How did Mussolini rise to power?

Benito Mussolini was born on the 29th of July 1883 in northern Italy. His father was a blacksmith who followed the political movement known as socialism. 

As a child, Mussolini had a reputation as being stubborn and argumentative. He was even considered to be a bully towards other students. 

Mussolini was expelled from school twice for attacking other students with a knife. 

When he graduated from school, Mussolini moved to Switzerland in 1902 where he floated between jobs.

Like his father, he was attracted to the socialist political movement and attended several meetings. 

He worked for the local bricklayer trade union as a promoter and then as a journalist for socialist publications.

He encouraged union members to use violence and strikes to achieve their goals. This led to him to being arrested on a few occasions.

After living in Austria briefly, Mussolini returned to Italy in 1909. He began to be a public speaker that promoted socialism to others.

It was at this time that he gained a reputation as an engaging and gifted orator. 

In December 1912, Mussolini became the editor of an Italian Socialist newspaper called Avanti.

His gift of persuasion also came through clearly in his writing.

When World War One broke out in 1914, Italy formally remained neutral. As a socialist, Mussolini initially agreed with this decision, but in September 1914, Mussolini published a number of articles encouraging Italy to join the war. 

These articles were against the socialist party's position on the war, and they angered many of Mussolini's peers.

As a result, Mussolini was kicked out of the Italian socialist party.

Italy did eventually join the war, on the Allied side, in May 1915. As a result, Mussolini joined the Italian army in August 1915.

During combat preparations in 1917, Mussolini was injured by a mortar shell and, after several surgeries to remove shrapnel from his body, was formally discharged from the army.

With World War One over, Mussolini had become a strong opponent of his former political party, the socialists.

Now, he argued that Italy needed a strong man to lead: a dictator.

Many people in Italy were disappointed in how little Italy gained as a result of the war, and they called for a change in their military, to make Italy a global military power again.

On the 23rd of March 1919, Mussolini formed a new political group to encourage a strong sense of Italian nationalism called the Fasci di Combattimento, meaning 'Combat Groups'. 

The term "Fascist Party" (Partito Nazionale Fascista) was adopted later in 1921.

This name came from a symbol of power used in ancient Rome, known as the fasces.

The fasces was a bundle of wooden rods tied around an axe.

Mussolini used this image to encourage his followers to form a tight group around him as the 'axe' that could 'get the job done'. 

Former soldiers in particular were attracted to this new party, and Mussolini organised them into paramilitary units, called squadristi, under his control.

They were given black shirts as a kind of uniform and were often just called the 'Blackshirts'. 

During the summer of 1922, the Blackshirts use violent intimidation tactics to suppress other political parties.

In northern Italy, they attacked the headquarters and homes of members of the socialist and communist parties.

As a result, by September of that year, the Fascist Party controlled much of northern Italy.

In the capital city of Rome, a crisis was developing when the Italian trade unions had called a general strike.

Many businesses had been forced to close as a result, and the economy was under pressure.

Mussolini demanded that the Italian government use force to shut down the strike and restore order.

He threatened that if they didn't do so, he would march into Rome and do it himself. 

At the Fascist Party meeting on the 24th of October 1922, Mussolini proposed that the party launch a secret attack on Rome to take power for themselves.

Then, on the 28th of October, the Blackshirts armed themselves and marched into Rome.

The sitting government was not prepared for this, and no-one was sure what was happening.

The Italian government at the time was a constitutional monarchy. This meant that while they had a king, called Victor Emmanuel III, they also had a prime minister and a parliament.

At the time, the Italian Prime Minister was Luigi Facta.

When Facta realised the threat that Mussolini posed, he begged the king to declare martial law and use the police to drive the Blackshirts out of Rome.

However, the king did not want to spark street battles and, according to some, Victor Emmanuel thought that he could use Mussolini as a unifying force. 

In protest to the king's inaction, the government resigned on the 28th of October, leaving only the king in charge.

In an effort to find a solution, Victor Emmanuel III met with Mussolini on the 30th of October and offered him the opportunity to create a new government, with members from multiple political parties.

Mussolini agreed and then staged a massive march on the city with 30,000 Blackshirts as a sign of his victory.

Mussolini was declared the Prime Minister of Italy on October 31st, 1922.

Following his appointment, Mussolini's government held elections to find out what politicians would be part of the coalition.

However, following the elections, most of the key members of the new government were Fascist Party members.

In 1923, Mussolini's government passed the Acerbo Law, which granted a two-thirds majority of seats in Parliament to the party or coalition that received at least 25% of the votes.

This was clearly a way to solidify Fascist control over the Italian government.

Using his dominance of the government, he had himself declared Il Duce, which means "the leader", of Italy.

Then, finally, on the 3rd of January 1925, he formally declared himself dictator, which gave him supreme control over the country.

In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the Vatican, which resolved the long-standing 'Roman Question'.

It established Vatican City as an independent state, which gained him significant support from the Catholic Church.

For the next ten years, Mussolini focused his time and energies on making Italy a new 'Roman Empire'.

He increased spending on the army and navy, and encouraged a love for the military.

Then, much to Europe's surprise, Mussolini launched an invasion of the African country of Ethiopia in October 1935.

The war was brutal, as Ethiopians lacked the modern weapons and tactics of Italy's armed forces.

There were stories of mass killings of civilians, and as a result, most of Europe was outraged.

Despite calls for the League of Nations to intervene and stop Mussolini, the League could do nothing.

Then, in May 1936, Ethiopia finally surrendered and Mussolini claimed victory in this war.

However, Mussolini's war of conquest against Ethiopia had isolated him from the rest of Europe.

Most countries did not want to work with him unless Mussolini withdrew his forces.

However, one European country supported Mussolini's new Fascist government: Hitler's Germany.

Adolf Hitler had publicly admired Mussolini and had led his own fascist party to control in Germany.

As a result, Germany and Italy signed a military alliance on the 22nd of May 1939, known as the 'Pact of Steel'.

This agreement stated that both countries supported each other in achieving their military aims.

When World War Two began in 1939, Mussolini would become one of Hitler's key allies.

However, Mussolini was initially slow to join World War II. Italy did not enter the war until June 1940, after the fall of France and when it appeared that Germany was likely to win.