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Benito Mussolini - Brief Look

        Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in Predappio.   The
son of a blacksmith he was largely self-educated.   He became a
schoolteacher and a socialist journalist in northern Italy.   In 1910
he married Rachele Guidi who bore his five children.   Mussolini was
jailed in 1911 for his opposition to Italys war in Libya.
        Soon after his release in 1912 he became editor of the
socialist newspaper in Milan, Avanti!.   When WWI began in 1914
Mussolini advocated Italys entrance into the war on the allied side
and was expelled from the socialist party.   He then started his own
newspaper in Milan, Il Popolo dItalia (The People of Italy) which
later became the origin of the Fascist Movement.   In 1916 Mussolini
enlisted in the military.   After his promotion to sergeant he was
wounded and in 1917 he returned to his paper.
        During the Chaos that Gripped Italy after the war Mussolinis
influence grew swiftly.   Mussolini and other war veterans founded
Fasci di Combattimento in March of 1919.   This Nationalistic
antisocialist movement attracted much of the lower middle class and
took its name from the Fasces, an ancient symbol of Roman
discipline.   The Fascist movement grew rapidly in the 1920s,
spreading through the countryside where its Black Shirt Militia won
support of the land owners and attacked peasant leagues of Socialist
Supporters.   To take advantage of the opportunity Fascism shed its
initial Republicanism gaining the support of the King and Army.  
        On October 28, 1922 Mussolini led his Fascist March on Rome.  
Mussolini was immediately invited to form the Italian Government by
King Victor Emmanuel III.   Although Mussolini was given extraordinary
powers to return order to Italy he governed constitutionally until
1924 after the violence of the 1924 elections resulting in the death
of Socialist party deputy Giacomo Mattoetti.   Mussolini moved to
suspend constitutional government and...