increase their severity as needed. Soon after, Mussolini called for the expulsion of foreign Jews from Italy.
WATCH VIDEO: American Women in World War II
Axis Powers

Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939 immediately caused Britain and France to declare war against Germany, but Mussolini, for the moment, remained neutral.

Germany's invasion of Denmark and Norway convinced Mussolini that Hitler would win the war. Soon Holland and Belgium also fell to Hitler. On May 22, 1939, Italy and Germany signed the " Pact of Steel" officially creating the Axis powers. ( Japan would join in September of 1940 with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.)

As the Germans plowed through France in June 1940, Mussolini announced Italy's entrance into the war. Italy declared war on France and Great Britain on June 10, 1940.

The Plot Against Mussolini

By 1943, after years of fighting in World War II, Italy was viewed by its own citizens as losing the war.

On July 25, 1943, Mussolini was voted out of power by his own Grand Council, arrested after a visit with the king and sent to the island of La Maddalena.

When Italy accepted the terms of secret peace talks with the Allies, Hitler ordered German forces into Italy, which resulted in two Italian nations, one occupied by Germans.

Mussolini, fearful of being handed over, was instead rescued by Hitler's forces. Transported to German-occupied northern Italy, he was installed as Hitler's puppet leader, creating the Italian Social Republic and leading to the extermination of thousands of Italian Jews.

Allied forces began barreling through Italy in June 1944, and Mussolini attempted to flee to Spain in April 1945 with his lover, Claretta Petacci, but was discovered and arrested by partisans searching troop transport trucks.

How Did Mussolini Die?

There are conflicting stories about how Mussolini died, but autopsy reports state the dictator was executed by firing squad on April 28, 1945, shot by soldiers firing several bullets-with four of them near the heart-causing immediate death.

The bodies of both Mussolini and Petacci were hung upside down at the Piazzale Loreto in Milan and displayed for crowds to kick and spit on. One day later, Hitler committed suicide and the following week, Germany surrendered.

Mussolini's Body

Mussolini's body was buried in an unmarked grave, which was unearthed in 1946 by Fascist supporters, who took the body to a convent in Lombardy. The government recovered it and interred it in a monastery near Milan.

Mussolini's wife petitioned to have the body moved from a grave in Milan to a family mausoleum in Predappio in 1957.

In 1966, she was given an envelope containing a piece of her husband's brain. The American diplomat who handed it to her claimed that the Americans had taken the brain in order to study what makes a dictator. She had the relic placed in his tomb, which receives 100,000 visitors a year.

Mussolini Quotes

"It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep."

"Democracy is a kingless regime infested by many kings who are sometimes more exclusive, tyrannical and destructive than one, even if he be a tyrant."

"Many think, and I myself am one of them, that capitalism is scarcely at the beginning of its story."

Sources

Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce. Ray Moseley.
Mussolini. Jasper Ridley.
Mussolini. Rupert Colley.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). BBC.

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Benito Mussolini: Children, Death & World War II - HISTORY

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Benito Mussolini, an Italian political leader who allied himself with Adolf Hitler during World War II, became the fascist dictator of Italy from 1925-1945.

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HISTORY CRUNCH - History Articles, Biographies, Infographics, Resources and More

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Hideki Tojo was the head of Japan's government during most of World War II. This position made him the general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Prime Minister of Japan. As such, historians refer to Hideki Tojo as the 'Military Leader' of Japan during World War II. This is because some authority in Japan also rested with Emperor Hirohito. For instance, the Emperor of Japan was the official head of state of the country and viewed as a living god. Despite this, Hideki Tojo was responsible for the military actions carried out by Japan. For instance, Hideki Tojo was responsible for one of the most significant events of World War II - the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor.
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Hideki Tojo was born on December 30th 1884 in Tokyo, Japan. His father, Hidenori Tojo, was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army. As a child, Hideki Tojo received an education that focused heavily on military training. This was common in Japan at the time, as the country promoted the importance of warriors who were loyal to the Emperor. In fact, Japanese boys were always taught to fight for the honor of the Emperor. As stated above, the Emperor was viewed as a living god, and Japanese soldiers were expected to die for the honor of the Emperor.​

Historians have noted that Tojo was known to be stubborn as a child and worked tirelessly towards goals that he hoped to achieve. As such, he was known to be very competitive and work extremely hard. For instance, Tojo has been quoted as saying "I am just an ordinary man possessing no shining talents. Anything I have achieved I owe to my capacity for hard work and never giving up".​

​Tojo furthered his military training in 1899 when he began training at the Army Cadet School. He graduated from the school six years later in 1905 and immediately was positioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry of the Imperial Japanese Army.

​Tojo married Katsuko Ito in 1909 and the couple had three children (all boys) together. His role in the Imperial Japanese Army allowed him to travel, including trips to Germany and the United States. Tojo travelled to Germany in the 1920s, where he was impressed by Germany military advances. Japan had modelled its own military after the German military since the 19th century. Around the same time, Tojo took a trip to the United States where he witnessed American society. This was important, because based on this trip Tojo formed an opinion that Americans were weak and undisciplined. This was likely due to Tojo's own tremendous work ethic, which was an important part of his personality. This attention to detail and strong work ethic proved positive for Tojo as he advanced in his military career.

​Throughout the 1930s, Tojo worked his way up in the Imperial Japanese Army. For instance, he was promoted to the position of major general in 1934. With this position he was also given command of the 24th Infantry Brigade of the Imperial Japanese Army. As well, Tojo was known for being a supporter of strong expression of nationalism for Japan. This was common among Japanese military leaders at the time. Furthermore, Tojo supported a militaristic viewpoint, in which Japan could obtain its goals and expand its territory through militaristic expansion.

​Tojo furthered his rise to power in 1935 when he was given command over the Kwantung Army in Manchuria, which was a region in northeastern China. This position allowed him to use his militaristic insights to expand Japanese influence in China. He was later promoted to the position of Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army in 1937. He returned to Japan in 1938 and continued to gain influence in the Japanese military.

​In July of 1940, Tojo was appointed as Army Minister for Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. This was significant because Tojo's military successes had also gained him political influence in the Japanese government. Konoe had chosen Tojo because he believed that Tojo was a strong-minded commander who would promote honor and devotion to the Emperor. Furthermore, Tojo was known to be a strong ultranationalist, which aligned with Konoe's own personal views. Ultranationalism is an extreme form of nationalism that promotes total loyalty to the nation, even if it means promoting hatred and violence against others.

​Under Tojo's guidance as Army Minister, Japan aligned itself militarily with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. For instance, the three countries agreed to a defensive military alliance in September of 1940, referred to as the Tripartite Pact. At the same time, Tojo was tasked with seeking a form of peace with the Allied Powers of World War II and the United States. However, the growing tensions from the start of World War II made this unlikely. This proved important, as Prime Minister Konoe came under increased pressure due to the growing likelihood of a war with the Allied Powers. As a result, Konoe resigned as Prime Minister in October of 1940 and was replaced by Hideki Tojo after he was chosen by Emperor Hirohito.

​Hideki Tojo ruled Japan as a militaristic dictator. Tojo's leadership over Japan was based on several key principles. First, Tojo expressed, and demanded, extreme loyalty to Emperor Hirohito. For Tojo, as with most Japanese people at the time, the Emperor was a living god and deserved the utmost respect. For instance, Tojo would have expected his soldiers to die before being captured as a sign of respect for the Emperor. Tojo, and other government officials, promoted this to the Japanese soldiers through powerful propaganda. Tojo also supported the long-held belief of 'bushido'. In short, 'bushido' translates to 'the way of the warrior' and refers to a set of expectations for Japanese soldiers. For instance, it was expected that soldiers would die before dishonoring their Emperor.

​As such, the Japanese bushido code of honor, coupled with effective propaganda which portrayed American soldiers as ruthless animals, prevented surrender for many Japanese soldiers. Instead of surrendering, many Japanese soldiers would kill themselves. For example, Japanese soldiers were known to charge at the American defensive lines even when they were outnumbered and lacked weapons. They were essentially running to their deaths as the American soldiers shot and killed them. Also, Japanese soldiers were known to kill themselves by ritual suicide. This would involve them either carrying out seppuku (which involved them thrusting a samurai sword into their own abdomen) or they would kill themselves by pulling the pin of a grenade and holding it until it exploded. This extreme loyalty can also be viewed as a form of ultranationalism, since the Japanese soldiers were expressing extreme loyalty to their nation.

​Tojo's leadership was also centered on his own control over several aspects of Japanese society. For instance, while he was Prime Minister, Tojo also served as his own minister in several different ministries, including: Foreign Affairs, Education and Commerce. This displays Tojo's controlling nature since he preferred to hold power over the society than have it shared with other influential members of his government.

​Another example of his nationalistic nature can be seen in how he organized the education of Japanese youth during his years as Prime Minister. For example, Tojo carried out indoctrination in the education system by promoting Japanese militaristic values. He did this as a measure of gaining widespread support for the war on the home front and as a means of preparing young people for war.

​Finally, Tojo was also known to support the policies of eugenics, which were famously practised by Nazi Germany. In short, eugenics is the practise of promoting certain genetic traits in a society by preventing some people from reproducing. The Nazi's promoted eugenics in their society with the events of the Holocaust. For his part, Tojo supported the sterilization of people he deemed to be 'mentally unfit'. As such, Tojo was hoping to produce a stronger country by not allowing some people to reproduce and have children. The practise of eugenics has been widely denounced across the world as a prejudice and cruel action. However, it highlights Tojo's nationalistic and totalitarian rule.

​Hideki Tojo was chosen to be the next Prime Minister due to his expressions of loyalty to the Emperor and because of his pro-war stance against the United States. As a result, when Tojo became the Prime Minister he began preparations for Japan's entrance into World War II. For instance, Japan entered the fighting of World War II on December 7th, 1941 with the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Tojo oversaw the operations of the attack due to his role as Prime Minister. The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a vitally important event as it set the stage for the war in the Pacific Theatre while also causing the United States to enter World war II on the side of the Allies. With that said, while Japan had achieved the element of surprise at Pearl Harbor, it failed to knock out the American Pacific Fleet.

​Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese enjoyed a series of victories. For instance, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) famously sank two British Royal Navy ships on December 10th of 1941 - the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse. Furthermore, in 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy carried out a series of successful attacks against Australian targets, including the Sydney Harbor. These victories created a feeling within Tojo's government that Japan was undefeatable. However, 1942 also proved to be a difficult year for Japan, as it suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Midway. The Battle of Midway was a terrible loss for Japan, as it was never able to recover following it. As such, historians often refer to the Battle of Midway as a 'turning point' in the Pacific Theatre, because it shifted the power of the war from Japan to the United States.

​The loss at the Battle of Midway in June of 1942 was not only a massive loss militarily for Japan but it was also a difficult loss for Tojo and his leadership over the country. Several influential people in Tojo's government began to question his authority and his ability to deal with the growing uncertainty about the war. This caused Tojo to push harder for what he believed was necessary for Japan to win the war. Regardless, throughout the remaining years of the war (1943 to 1945) Japan suffered a series of major losses. For instance, at its height Japan had controlled large areas of the South Pacific, but the United States successfully pushed through these regions and forced Japan back to its home islands. The United States famously used a strategy called 'island-hopping', which saw its forces only capture main islands on its way to the Japanese homeland. In response to these losses, Tojo ordered his forces back to guard the homeland and protect the Emperor. In fact, he ordered home millions of Japanese soldiers who were stationed in China to help in the defense. Tojo had hoped that these returning soldiers would help the Japanese forces push back the Americans and force their retreat. However, following a series of major losses, Tojo realized that Japan was all but lost the war. For instance, the Battle of Saipan took place from June 15th to July 9th in 1944 and was a major loss for Japan. This loss proved to be too much for Tojo's continued leadership and just days later on July 18th Emperor Hirohito forced him to resign as Prime Minister. Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai replaced Tojo as Prime Minister.

​Japan finally surrendered to the United States in 1945 following the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Following the end of the war, Hideki Tojo was arrested by American forces on the orders of United States General Douglas MacArthur. Tojo actually tried to commit suicide when he was arrested by shooting himself in the chest, but he survived.

​Tojo had been arrested for war crimes. The term 'war crimes' is when a person or group of people commit extreme acts during a time of war that are considered to be beyond what is acceptable. For his part, Tojo was tried and convicted of several different war crimes, including: starting a war of aggression, unprovoked war against other nations, and ordering the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. He was tried before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which had been set up to hold Japanese war criminals accountable. In fact, historians estimate that millions of people died as a result of Hideki Tojo's decisions.

​Ultimately, Tojo accepted responsibility for his actions in the war and asked the Americans to help Japan recover following the two atomic bombings in the country. For instance, he famously stated the following:

​ "It is natural that I should bear entire responsibility for the war in general, and, needless to say, I am prepared to do so. Consequently, now that the war has been lost, it is presumably necessary that I be judged so that the circumstances of the time can be clarified and the future peace of the world be assured. Therefore, with respect to my trial, it is my intention to speak frankly, according to my recollection, even though when the vanquished stands before the victor, who has over him the power of life and death, he may be apt to toady and flatter. I mean to pay considerable attention to this in my actions, and say to the end that what is true is true and what is false is false. To shade one's words in flattery to the point of untruthfulness would falsify the trial and do incalculable harm to the nation, and great care must be taken to avoid this."

​In the end, Hideki Tojo was sentenced to death for his role in war crimes and was executed on December 23rd in 1948 by hanging. Today, Tojo is remembered as an ultranationalist who ruled over Japan with a devout loyalty to the Emperor. However, he also led Japan into a major conflict that they ultimately could not win.

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Hideki Tojo was the head of Japan's government during most of World War II. This position made him the general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Prime Minister of Japan. As such, historians refer to Hideki Tojo as the 'Military Leader' of Japan during World War II.

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Tōjō Hideki, (born December 30, 1884, Tokyo, Japan—died December 23, 1948, Tokyo), soldier and statesman who was prime minister of Japan (1941–44) during most of the Pacific theatre portion of World War II and who was subsequently tried and executed for war crimes.

Tojo became known as 'Razor Tojo' because he was efficient, and rose quickly up the army ranks. Hideki Tojo led Japanese forces in Manchuria during the Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s. Tojo became Kwantung Army chief of staff in 1937