Overview

The career and personal life of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. He quickly became one of Italy's most intelligent and menacing young Socialists. He broke with Italian Socialist Party after advocating intervention in World War I. In 1922, he became prime minister, and by 1925, he had established himself as dictator. His rule saw an official totalitarian system; the establishment of the Vatican state; the annexation of Abyssinia and Albania; and the formation of the Axis with Germany. His declaration of war on Britain and France was followed by a series of defeats in Africa and in the Balkans. Following the Allied invasion of Sicily, his supporters deserted him, and he was overthrown and arrested. Rescued from imprisonment by German paratroopers, he was placed in charge of the puppet Italian Social Repbulic, but in 1945 he was captured by the Italian Resistance and executed.