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104-683: Before joining the Triple Entente as an ally in World War I , the Kingdom of Italy signed the secret Treaty of London . Under this agreement, Italy promised to declare war on Germany and Austria-Hungary within one month in exchange for territorial gains at the end of the war. Articles 6 and 7 of the treaty dealt with the promised territories in Albania that Italy would receive: Article 6 Italy shall receive full sovereignty over Valona,

208-650: A Russo-Japanese agreement and a Japanese guarantee for France's strategically vulnerable possessions in Indochina. Britain encouraged the Russo-Japanese rapprochement. Thus was built the Triple Entente coalition that fought World War I. At the start of World War I in 1914, all three Triple Entente members entered it as Allied Powers against the Central Powers : Germany , Austria-Hungary ,

312-560: A September 1920 speech: When dealing with such a race as Slavic—inferior and barbarian—we must not pursue the carrot, but the stick policy ... We should not be afraid of new victims ... The Italian border should run across the Brenner Pass , Monte Nevoso and the Dinaric Alps  ... I would say we can easily sacrifice 500,000 barbaric Slavs for 50,000 Italians ... In the same way, Mussolini argued that Italy

416-483: A Socialist ) in the radical periodical La Voce . He also wrote several essays about German literature, some stories, and one novel: L'amante del Cardinale: Claudia Particella, romanzo storico ( The Cardinal's Mistress ). This novel he co-wrote with Santi Corvaja, and it was published as a serial book in the Trento newspaper Il Popolo from 20 January to 11 May 1910. The novel was bitterly anticlerical, and years later

520-522: A classmate with a penknife and was severely punished. After joining a new non-religious school in Forlimpopoli , Mussolini achieved good grades, was appreciated by his teachers despite his violent character, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in July 1901. In July 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid compulsory military service. He worked briefly as a stonemason but

624-630: A condition for being pardoned was serving in the army, he joined the corps of the Bersaglieri in Forlì on 30 December 1904. After serving for two years in the military (from January 1905 until September 1906), he returned to teaching. In February 1909, Mussolini again left Italy, this time to take the job as the secretary of the labour party in the Italian-speaking city of Trento , then part of Austria-Hungary . He also did office work for

728-513: A daughter, Edda, at Forlì in 1910. In 1915, he had a son with Ida Dalser , a woman born in Sopramonte, a village near Trento. He legally recognised this son on 11 January 1916. By the time he returned from service in the Allied forces of World War I, Mussolini was convinced that socialism as a doctrine had largely been a failure. In the autumn of 1917, he was recruited as a MI5 agent with

832-594: A historical and political biography about the life and mission of the Czech ecclesiastic reformer Jan Hus and his militant followers, the Hussites . During this socialist period of his life, Mussolini sometimes used the pen name "Vero Eretico" ("sincere heretic"). Mussolini rejected egalitarianism , a core doctrine of socialism. He was influenced by Nietzsche's anti-Christian ideas and negation of God's existence . Mussolini felt that socialism had faltered, in view of

936-405: A historical basis—belonged to Italy anyway. In Mussolini's thinking, demography was destiny; nations with rising populations were nations destined to conquer; and nations with falling populations were decaying powers that deserved to die. Hence, the importance of natalism to Mussolini, since only by increasing the birth rate could Italy ensure its future as a great power. By Mussolini's reckoning,

1040-669: A message that was articulated by the Fascist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia , which was now edited by Mussolini's brother, Arnaldo . To that end, Mussolini obtained from the legislature dictatorial powers for one year (legal under the Italian constitution of the time). He favoured the complete restoration of state authority, with the integration of the Italian Fasces of Combat into the armed forces (the foundation in January 1923 of

1144-429: A number of ideas that fascism promoted, such as rule by an elite promoting the state as the ultimate end, opposition to democracy, protecting the class system and promoting class collaboration, rejection of egalitarianism, promoting the militarisation of a nation by creating a class of warriors, demanding that citizens perform civic duties in the interest of the state, and utilising state intervention in education to promote

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1248-577: A series of agreements, the Entente cordiale , mostly aimed toward resolving colonial disputes. That heralded the end of British splendid isolation. France and Britain had signed five separate agreements regarding spheres of influence in North Africa in 1904, the Entente cordiale . The Tangier Crisis later encouraged co-operation between the two countries from their mutual fear of apparent German expansionism. Britain, traditionally having control of

1352-532: A shaky set of understandings that withstood various crises and emerged as a fully-fledged alliance after the outbreak of World War I. In 1907, the Anglo-Russian Entente was agreed, which attempted to resolve a series of long-running disputes over Persia , Afghanistan and Tibet and end their rivalry in Central Asia , nicknamed The Great Game . and helped to address British fears about

1456-680: A socialist politician and journalist at the Avanti! newspaper . In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but was expelled for advocating military intervention in World War I . In 1914, Mussolini founded a newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia , and served in the Royal Italian Army until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. Mussolini eventually denounced

1560-484: A speech that acknowledged the nation as an entity, a notion he had rejected prior to the war, saying: The nation has not disappeared. We used to believe that the concept was totally without substance. Instead we see the nation arise as a palpitating reality before us! ... Class cannot destroy the nation. Class reveals itself as a collection of interests—but the nation is a history of sentiments, traditions, language, culture, and race. Class can become an integral part of

1664-625: A threat to the "white race". Mussolini believed that the United States was doomed as the American blacks had a higher birthrate than whites, making it inevitable that the blacks would take over the United States to drag it down to their level. The fact that Italy was suffering from overpopulation was seen as proving the cultural and spiritual vitality of the Italians, who were thus justified in seeking to colonise lands that Mussolini argued—on

1768-474: A unified region that had belonged to Italy from the times of the ancient Roman province of Italia , and was claimed as Italy's exclusive sphere of influence. The right to colonise the neighbouring Slovene ethnic areas and the Mediterranean, being inhabited by what were alleged to be less developed peoples, was justified on the grounds that Italy was allegedly suffering from overpopulation. Borrowing

1872-595: A £100 weekly wage by Sir Samuel Hoare , the agency's representative in Rome , in return for which he promised not only to keep up pro-war propaganda in Il Popolo but also to send army veterans in to break up any pro-peace strikes in Milan factories . In early 1918 he called for the emergence of a man "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" to revive the Italian nation. On 23 March 1919 Mussolini re-formed

1976-454: Is that the Entente is not an alliance. For purposes of ultimate emergencies, it may be found to have no substance at all. For the Entente is nothing more than a frame of mind, a view of general policy which is shared by the governments of two countries, but which may be, or become, so vague as to lose all content". Russia had also recently lost the humiliating Russo-Japanese War , a cause of

2080-653: The Baghdad Railway , which would help German expansion in the Near East . The coming into being of the entente did not necessarily fix a permanent division into two opposing power blocs. The situation remained flexible. The alignment of the Russian Empire with Europe's two largest power centres was controversial on both sides. Many Russian conservatives distrusted the secular French and recalled British past diplomatic manoeuvres to block Russian influence in

2184-594: The Kingdom of Italy . The Triple Entente, unlike the Triple Alliance or the Franco-Russian Alliance itself, was not an alliance of mutual defence. The Franco-Japanese Treaty of 1907 was a key part of building a coalition as France took the lead in creating alliances with Japan, Russia, and (informally) with Britain. Japan wanted to raise a loan in Paris, so France made the loan contingent on

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2288-662: The National Fascist Party at a congress in Rome. In 1921 , Mussolini won election to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time. In the meantime, from about 1911 until 1938, Mussolini had various affairs with the Jewish author and academic Margherita Sarfatti , called the "Jewish Mother of Fascism" at the time. In the night between 27 and 28 October 1922, about 30,000 Fascist blackshirts gathered in Rome to demand

2392-564: The Near East . In turn, prominent French and British journalists, academics, and parliamentarians found the reactionary tsarist regime distasteful. Mistrust persisted even during wartime, with British and French politicians expressing relief when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government after the February Revolution in 1917. An offer of political asylum for

2496-643: The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria . On September 4, 1914, the Triple Entente issued a declaration undertaking not to conclude a separate peace and only to demand terms of peace agreed among the three parties. Historians continue to debate the importance of the alliance system as one of the causes of World War I . During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Prussia and its allies defeated the Second French Empire , resulting in

2600-593: The Russian Revolution of 1905 , and the apparent transformation into a constitutional monarchy. Although it was perceived as useless during the war with Japan , the alliance was valuable in the European theatre to counteract the threat of the Triple Alliance. Tomaszewski describes the evolution of the triple entente relationship from the Russian standpoint during the period 1908 to 1914 as a progression from

2704-635: The Spanish Civil War . Mussolini took part in the Treaty of Lausanne , Four-Power Pact and Stresa Front . However, he alienated the democratic powers as tensions grew in the League of Nations , which he left in 1937. Now hostile to France and Britain, Italy formed the Axis alliance with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan . The wars of the 1930s cost Italy enormous resources, leaving it unprepared for

2808-521: The University of Lausanne 's Department of Social Science on 7 May 1904, attending the lectures of Vilfredo Pareto. In 1937, when he was prime minister of Italy, the University of Lausanne awarded Mussolini an honorary doctorate . In December 1904, Mussolini returned to Italy to take advantage of an amnesty for desertion from the military. He had been convicted for this in absentia . Since

2912-563: The Voluntary Militia for National Security ) and the progressive identification of the party with the state. In political and social economy, he passed legislation that favoured the wealthy industrial and agrarian classes (privatisations, liberalisations of rent laws and dismantlement of the unions). In 1923, Mussolini sent Italian forces to invade Corfu during the Corfu incident . The League of Nations proved powerless, and Greece

3016-632: The general strike , and the use of neo-Machiavellian appeals to emotion, impressed Mussolini deeply. Mussolini became active in the Italian socialist movement in Switzerland, working for the paper L'Avvenire del Lavoratore , organising meetings, giving speeches to workers, and serving as secretary of the Italian workers' union in Lausanne . Angelica Balabanov reportedly introduced him to Vladimir Lenin , who later criticised Italian socialists for having lost Mussolini from their cause. In 1903, he

3120-653: The 1920s, he ordered the Pacification of Libya , the bombing of Corfu over an incident with Greece , and annexed Fiume , after a treaty with Yugoslavia . In 1936, Ethiopia was conquered following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and merged into Italian East Africa (AOI) with Eritrea and Somalia . In 1939, Italian forces annexed Albania . Between 1936 and 1939, Mussolini ordered an intervention in Spain in favour of Francisco Franco , during

3224-821: The Allies, in September 1943, Mussolini was rescued in the Gran Sasso raid by Germany. Hitler made Mussolini the figurehead of a puppet state in German-occupied north Italy, the Italian Social Republic , which served as a collaborationist regime of the Germans. With Allied victory imminent, Mussolini and mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but were captured by communist partisans and executed on 28 April 1945. Mussolini

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3328-707: The Balkans, especially in the wake of the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War and the 1878 Treaty of Berlin , which made Russia feel cheated of its gains made in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78, prevented the League from being renewed in 1887. In an attempt to stop Russia from allying with France, Bismarck signed the secret Reinsurance Treaty with Russia in 1887. This treaty assured that both parties would remain neutral if war broke out. The growing rapprochement between Russia and France and Bismarck's exclusion of Russia from

3432-536: The British reserved the right to join whatever country was attacking Germany even if Germany did not start the conflict, dooming the talks to failure. According to German historian Dirk Bönker, "To be sure, the [naval] race was decided early on; political leaders and diplomats learned to bracket it as an issue, and it did not cause the decision for war in 1914. But the naval competition nonetheless created an atmosphere of mutual hostility and distrust, which circumscribed

3536-758: The First World War that resulted in his ousting from the Italian Socialist Party: Professor Benito Mussolini, ... 38, revolutionary socialist, has a police record; elementary school teacher qualified to teach in secondary schools; former first secretary of the Chambers in Cesena, Forlì, and Ravenna; after 1912 editor of the newspaper Avanti! to which he gave a violent suggestive and intransigent orientation. In October 1914, finding himself in opposition to

3640-458: The German financial market in 1887 prevented the treaty from being renewed in 1890, ending the alliance between Germany and Russia. After the forced resignation of Bismarck in 1890, the young Kaiser Wilhelm set out on his imperialist course of Weltpolitik ("world politics") to increase the empire's influence in and control over the world. Russia had by far the largest manpower reserves of all

3744-419: The Germans attempted to link a "naval holiday" with a British promise to remain neutral if Germany should become engaged in a war where "Germany could not be said to be the aggressor." Zara Steiner says, "It would have meant abandoning the whole system of ententes which had been so carefully nurtured during the past six years. There was no German concession to counter the fear of German aggression." Essentially,

3848-520: The Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , French Socialist Gustave Hervé , Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta , and German philosophers Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx , the founders of Marxism . Mussolini had taught himself French and German and translated excerpts from Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Kant . During this time, he published Il Trentino veduto da un Socialista ( Trentino as viewed by

3952-648: The Italian Prime Minister at the time, expressed his satisfaction with the treaty in these words: What really interests us is that Vallona cannot form a base of operations against us; and this aim was achieved with the occupation of the islet of Sasseno, which lies at the mouth of the bay itself... For these reasons, I decided to renounce the mandate conferred on us by the Paris Conference on Albania, which would have represented an enormous liability without any profit, and to limit our action to

4056-685: The Italian Socialist Party and its support of orthodox socialism, he claimed that his failure as a member of the party to revitalise and transform it to recognise the contemporary reality revealed the hopelessness of orthodox socialism as outdated and a failure. This perception of the failure of orthodox socialism in the light of the outbreak of World War I was not solely held by Mussolini; other pro-interventionist Italian socialists such as Filippo Corridoni and Sergio Panunzio had also denounced classical Marxism in favour of intervention. These basic political views and principles formed

4160-550: The Italian population had to reach 60 million to enable Italy to fight a major war—hence his relentless demands for Italian women to have more children. Mussolini and the fascists managed to be simultaneously revolutionary and traditionalist ; because this was vastly different from anything else in the political climate of the time, it is sometimes described as "The Third Way". The Fascisti, led by one of Mussolini's close confidants, Dino Grandi , formed armed squads of war veterans called blackshirts (or squadristi ) with

4264-519: The Milan fascio as the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members. The ideological basis for fascism came from a number of sources. Mussolini drew from the works of Plato , Georges Sorel , Nietzsche , and the economic ideas of Vilfredo Pareto . Mussolini admired Plato's The Republic , which he often read for inspiration. The Republic expounded

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4368-600: The PSI, his views now centering on Italian nationalism , and founded the fascist movement which opposed egalitarianism and class conflict , instead advocating " revolutionary nationalism " transcending class lines . In October 1922, following the March on Rome , Mussolini was appointed prime minister by King Victor Emmanuel III . After removing opposition through his secret police and outlawing labour strikes , Mussolini and his followers consolidated power through laws that transformed

4472-458: The Romanovs was even withdrawn by the British king for fear of popular reaction. Also, France never brought up the subject of asylum with the deposed tsar. Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (in Switzerland known as Benedetto Mussolini ; 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian dictator who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He

4576-521: The Second World War; Mussolini initially declared Italy's non-belligerence. However, in June 1940, believing Allied defeat imminent, he joined the war on Germany's side, to share the spoils. After the tide turned, and the Allied invasion of Sicily , King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini as head of government and placed him in custody in July 1943. After the king agreed to an armistice with

4680-480: The Socialist Party, as they were two " revisionists " who had supported the war. In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). He was rewarded with the editorship of the Socialist Party newspaper Avanti! Under his leadership, its circulation soon rose from 20,000 to 100,000. John Gunther in 1940 called him "one of the best journalists alive"; Mussolini

4784-631: The Triple Alliance. France's main concerns were to protect against an attack from Germany and to regain Alsace-Lorraine. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, Britain continued its policy of " splendid isolation ", with its primary focus on defending its massive overseas empire . However, by the early 1900s, the German threat had increased dramatically, and Britain thought it was in need of allies. London made overtures to Berlin which were not reciprocated, so London turned to Paris and St. Petersburg instead. In 1904, Britain and France signed

4888-701: The Vlora district to the Albanian government. Previously, Albania had successfully expelled most of the Italian occupation from the country. After Italy refused the request of Ahmet Zogu , then Albanian Minister of the Interior, to continue the evacuation, the Albanians formed the National Defense Committee, led by Qazim Koculi , and began recruiting volunteers. Ahmet Lepenica took command of

4992-464: The anti-interventionist orthodox socialists resulted in violence between the Fascists and socialists. These early hostilities between the Fascists and the revolutionary socialists shaped Mussolini's conception of the nature of Fascism in its support of political violence. Mussolini became an ally with the irredentist politician and journalist Cesare Battisti . When World War I started, Mussolini, like many Italian nationalists, volunteered to fight. He

5096-423: The basis of Mussolini's newly formed political movement, the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria in 1914, who called themselves Fascisti (Fascists). At this time, the Fascists did not have an integrated set of policies and the movement was small, ineffective in its attempts to hold mass meetings, and was regularly harassed by government authorities and orthodox socialists. Antagonism between the interventionists versus

5200-450: The city from four attacks on 5 June, 6 June, 11 June, and 24 July. The military stalemate continued for three months until the Italian and Albanian governments signed the Treaty of Tirana , which ended the conflict. Italy undertakes to recognize and defend the autonomy of Albania and, retaining only Saseno, abandons Vallona. It was the first diplomatic agreement between Albania and a foreign country. The pact prevented further partition of

5304-465: The common people of Italy to be participating members in what would be Italy's first national war. Thus he claimed that the vast social changes that the war could offer meant that it should be supported as a revolutionary war. As Mussolini's support for the intervention solidified, he came into conflict with socialists who opposed the war. He attacked the opponents of the war and claimed that those proletarians who supported pacifism were out of step with

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5408-512: The conflict. This force included the Banda e Vatrës, an Albanian military band formed in the United States that traveled by boat for 23 days to reach Durrës. The advance of the Albanian troops and the communist revolutionary movements, coupled with riots in the Italian army , made it impossible to reinforce the Italian soldiers in Vlora. As a result, the Italian soldiers barricaded themselves in Vlora, facing malaria and communist agitation in their ranks, and without receiving any orders; they defended

5512-475: The continuation of the struggle in which he was engaged ... But assuming these modifications did take place ... he always wanted to give the appearance of still being a socialist, and he fooled himself into thinking that this was the case. After being ousted by the Italian Socialist Party, Mussolini made a radical transformation, ending his support for class conflict and joining in support of revolutionary nationalism transcending class lines. He formed

5616-438: The danger of a totalitarian evolution. As Prime Minister, the first years of Mussolini's rule were characterised by a right-wing coalition government of Fascists, nationalists, liberals, and two Catholic clerics from the People's Party . The Fascists made up a small minority in his original governments. Mussolini's domestic goal was the eventual establishment of a totalitarian state with himself as supreme leader ( Il Duce ),

5720-409: The development of warriors and future rulers of the state. The idea behind Mussolini's foreign policy was that of spazio vitale (vital space), a concept in Italian Fascism that was analogous to Lebensraum in German National Socialism. The concept of spazio vitale was first announced in 1919, when the entire Mediterranean , especially so-called Julian March , was redefined to make it appear

5824-524: The diplomatic protection of Albania against the aims of other States, and to abandon Vallona, ensuring however recognition of the possession of Sasseno However, Benito Mussolini referred to Vlora as the "Albanian Caporetto. ". Upon taking power, he also ensured Albanian independence and caused the 1923 Corfu crisis after a border disagreement with Greece. Triple Entente The Triple Entente (from French entente [ɑ̃tɑ̃t] meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes

5928-551: The directorate of the Italian Socialist party because he advocated a kind of active neutrality on the part of Italy in the War of the Nations against the party's tendency of absolute neutrality, he withdrew on the twentieth of that month from the directorate of Avanti! Then on the fifteenth of November [1914], thereafter, he initiated publication of the newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia , in which he supported—in sharp contrast to Avanti! and amid bitter polemics against that newspaper and its chief backers—the thesis of Italian intervention in

6032-469: The establishment of the Third Republic. In the Treaty of Frankfurt , Prussia forced France to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire , souring subsequent relations. France, worried about the escalating military development of Germany, began building up its own war industries and army to deter German aggression. Russia had previously been a member of the League of the Three Emperors , an alliance in 1873 with Austria-Hungary and Germany. The alliance

6136-452: The failures of Marxist determinism and social democratic reformism , and believed that Nietzsche's ideas would strengthen socialism. Mussolini's writings came to reflect an abandonment of Marxism and egalitarianism in favour of Nietzsche's übermensch concept and anti-egalitarianism. When World War I began in August 1914, many socialist parties worldwide followed the rising nationalist current and supported their country's intervention in

6240-437: The fall of Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies and the repression of "reactionary" Turkey would create conditions beneficial for the working class, and that the mobilisation required for the war would undermine Russia's reactionary authoritarianism and bring Russia to social revolution. He said that for Italy the war would complete the process of Risorgimento by uniting the Italians in Austria-Hungary into Italy and by allowing

6344-456: The force, which consisted of about 4,000 soldiers. The Albanian rebels were poorly armed; some did not carry firearms and resorted to sticks and stones. In the area around Vlora there were about 25,000 Italian soldiers equipped with artillery. The Albanians fought in the Vlora region and were joined by local volunteers, resulting in a force of over 10,000 irregular fighters. Despite the increase in numbers, only up to 4,000 Albanians participated in

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6448-472: The goal of restoring order to the streets of Italy with a strong hand. The blackshirts clashed with communists, socialists, and anarchists at parades and demonstrations; all of these factions were also involved in clashes against each other. The Italian government rarely interfered with the blackshirts' actions, owing in part to a looming threat and widespread fear of a communist revolution. The Fascisti grew rapidly; within two years they transformed themselves into

6552-414: The growing tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary , mainly over the Balkans , where the rise of nationalism and the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire made many former Ottoman provinces struggle for independence. To counter Russian and French interests in Europe, the Dual alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary was concluded in October 1879 and with Italy in May 1882. The situation in

6656-468: The idea first developed by Enrico Corradini before 1914 of the natural conflict between " plutocratic " nations like Britain and "proletarian" nations like Italy, Mussolini claimed that Italy's principal problem was that "plutocratic" countries like Britain were blocking Italy from achieving the necessary spazio vitale that would let the Italian economy grow. Mussolini equated a nation's potential for economic growth with territorial size, thus in his view

6760-416: The informal understanding between the Russian Empire , the French Third Republic , and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . It was built upon the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the Entente Cordiale of 1904 between France and Britain, and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. It formed a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of the German Empire , the Austro-Hungarian Empire , and

6864-439: The interventionist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia and the Fascio Rivoluzionario d'Azione Internazionalista ("Revolutionary Fasces of International Action") in October 1914. His nationalist support of intervention enabled him to raise funds from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies to create Il Popolo d'Italia to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war. Further funding for Il Popolo during

6968-403: The island of Saseno and surrounding territory.... Article 7 Having obtained the Trentino and Istria by Article 4, Dalmatia and the Adriatic islands by Article 5, and also the gulf of Valona, Italy undertakes, in the event a small, autonomous, and neutralized state being formed in Albania Italy not to oppose the possible desire of France , Great Britain , and Russia to repartition

7072-438: The local Socialist Party, and edited its newspaper L'Avvenire del Lavoratore ( The Future of the Worker ). Returning to Italy, he spent a brief time in Milan , and in 1910 he returned to his hometown of Forlì, where he edited the weekly Lotta di classe ( The Class Struggle ). Mussolini thought of himself as an intellectual and was considered to be well-read. He read avidly; his favourites in European philosophy included Sorel,

7176-430: The military authoritarianism of Garibaldi, and the nationalism of Mazzini. In 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldi's death, Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. Mussolini was sent to a boarding school in Faenza run by Salesians . Despite being shy, he often clashed with teachers and fellow boarders due to his proud, grumpy, and violent behaviour. During an argument, he injured

7280-405: The nation into a one-party dictatorship . Within five years, Mussolini established dictatorial authority by legal and illegal means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty to establish Vatican City . Mussolini's foreign policy was based on the fascist doctrine of " Spazio vitale " ("living space"), which aimed to expand Italian possessions. In

7384-421: The nation, but the one cannot eclipse the other. The class struggle is a vain formula, without effect and consequence wherever one finds a people that has not integrated itself into its proper linguistic and racial confines—where the national problem has not been definitely resolved. In such circumstances the class movement finds itself impaired by an inauspicious historic climate. Mussolini continued to promote

7488-519: The need of a revolutionary vanguard elite to lead society. He no longer advocated a proletarian vanguard, but instead a vanguard led by dynamic and revolutionary people of any social class. Though he denounced orthodox socialism and class conflict, he maintained at the time that he was a nationalist socialist and a supporter of the legacy of nationalist socialists in Italy's history, such as Giuseppe Garibaldi , Giuseppe Mazzini , and Carlo Pisacane . As for

7592-457: The northern and the southern districts of Albania between Montenegro , Serbia , and Greece . The southern coast of Albania, from the frontier of the Italian territory of Valona to Cape Stilos , is to be neutralized. The Italy will be conceded the right of concluding the foreign relations of Albania; in any case, Italy will be bound to secure for Albania a territory sufficiently extensive to enable its frontiers to join those of Greece and Serbia to

7696-584: The problem of poverty in Italy could only be solved by winning the necessary spazio vitale . Though biological racism was less prominent in Italian Fascism than in National Socialism , right from the start the spazio vitale concept had a strong racist undercurrent. Mussolini asserted there was a "natural law" for stronger peoples to subject and dominate "inferior" peoples such as the "barbaric" Slavic peoples of Yugoslavia. He stated in

7800-553: The proletarians who had joined the rising interventionist vanguard that was preparing Italy for a revolutionary war. He began to criticise the Italian Socialist Party and socialism itself for having failed to recognise the national problems that had led to the outbreak of the war. He was expelled from the party for his support of intervention. A police report prepared by the Inspector-General of Public Security in Milan, G. Gasti, describes his background and his position on

7904-487: The resignation of liberal Prime Minister Luigi Facta and the appointment of a new Fascist government. On the morning of 28 October, King Victor Emmanuel III , who according to the Albertine Statute held the supreme military power, refused the government request to declare martial law , which led to Facta's resignation. The King then handed over power to Mussolini (who stayed in his headquarters in Milan during

8008-529: The seas, by 1909 saw the German navy as a serious threat to its Royal Navy. Britain was well ahead in terms of Dreadnought technology and responded with a major building program. They built a Royal Navy that Germany could never rival. The British sent war minister Lord Haldane to Berlin in February 1912 to reduce friction stemming from the Anglo-German naval arms race . The mission was a failure because

8112-506: The side of the Allies and utilised the Società Dante Alighieri to promote Italian nationalism. Italian socialists were divided on whether to support the war. Prior to Mussolini taking a position on the war, a number of revolutionary syndicalists had announced their support of intervention, including Alceste De Ambris , Filippo Corridoni , and Angelo Oliviero Olivetti . The Italian Socialist Party decided to oppose

8216-723: The six European powers, but it was also the most backward economically. Russia shared France's worries about Germany. Additionally, the Russians feared that the Ottomans, who had received assistance from the British under Admiral Limpus, et al., the French, and the Germans to reorganize and modernize the Ottoman armed forces, would come to control the Dardanelles , a vital trade artery that carried two-fifths of Russia's exports. There

8320-539: The space for peaceful diplomacy and public recognition of shared interests, and helped to pave the twisted road to war in Europe." The Entente, unlike the Triple Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance, was not an alliance of mutual defense and so Britain was free to make its own foreign policy decisions in 1914. As British Foreign Office Official Eyre Crowe minuted, "The fundamental fact, of course,

8424-473: The talks) by asking him to form a new government. The King's controversial decision has been explained by historians as a combination of delusions and fears; Mussolini enjoyed wide support in the military and among the industrial and agrarian elites, while the King and the conservative establishment were afraid of a possible civil war and thought they could use Mussolini to restore law and order, but failed to foresee

8528-560: The territory of the Albanian state. Albania managed to achieve full recognition by the Western powers of its independence within its 1913 borders. The armistice, introducing a ceasefire on August 5th, contained these main points: The Treaty of Tirana was ratified by the League of Nations Conference of Ambassadors in November 1921. It recognized Italian special interests in Albania while reaffirming Albanian independence. Giovanni Giolitti,

8632-503: The war after anti-militarist protestors had been killed, resulting in a general strike called Red Week . Mussolini initially held official support for the party's decision and, in an August 1914 article, Mussolini wrote "Down with the War. We remain neutral." He saw the war as an opportunity, both for his own ambitions as well as those of socialists and Italians. He was influenced by anti-Austrian Italian nationalist sentiments, believing that

8736-600: The war against the militarism of the Central Empires. For this reason he was accused of moral and political unworthiness and the party thereupon decided to expel him ... Thereafter he ... undertook a very active campaign in behalf of Italian intervention, participating in demonstrations in the piazzas and writing quite violent articles in Popolo d'Italia ... In his summary, the Inspector also noted: He

8840-494: The war came from French sources, beginning in May 1915, in part from French socialists who wanted Italian intervention on France's side. Britain, and possibly Russia and the United States, also subsidized the paper. On 5 December 1914, Mussolini denounced orthodox socialism for failing to recognise that the war had made national identity and loyalty more significant than class distinction. He fully demonstrated his transformation in

8944-898: The war offered Italians in Austria-Hungary the chance to liberate themselves from rule of the Habsburgs . He eventually decided to declare support for the war by appealing to the need for socialists to overthrow the Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies in Germany and Austria-Hungary who he said had consistently repressed socialism. Mussolini further justified his position by denouncing the Central Powers for being reactionary powers; for pursuing imperialist designs against Belgium and Serbia as well as historically against Denmark, France, and against Italians, since hundreds of thousands of Italians were under Habsburg rule. He argued that

9048-447: The war. In Italy, the outbreak of the war created a surge of Italian nationalism and intervention was supported by a variety of political factions. One of the most prominent and popular Italian nationalist supporters of the war was Gabriele d'Annunzio who promoted Italian irredentism and helped sway the Italian public to support intervention. The Italian Liberal Party under the leadership of Paolo Boselli promoted intervention on

9152-524: The west of Lake Ochrida .. In 1920, the Allies at the Paris Peace Conference had not yet decided on the future of Albania, but Italy's claims to sovereignty over Vlorë had never faced a significant challenge. Prime Minister Francesco Saverio Nitti also sought a mandate over the rest of the country following the secret Treaty of London . The conflict began on June 4 after Italian General Settimo Piacentini refused to cede control of

9256-409: Was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922, until his deposition in 1943, as well as Duce of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919, until his summary execution in 1945 . As a dictator and founder of fascism , Mussolini inspired the international spread of fascist movements during the interwar period . Mussolini was originally

9360-797: Was a devout Catholic schoolteacher. Given his father's political leanings, Mussolini was named Benito after liberal Mexican president Benito Juárez , while his middle names, Andrea and Amilcare, were for Italian socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani . In return his mother required that he be baptised at birth. Benito was followed by his siblings Arnaldo and Edvige . As a young boy, Mussolini helped his father in his smithy. Mussolini's early political views were strongly influenced by his father, who idolised 19th-century Italian nationalist figures with humanist tendencies such as Carlo Pisacane , Giuseppe Mazzini , and Giuseppe Garibaldi . His father's political outlook combined views of anarchist figures such as Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin ,

9464-658: Was a working reporter while preparing for the March on Rome, and wrote for the Hearst News Service until 1935. Mussolini was so familiar with Marxist literature that in his writings he would not only quote from well-known Marxist works but also from the relatively obscure works. During this period Mussolini considered himself an "authoritarian communist " and a Marxist and he described Karl Marx as "the greatest of all theorists of socialism." In 1913, he published Giovanni Hus, il veridico ( Jan Hus, true prophet ),

9568-480: Was also Russia's recent rivalry with Austria-Hungary over the spheres of influence in the Balkans and after the Reinsurance Treaty was not renewed in 1890, Russian leaders grew alarmed at the country's diplomatic isolation and joined the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894. France developed a strong bond with Russia by ratifying the Franco-Russian Alliance, which was designed to create a strong counter to

9672-710: Was arrested by Bernese police because of his advocacy of a violent general strike, spent two weeks in jail, and was handed over to Italian police in Chiasso . After he was released in Italy, he returned to Switzerland. He was arrested again in Geneva, in April 1904, for falsifying his passport expiration date, and was expelled from the canton of Geneva . He was released in Bellinzona following protests from Genevan socialists. Mussolini then returned to Lausanne, where he entered

9776-512: Was born on 29 July 1883 in Dovia di Predappio , a small town in the province of Forlì in Romagna . During the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed "Duce's town" and Forlì was called "Duce's city", with pilgrims going to Predappio and Forlì to see the birthplace of Mussolini. Benito Mussolini's father, Alessandro Mussolini , was a blacksmith and a socialist, while his mother, Rosa (née Maltoni),

9880-454: Was compromising with his personal and political honesty by making use of every means—no matter where they came from or wherever he might obtain them—to pay for his newspaper, his program and his line of action. This was his initial line. It is difficult to say to what extent his socialist convictions (which he never either openly or privately abjure) may have been sacrificed in the course of the indispensable financial deals which were necessary for

9984-526: Was forced to comply with Italian demands. In June 1923, the government passed the Acerbo Law , which transformed Italy into a single national constituency. It also granted a two-thirds majority of the seats in Parliament to the party or group of parties that received at least 25% of the votes. This law applied in the elections of 6 April 1924 . The national alliance , consisting of Fascists, most of

10088-560: Was part of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck 's plan to isolate France diplomatically; he feared that France's revanchist aspirations might lead it to attempt to regain its 1871 losses stemming from the Franco-Prussian War . The alliance also served to oppose such socialist movements as the First International , which the conservative rulers found unsettling. However, the League faced great difficulty with

10192-574: Was promoted to the rank of corporal "for merit in war". The promotion was recommended because of his exemplary conduct and fighting quality, his mental calmness and lack of concern for discomfort, his zeal and regularity in carrying out his assignments, where he was always first in every task involving labor and fortitude. Mussolini's military experience is told in his work Diario di guerra . He totalled about nine months of active, front-line trench warfare. During this time, he contracted paratyphoid fever . His military exploits ended in February 1917 when he

10296-480: Was right to follow an imperialist policy in Africa because he saw all black people as "inferior" to whites. Mussolini claimed that the world was divided into a hierarchy of races (though this was justified more on cultural than on biological grounds), and that history was nothing more than a Darwinian struggle for power and territory between various "racial masses". Mussolini saw high birthrates in Africa and Asia as

10400-573: Was the ideal editor of Avanti! for the Socialists. In that line of work he was greatly esteemed and beloved. Some of his former comrades and admirers still confess that there was no one who understood better how to interpret the spirit of the proletariat and there was no one who did not observe his apostasy with sorrow. This came about not for reasons of self-interest or money. He was a sincere and passionate advocate, first of vigilant and armed neutrality, and later of war; and he did not believe that he

10504-604: Was turned down because of his radical Socialism and told to wait for his reserve call up. He was called up on 31 August and reported for duty with his old unit, the Bersaglieri . After a two-week refresher course he was sent to Isonzo front where he took part in the Second Battle of the Isonzo, September 1915. His unit also took part in the Third Battle of the Isonzo, October 1915. The Inspector General continued: He

10608-410: Was unable to find a permanent job. During this time he studied the ideas of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , the sociologist Vilfredo Pareto , and the syndicalist Georges Sorel . Mussolini also later credited Charles Péguy and Hubert Lagardelle as influences. Sorel's emphasis on the need for overthrowing decadent liberal democracy and capitalism by the use of violence, direct action ,

10712-531: Was withdrawn from circulation after Mussolini made a truce with the Vatican. He had become one of Italy's most prominent socialists. In September 1911, Mussolini participated in a riot, led by socialists, against the Italian war in Libya . He bitterly denounced Italy's "imperialist war," an action that earned him a five-month jail term. After his release, he helped expel Ivanoe Bonomi and Leonida Bissolati from

10816-519: Was wounded accidentally by the explosion of a mortar bomb in his trench. He was left with at least 40 shards of metal in his body and had to be evacuated from the front. He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and resumed his editor-in-chief position at his new paper, Il Popolo d'Italia . On 25 December 1915, in Treviglio , he married his compatriot Rachele Guidi, who had already borne him

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