Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) was an Italian politician and the founder of Fascism. A schoolteacher and journalist, he rose as an editor in the Socialist Party, was expelled in 1914 for supporting Italy's entry into the First World War, and in 1919 founded the Fascist movement. After the March on Rome in 1922 the king made him prime minister, and by 1925 he had established a dictatorship. He invaded Ethiopia, allied Italy with Hitler's Germany and entered the Second World War in 1940. Deposed in 1943, he led a German-backed puppet state until partisans captured and executed him in April 1945.