Mussolini+and+the+Fascists+Take+Power+in+Italy

John Riedymedia type="custom" key="2970362" google blogger name=john johnriedy@yahoo.com http://www.ultimateitaly.com/peoples/benito-mussolini.html -He moved to Switzerland to escape military service -He founded a new newspaper II Popolo d’italia with the help of his mistress Margherita Sarfatti -Mussolini was called of for military services but couldn’t continue longer as he was wounded in a grenade practice and thus return to edit his paper in the year -He started fascism in a organized way by forming the Fasci di Combattimento and making it into a political movement -Although he lost the election in 1919 but he managed to enter the parliament in the year 1921 -The fascisti formed armed squads of war veterans called squadristi to terrorize and control the anarchist, socialist and communist which was never being stopped by the government -1922 when the then government of Giovanni Giolitti, Ivanoe Bonomi and Luigi Facta failed to stop the spread of anarchy and Mussolini was invited to form a government by Vittorio Emanuele III on a threat of Marcia su Roma or march on Rome. Thus Mussolini became the youngest ever premier in the history at the age of 39 -There are lot of similarity between Adolf Hitler and Mussolini

-On April 28th 1945 Mussolini and his mistress along with sixteen other officials and ministers of Italian social republic were both executed in the village of Giulino di Mezzegra -Fascist dictator

http://hitlersraid.com/images/Mussolini%20headshot.jpg http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/02/12/mussolini13207_narrowweb__300x374,0.jpg

Pat Sweeney pat716@verizon.net Google/Blogger - psweeney716

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini Early Life As a young boy, Mussolini would spend time helping his father in his blacksmithing. It was likely here that he was exposed to his father's significant political beliefs. Alessandro was a socialist and a republican, but also held some nationalistic views, especially in regards to some of the Italians who were living under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which were not consistent with the internationalist socialism of the time. The conflict between his parents about religion meant that, unlike most Italians, Mussolini was not baptised at birth and would not be until much later in life. However, as a compromise with his mother, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks. Mussolini was rebellious and was expelled after a series of behaviour related incidents, including throwing stones at the congregation after Mass, stabbing a fellow student in the hand and throwing an inkpot at a teacher. After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901.

Creation of Fascism By the time Mussolini returned from Allied service in World War I, he had decided that socialism as a doctrine had largely been a failure. In early 1918, Mussolini called for the emergence of a man "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" to revive the Italian nation. Much later in life Mussolini said he felt by 1919 "Socialism as a doctrine was already dead; it continued to exist only as a grudge". On March 23, 1919, Mussolini reformed the Milan //fascio // as the //Fasci Italiani di Combattimento// (Italian Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members.

Death On April 29, 1945, the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress were taken to the Piazzale Loreto (in Milan) and hung upside down on meathooks from the roof of a gas station, then stoned by civilians from below. This was done both to discourage any fascists from continuing the fight and as an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader became subject to ridicule and abuse. After he himself was captured and sentenced to death, Fascist loyalist Achille Starace was taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of Mussolini. Starace, who once said of Mussolini "He is a God", saluted what was left of his leader just before he was shot. The body of Starace was subsequently strung up next to the body of Mussolini. After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in Musocco, the municipal cemetery to the north of the city. On Easter Sunday 1946 his body was located and dug up by Domenico Leccisi and two other neo-Fascists. Making off with their hero, they left a message on the open grave: "Finally, O Duce, you are with us. We will cover you with roses, but the smell of your virtue will overpower the smell of those roses." On the loose for months—and a cause of great anxiety to the new Italian democracy—the Duce's body was finally 'recaptured' in August, hidden in a small trunk at the Certosa di Pavia, just outside Milan. Two Fransciscan brothers were subsequently charged with concealing the corpse, though it was discovered on further investigation that it had been constantly on the move. Unsure what to do, the authorities held the remains in a kind of political limbo for 10 years, before agreeing to allow them to be re-interred at Predappio in Romagna, his birth place, after a campaign headed by Leccisi and the Movimento Sociale Italiano. Leccisi, now a fascist deputy, went on to write his autobiography, //With Mussolini Before and After Piazzale Loreto.// Adone Zoli, the Prime Minister of the day, contacted Donna Rachele, the former dictator's widow, to tell her he was returning the remains, as he needed the support of the far-right in parliament, including Leccisi himself. In Predappio the dictator was buried in a crypt (the only posthumous honour granted to Mussolini). His tomb is flanked by marble fasces and a large idealised marble bust of himself sits above the tomb.



B.J. Reinckens google blogger account username- **11breinckens** bernardo95433@gmail.com

http://www.comandosupremo.com/Mussolini.html Heddlesten, James. "Italy at War." 25 Nov 2008  http://www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_mussolini.html Smith, Denis. __Grolier Online__. 30 Nov 2008
 * Benito Mussolini was born on July 29th, 1883 in the town of Varnano dei Costa near the village of Predappio.
 * His mother Rosa Maltoni was married to a blacksmith named Alessandro Mussolini. Alessandro, being an admirer of the Mexican revolutionary Benito Juarez, named his son after the patriot and hero.
 * Benito Mussolini was an avid writer and after he finished his schooling, he became an editor for the Milan socialist paper "Avanti".
 * His first international crisis as head of Italy made him an Italian hero. The crisis was a border dispute between Greece and Albania. Mussolini sent several men to the area representing Italy as part of an International Commission to dispute the issue.
 * On August 23, 1923, all the Italians were murdered and discovered in Greek territory. In a rage, Mussolini sent the Greek government a list of demands, including a public apology, immediate inquiry into the killings, death sentence to those convicted and payment of 50 million Lira.
 * The Greeks refused the demand, since they did not know if it was Greeks who committed the murders.


 * Birth of Fascism**
 * In November 1914 he founded a new paper, //Il Popolo d'Italia,// and the prowar group Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria.
 * Fascism became an organized political movement in March 1919 when Mussolini founded the Fasci de Combattimento.
 * After failing in the 1919 elections, Mussolini at last entered parliament in 1921 as a right-wing member. The Fascists formed armed squads to terrorize Mussolini's former Socialist colleagues.
 * In return for the support of a group of industrialists and agrarians, Mussolini gave his approval to strikebreaking, and he abandoned revolutionary agitation. When the liberal governments of Giovanni Giolitti, Ivanoe Bonomi, and Luigi Facta failed to stop the spread of anarchy, Mussolini was invited by the king in October 1922 to form a government.

http://www.thecorner.org/hist/total/f-italy.htm Chung, TK. __Totalitarianism__. 1979. 28 Nov 2008


 * In March 1919, he formed the Milan fascio. It had no clear-cut program except a belief in action. It only had vague ideas about radical reforms. For propaganda purpose, Mussolini advocated universal suffrage, the abolition of the Senate, land for the peasants, improvement of workers' conditions and a strong foreign policy.
 * The property class did not like his radical party program. In the elections of November 1919 for the Chamber of Deputies, Mussolini failed to win a seat for themselves.
 * The turning-point for the growth of the Fascist movement came by the end of 1920. Three important events were chiefly responsible for bringing new strength to the Fascist movement.


 * 1) The first event was that after D'Annunzio and his followers were driven from Fiume by the end of 1920, many Italian nationalists took Mussolini as their leader for he had always advocated a strong foreign policy and the annexation of Fiume and Dalmatia.
 * 2) The second event was that during 1919-1920, governments in Italy changed rapidly and yet all of them failed to find effective solutions to the most urgent problems of the day—the problems of economic inflation and social unrest.
 * 3) The third event was that after the General Strike in 1920, as stated earlier, the property class became haunted by the spectre of a Communist revolution and wanted a strong government to restore law and order in the country.

With some support from the property class, Mussolini formed the National Fascist Party in 1921. In the elections of May 1921, Fascists were able to gain 35 seats out of 355.