On July 25, 1943, Benito Mussolini was overthrown and imprisoned by his former colleagues.
Benito Mussolini was born on July 19, 1883 in Italy. He moved to Switzerland at the age of 19 due to low employment. This is when he started to become involved in socialist politics. Two years later, he returned to Italy and worked as a journalist. He was drafted into the Italian army during World War I.
He created the fascist party in 1919. He had the support of war veterans who eventually became the Black Shirts. The Black Shirts terrorized their political opponents. In October 1922, Italy was in complete chaos. The Black Shirts began taking over and Mussolini promised to restore order. Mussolini slowly started to change the government and became dictator in 1925.
In 1935, he invaded Ethiopia and annexed it to Italy. He allied Italy with Germany and Japan during World War II (the axis powers). Italy was defeated many times after declaring war on the allies. The allies eventually invaded Sicily. This caused Mussolini's colleagues to overthrow him. He tried to regain power with the help of Germany but was eventually shot and killed in 1945.
For more information visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/mussolini_benito.shtml
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