Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
The dictator who turned fascism into state power
On 25 July 1943, the king dismissed Mussolini as prime minister and had him arrested.
A socialist journalist turned nationalist during the First World War, Mussolini founded fascism as a movement claiming to overcome class conflict through the nation. After the March on Rome made him prime minister in 1922, he used political violence and institutional change to transform liberal Italy into a one-party dictatorship. Colonial war, alliance with Nazi Germany, and entry into the Second World War brought military defeat and political collapse. Overthrown in 1943, he headed the German-backed Italian Social Republic in the north until partisans captured and executed him in 1945.
Career timeline
- 1912Editor of the Italian Socialist Party paper Avanti!
- 1919Founded the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento
- 1921Leader of the National Fascist Party
- 1922–1943Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy
- 1925–1943Fascist dictator, Il Duce
- 1940–1943Directed Italy’s entry into and conduct of the Second World War
- 1943–1945Head of the Italian Social Republic