WW2 - "Il Duce" Benito Mussolini

Mussolini, Benito

A former socialist, Benito Mussolini founded the Italian Fascist Party in 1919, thereby establishing the basis for a philosophy of military dictatorship and authoritarianism that would sweep through Europe in the 1920s and 30s, culminating in the overthrow of democracy in much of Southern and Central Europe.

Taking advantage of acute economic distress and fears of a communist take over, Mussolini led his supporters in a march on Rome, a demonstration of strength and popular support that persuaded the Italian monarch to confer power on Mussolini, thus lending a spurious legitimacy to political violence.

By 1929 Mussolini had eliminated all opposition, created a one party state, and concentrated all political and legislative power in a Fascist Grand Council, entirely dominated by himself.

Linked, but distinct ideologies brought Mussolini into close contact with Adolf Hitler, after the latter's accession to power in Germany.

The Anti-Commintern Pact of 1936 committed their countries, along with Japan, to a diplomatic alliance against the spread of communism and laid the foundations for a more comprehensive military alliance that became known as the Axis.

But from this time onwards, Mussolini's star declined, his status as the senior statesman of the European dictatorships, eclipsed by the burgeoning economic and military power of Hitler's Germany.

When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Mussolini was neither consulted nor informed. Yet the stunning victories of the German armies in Poland, and later in Denmark and Norway, were viewed with increasing envy by the Italian Dictator.

Determined to share, if not in the spoils, then at least in the glory of Hitler's victories, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France in June 1940, only days before France's capitulation.

Expecting a similar harvest, Mussolini sent his armies into Egypt on September 13th and attacked Greece on October 28th, but the disastrous course of these campaigns, combined with the humiliating defeats inflicted on his navy, greatly undermined Mussolini ' s position at home, and marked the beginning of his dependency on Hitler for political as well as military support.

A catalogue of disasters, culminating in an Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, precipitated the final crisis for Mussolini. His credibility tarnished by a series of broken promises, and fatally undermined by the bombing of Italy's cities, he was deposed and arrested on July 25th 1943.

Imprisoned by the new government at Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi Mountains, Mussolini was soon rescued in a dramatic raid by German paratroops. After flying to Germany Mussolini was reinstalled by Hitler at the head of a puppet government in Northern Italy, by then under German occupation.

Reviled by his own people, as Hitler's minion and the agent of German occupation, Mussolini's tenure as head of this state ended with his capture by partisans in April 1945. With his mistress, Clara Petachi, Mussolini was murdered, mutilated and hung by his heels in the town square of Milan.

It marked a squalid, but strangely ironic end to both Mussolini, and Italy's unhappy and largely reluctant participation in the War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini

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[ILCACANNATORE]

Il Pareggio di bilancio già dal'24, la rivalutazione della Lira nel '28, il miracolo economico degli anni 30, gli assegni familiari, le casse rurali e artigiane, la modernizzazione del paese che diventa industriale nel '38, etc etc

VIVA BENITO MUSSOLINI!

VIVA IL FASCISMO ITALIANO!

[lipimunaquiqi]

@resnoex1

You should be ashamed for what you said...He was a dictator

In any case, Britain and france are responsble as well for what happened

[RoosterCogburn1008]

@scarefaceR18 While Hitler could only speak German, Mussolini was able to speak Italian, German, English, and French.

[alepuggi]

mussolini era un ciccia cazzi gay paraculo 

[Jefgg]

Hitler was a sick fuck. But Nazi Germany was a legitimate military power. Benito Mussolini and his band of greasy wops were a joke as a military power. They couldn't handle third world countries like Ethiopia in battle. The Nazis could overrun a country in days. The Japanese were no joke either. But Guineas can't fight their way out of a paper bag. They are too busy stuffing their faces and drinking vino. Then when things go badly they change sides. Fuck those greasy cocksuckers.

[Jefgg]

Joe Paterno idolizes Benito Mussolini. Mussolini was Il Duce. Joe Pa is Ill Douche Bag. I hope Paterno meets an ending siminar to Mussolini. Mussolini was dictator of an entire country. Joe Pa was dicktator of an overrated college football team and all the ignorant retards who worshipped them.

[Miharu245]

Hetalia

[scarefaceR18]

did hitler speak italian aswell, or did mussolini speak german, ? how did they talk to ezch other ?!

[rickenbackerlawlor]

saluto il duce

[jamesog15]

Benito Mussolini, che uomo!

[jamesog15]

Benito Mussolini what a man!

[ohJubzyyy]

Yumm Penguin's :)