BENITO MUSSOLINI

The political movement known as fascism became popular in a number of countries during the 1930s. Fascist leaders like Adolf Hitler in Germany opposed communism and encouraged national pride. Fascism often involved racism (prejudice against other races), especially in Germany where hatred was diverted to Jews and Gypsies. Many people supported fascism because it seemed to offer a way out of the economic decline and the Great Depression which many countries experienced during the 1930s. Many others supported socialists or communists.

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) led the Fascist party in Italy, nicknamed the Black Shirts because of the distinctive shirts they wore in the 1920s. Their official name was the Fasci di Combattimento. Mussolini had been expelled from the Socialist Party in 1914 for his support of Italy's role in World War I. He ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943. In 1922 Mussolini and his Fascist followers marched on Rome to demand a place for their party in the government. King Victor Emmanuel III invited him to be prime minister. He had formed a dictatorship by 1928, having banned all non-Fascist parties in 1925. He embarked on an ambitious public works programme, which included building motorways and upgrading the railways, to revive the Italian economy. His social policies won him the approval of the people. He invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), intervened to help General Franco in the Spanish Civil War and annexed Albania in the 1930s. In 1940 he made an alliance with Germany as one of the axis powers of World War II. In 1943, after a string of military defeats, he resigned and was put under house arrest, but was freed in an audacious raid by German commandos led by Otto Skorzeny. Hitler helped to set up a puppet republic for Mussolini based at Sal˜, on Lake Garda, in German-occupied northern Italy. At the end of the war, Mussolini was captured and executed together with his mistress Clara Retacci by Italian partisans.

Mussolini was nicknamed il Duce, 'the leader', by his followers and the 'bullfrog of the Pontine marshes' by Winston Churchill. He was known for his proud, strutting manner and his dreams of restoring Rome's imperial greatness. It is said of him - by some disparagingly, and others admiringly - that he made the trains run on time in Italy.

Garage Conversion Company Scotland
We are the Scottish branch of the first and leading garage conversion specialist company in the United Kingdom.