Benito Mussolini was born July 29, 1883 near Predappio, Italy. He lived with his
family in a small cottage attached to the school where his mother taught. His
mother was named Rosa Maltoni. His father was a blacksmith named Alessandro
Mussolini. He had a brother named Arnaldo, and a sister named Edvige. As a
child, Benito was very strong willed, unruly, and violent. He was also mostly a
loner. He actually preferred reading to playing with other children. His parents
thought he would do better at a boarding school so, at age 9, he was sent to
Salesian School. He hated it there and was as violent as ever. He threw an
inkpot at a teacher and stabbed a child, just to name a couple of his violent
outbursts. His parents then sent him to Royal Normal School, a secular school.
He did much better there for it was less strict. He also made some progress in
his academic skills there. In 1901, he graduated. He became interested in
politics there so became an apprentice. In 1902, Mussolini qualified as a
teacher. Later he left Italy for Switzerland to work odd jobs and become a
political activist. In 1910, he got married to a lady named Rachele. That same
year they had a child named Edda. In 1911, he got arrested for protesting the
Libyan war. Also that year he became editor of the Avanti! newspaper. Three
years later he started his own newspaper called: Il Popolo d' Italia. Mussolini
had another child named Vittorio and went off to fight in World War I. It is
said he also had three other children, but their names and date of birth are
unmentioned. In 1917, he was wounded in a training exercise so returned home.
Mussolini was the founder and leader of Italian fascism, an authoritarian
political movement developed in Italy and other European countries as a reaction
to social changes brought by World War I and the spread of socialism and
communism. Then King Victor Emmanuel III offered Mussolini a job as a figurehead
monarch of Italy. Instead, Mussolini becomes prime minister after the
"March on Rome," an event staged by the blackshirts, which lead
Mussolini to power. In 1925, Mussolini took leadership, as dictator, from the
weak coalition government. He did this by earning trust by building new roads,
houses, and factories. One of his many boasts was he made Italian trains run on
time. In 1928, the Italian government was completely abolished. People had to
obey "Il Duce," Mussolini's nickname, meaning "the leader,"
or be put in jail or, worse yet, be killed. Mussolini formed an alliance with
Hitler in 1937. Two years later, World War II broke out, and Mussolini signed
the "Pact of Steel," a military alliance with Hitler. There were three
dictators of World War II: Mussolini of Italy, Hitler of Germany, and Tojo of
Japan. Mussolini mainly joined World War II because he was jealous of all the
land Hitler and Germany were getting. However, Mussolini's old-fashioned army
was not at all prepared, so it basically unsuccessful in attacking countries. In
1943, Mussolini was dismissed by King Victor Emmanuel III then arrested. After
that, King Victor made peace with the Allies. September twelfth the Germans
rescued him and made him head of a "puppet government," or a
government with no power. On April 28, 1945, Mussolini, the great Italian
dictator, was captured by partisans, shot, and hung in a public square in Milan,
Italy.