Benito Mussolini Research Paper

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There are some things in history so cruel or disgusting that we'd just rather forget they occurred. Fascism, and particularly the brand practiced in Germany and Italy in the first half of the 20th century, are a perfect example of one of these phenomena. However, in order to guard against it happening again, we must do our best to understand how it occurred in the first place.
Fascism according to Webster’s dictionary has a simple definintion which is ‘a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government’ but in order to understand the rise of Fascism one must know the Full definition which is as follows “ political philosophy, …show more content…

Mussolini was born in Predappio in 1883, the son of a blacksmith. Originally a socialist who had fled to Switzerland to avoid being drafted into the Italian military, Mussolini returned to Italy in 1904 and in 1919 he formed Italy's Fascist Party. As unemployment soared and Italy descended into political anarchy, Mussolini's Fascist Party slowly gained support by running on a vehemently nationalist platform, winning 35 seats in the 1921 elections.
In October of 1922, out of a fear of a communist takeover due to riots and strikes in Northern Italy, Mussolini gathered his Fascist followers and party foot soldiers, nicknamed the 'Black Shirts,' and staged a march on Rome. Once there, King Victor Emmanuel III asked Mussolini to form a government and restore order to the countryside. Over the next three years, Mussolini dismantled the democracy Cavour had painstakingly cobbled together, and in 1925, he declared himself dictator of Italy. He took the title Il Duce - literally, 'The …show more content…

Much like in Nazi Germany, it was considered the duty of any good Italian to be physically fit and have a large family that could be of service to the Italian state. Artwork that did not represent the glory of Italy or Rome was outlawed. In order to propagate these feelings of Italian superiority and begin exerting Italian influence elsewhere, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) in 1935, making it a province of his new Italian