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Mussolini’s yacht seized from suspected mafia businessman

  • Jamey Bergman

The yacht was a gift to the Fascist dictator in the 1930s.

Benito Mussolini yacht seized

Italian police have seized a yacht that once belonged to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a businessman they believe has links to organised crime. The historic sailboat, called Fiamma Nera (Black Flame), was one of nearly €30m in assets taken from Italian entrepreneur Salvatore Squillante as part of an investigation into multiple individuals and companies. Squillante, 68, allegedly purchased the yacht through one of the companies seized as part the “Mafia Capital” organised crime trials that began in Rome in November 2015. Mussolini received the Fiamma Nera as a gift in the 1930s from a fascist supporter. The dictator sank the yacht intentionally to keep it out of German hands when Italy fell to the Nazis during World War II in 1943. Fiamma Nera , originally named Konigin II, was eventually recovered, then restored and renamed Serenella. The vessel went through several owners and various name changes before allegedly being purchased through one of Squillante’s companies seized by Italian police. In addition to the classic sailboat, Italian media reported the businessman’s seized assets included a castle, apartments, luxury cars, offices and stores in Rome. A court document that revealed the identity of the businessman reportedly suggested that he may have links to a Rome-based mafia network allegedly run by a former neo-fascist mobster. The investigation into the network is focused primarily on the use of public funds in allegedly illegal or fraudulent activities. Fiamma Nera is said to be a Dutch yawl built by German shipyard Abeking and Rasmussen in 1912. Related links: Luxury yacht linked to Churchill and WWII battle on sale for €2m WWII U-boat defences to bring broadband to Orkney Islands

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Italian police say seize Mussolini's yacht from businessman linked to mafia

ROME (Reuters) - Italian police said on Monday they had seized a yacht that once belonged to Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from a businessman possibly linked to a huge organized crime network. The yacht was among 28 million euros ($30.5 million) worth of assets including real estate, luxury cars and company stakes sequestered in an investigation into three individuals and 10 companies, the finance police said in a statement. A confiscation order from a Rome court named the businessman as Salvatore Squillante, 68. The lawyer named in the order as acting for Squillante declined to comment. The finance police did not name the businessman. He had bought the classic sailboat, which was christened the "Black Flame" by a Fascist friend who gave it to Mussolini as a present in the 1930s, through one of the seized companies. The boat was deliberately sunk in 1943 to stop it falling into German hands after the Fascist regime fell, and was then hauled out and restored after the war. The court document said Squillante, who served a community service sentence for a 1993 fraudulent bankruptcy, made business deals that suggested he might be linked to a Rome-based mafia network run by a former neo-fascist gangster. He rented property to a firm owned by convicted murderer Salvatore Buzzi, who is accused of being a prominent member of the crime ring that allegedly skimmed millions of euros off city hall contracts in Rome. His activities "could raise suspicions of a possible hidden pact between this man and members of organized crime (groups) to share out money from contracts to manage migrant reception awarded by the (Rome) administration", the court document said. During the "Capital Mafia" investigation, police who had tapped Buzzi's telephone recorded him saying the drug trade was less lucrative than schemes involving migrants. (Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Mussolini's old Yacht Seized in Italy

Benito Mussolini Portrait

The yacht was among €28m ($30.5m) worth of assets including real estate, luxury cars and company stakes sequestered in an investigation into three individuals and 10 companies, the finance police said in a statement.

Mussolini's 'love boat', originally named Konigin II, was purchased in 1935 and given to the Italian dictator by his fascist friend, Alessandro Parisi - Read More

*Image Credit: Wikipedia

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Italian police say seize Mussolini's yacht from businessman linked to mafia

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BOATING WITH BENITO

You’ve won a colonial war of choice by shattering a non-violent Ethiopia as world powers such as Britain and France stood by and watched. You’ve rammed through privatizations, laws favoring the wealthy, and made unions virtually illegal. And you’ve got an ultra-nationalist, militarized police force to help you crush social unrest. What does a satisfied dictator do to unwind? Clearly, he takes his yacht out for a spin on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Italian strongman Benito Mussolini used that yacht—the Fiamma Nera or “Black Fire”—for aquatic romps with his hot mistress Clara Petacci, but scuttled the boat in 1943 after Italy’s World War II fortunes turned for the worse. The boat was raised and had several owners over the decades, but is in the news today because it was part of  € 28 million worth of assets seized from alleged organized crime figure Salvatore Squillante.  

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Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini.

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Benito Mussolini

(1883-1945)

Who Was Benito Mussolini?

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, who went by the nickname “Il Duce” (“the Leader”), was an Italian dictator who created the Fascist Party in 1919 and eventually held all the power in Italy as the country’s prime minister from 1922 until 1943. An ardent socialist as a youth, Mussolini followed in his father's political footsteps but was expelled by the party for his support of World War I. As dictator during World War II, he overextended his forces and was eventually killed by his own people in Mezzegra, Italy.

Family and Early Life

Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883, in Italy. His father, Alessandro, was a blacksmith and an impassioned socialist who spent much of his time on politics and much of his money on his mistress. His mother, Rosa (Maltoni), was a devout Catholic teacher who provided the family with some stability and income.

The eldest of three children, Mussolini showed much intelligence as a youth but was boisterous and disobedient. His father instilled in him a passion for socialist politics and defiance against authority. Though he was expelled from several schools for bullying and defying school authorities, he eventually obtained a teaching certificate in 1901 and, for a brief time, worked as a schoolmaster.

Socialist Party

In 1902, Mussolini moved to Switzerland to promote socialism. He quickly gained a reputation for his magnetism and remarkable rhetorical talents. While engaging in political demonstrations, he caught the attention of Swiss authorities and was eventually expelled from the country.

Mussolini returned to Italy in 1904 and continued promoting a socialist agenda. He was briefly imprisoned and, upon release, became editor of the organization's newspaper, Avanti (meaning "Forward"), which gave him a larger megaphone and expanded his influence.

In 1915, Mussolini joined the Italian army and fought on the front lines, reaching the rank of corporal before being wounded and discharged from the military.

Fascist Party Founder

On March 23, 1919, Mussolini founded the Fascist Party , which organized several right-wing groups into a single force. The fascist movement proclaimed opposition to social class discrimination and supported nationalist sentiments. Mussolini hoped to raise Italy to levels of its great Roman past.

Mussolini’s Rise to Power

Mussolini criticized the Italian government for weakness at the Treaty of Versailles . Capitalizing on public discontent following World War I, he organized a paramilitary unit known as the "Black Shirts," who terrorized political opponents and helped increase Fascist influence.

As Italy slipped into political chaos, Mussolini declared that only he could restore order and was given the authority in 1922 as prime minister. He gradually dismantled all democratic institutions. By 1925, he had made himself dictator, taking the title "Il Duce" ("the Leader").

To his credit, Mussolini carried out an extensive public works program and reduced unemployment, making him very popular with the people.

Invasion of Ethiopia

In 1935, determined to show the strength of his regime, Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. The ill-equipped Ethiopians were no match for Italy's modern tanks and airplanes, and the capital, Addis Ababa, was quickly captured. Mussolini incorporated Ethiopia into the new Italian Empire.

World War II and Adolf Hitler

Impressed with Italy's early military successes, German dictator Adolf Hitler sought to establish a relationship with Mussolini. Flattered by Hitler's overtures, Mussolini interpreted the recent diplomatic and military victories as proof of his genius. In 1939, Mussolini sent support to Fascists in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, hoping to expand his influence.

That same year, Italy and Germany signed a military alliance known as the "Pact of Steel." With Italy's resources stretched to capacity, many Italians believed Mussolini’s alliance with Germany would provide time to regroup. Influenced by Hitler, Mussolini instituted discrimination policies against the Jews in Italy. In 1940, Italy invaded Greece with some initial success.

Hitler's invasion of Poland and declaration of war with Britain and France forced Italy into war, however, and exposed weaknesses in its military. Greece and North Africa soon fell, and only German military intervention in early 1941 saved Mussolini from a military coup.

At the Casablanca Conference in 1942, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt devised a plan to take Italy out of the war and force Germany to move its troops to the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union. Allied forces secured a beachhead in Sicily and began marching up the Italian peninsula.

With pressure mounting, Mussolini was forced to resign on July 25, 1943, and was arrested; German commandos later rescued him. Mussolini then moved his government to northern Italy, hoping to regain his influence. On June 4, 1944, Rome was liberated by Allied forces, who marched on to take control of Italy.

Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were executed on April 28, 1945, in Mezzegra (near Dongo), Italy, and their bodies were hung on display in a Milan plaza. Following the liberation of Rome by Allied forces, the pair had attempted to escape to Switzerland but were captured by the Italian underground on April 27, 1945.

The Italian masses greeted Mussolini's death without regret. Mussolini had promised his people Roman glory, but his megalomania had overcome his common sense, bringing them only war and misery.

QUICK FACTS

  • Name: Benito Mussolini
  • Birth Year: 1883
  • Birth date: July 29, 1883
  • Birth City: Dovia di Predappio, Forlì
  • Birth Country: Italy
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Benito Mussolini created the Fascist Party in Italy in 1919, eventually making himself dictator prior to World War II. He was killed in 1945.
  • World War II
  • World Politics
  • Astrological Sign: Leo
  • Nacionalities
  • Interesting Facts
  • For a brief time, Mussolini worked as a schoolmaster.
  • Mussolini went by the nickname “Il Duce” (“the Leader”).
  • Mussolini and his mistress were executed on April 28, 1945, their bodies hung on display in a Milan plaza.
  • Death Year: 1945
  • Death date: April 28, 1945
  • Death City: Mezzegra
  • Death Country: Italy

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

  • Article Title: Benito Mussolini Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/dictator/benito-mussolini
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: April 22, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
  • It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do.
  • All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.
  • Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy.
  • Fascism is a religion. The 20th century will be known in history as the century of Fascism.
  • The history of saints is mainly the history of insane people.
  • We become strong, I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look to for moral guidance.

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Nemi Ships: How Caligula's Floating Pleasure Palaces Were Found and Lost Again

Nemi ship

For centuries, the medieval fishermen who sailed in the placid waters of Lake Nemi, 19 miles south of Rome, knew a secret. It was said that the rotting timbers of a gigantic ancient shipwreck lurked below the water’s quiet surface. But the lake was tiny, with an area of only 0.6 square miles. And with no other body of water connected to it, what could a vessel of that size be doing there? Still, the stories about the gigantic ship persisted.

They couldn’t have known then, but at the bottom of this tiny lake were two of the most unique artifacts ever to be uncovered from the ancient world. Their story would span millennia,  bridging the eccentricities of Rome’s most notorious Emperor and one of the twentieth century’s most reviled rulers — only to be lost forever in the fires of war.

Leviathans in the Deep

Looking at the placid waters of Lake Nemi in the 15th century, none of that would have seemed plausible. But for years now, fishermen had been using grappling hooks to bring up ancient artifacts from the legendary wreck that lay beneath, and selling them in the markets. An investigation was warranted.

In 1446, a young Cardinal and nephew of the Pope named Prospero Colonna, decided to probe for himself the rumours of an unlikely shipwreck at the bottom of Lake Nemi. He sailed out onto the lake, and sure enough, he could just make out a sprawling lattice of wooden beams. He and his men tried to send down ropes with hooks on the end to retrieve parts of this mysterious structure, but at a depth of 60 feet they didn’t have much luck. All they managed was to tear off some planks. Colonna had confirmed that the wreck existed, but from there the mystery only deepened.

Lake Nemi today.  (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

In 1535, Italian inventor Guglielmo de Lorena and his partner Francesco de Marchi returned to the wrecks with a new and exciting technology: a diving bell. They descended through the murk and gloom and saw an enormous wooden superstructure far vaster than anything they had imagined. The two fished around in the lake bottom for artifacts, and managed to bring up sculptures made of marble and bronze scattered on the muddy lake bottom. Many others tried to explore and survey the wrecks, but without much success. It wasn’t until Italy fell under the sway of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini that the ships would finally be uncovered.

A Dictator Obsessed

Mussolini was a man obsessed with the legacy of Imperial Rome, and he worked hard to include its archaeological remains in his cult of personality. Mussolini had embarked on ambitious projects around the capita:, Excavating the mausoleum of Augustus to build a Fascist piazza around it, clearing the buildings that clustered around the Theatre of Marcellus and digging up the floor of the Colosseum’s Arena to expose the hypogeum beneath and stripping it of its once verdant plant life. He was frequently described in propaganda dispatches as “a new Augustus”, evoking the Roman Emperor who rebuilt much of the city during his reign.

It was only a matter of time, then, before the dictator’s attention turned to the mysterious ships at the bottom of Lake Nemi. In 1929, Mussolini ordered something unprecedented. The whole of Lake Nemi would be drained. Engineers reactivated an ancient Roman cistern that together with a modern pump reduced the lake’s water level by 65 feet. In the mud, slowly emerging from the waters, the Italian engineers found not one, but two enormous shipwrecks. The excavations would take years, with the second ship not brought up until 1932.

The ships were vast, among the largest ever recovered from the ancient world. The largest was 240 feet in length, the same length as an Airbus A380, and measured 79 feet across. From inscriptions on lead pipes and tiles, it soon became clear that what had been discovered were the floating pleasure palaces of the infamous first century Roman Emperor Caligula.

The larger of the two Nemi pleasure palaces.  (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

From One Emperor to Another

Caligula was Emperor for only four years, from 37-41 CE, but his name has lived on in history due to a penchant for sadism, hedonistic excess and brutality. He demanded to be worshipped as a living God, and had the expensive tastes to match. Records show that he  emptied the Imperial treasury in a single year  with extravagant games and spectacles.

It seems Caligula may have built his ships on the tiny Lake Nemi due to its alignment with the goddess Diana Nemorensis, a fitting place for a living divinity to site his pleasure barges. Here, Caligula had two ships built at enormous expense. The largest, dubbed the “prima nave” (first ship) was an enormous vessel, steered with oars 36 feet long. The second was a giant floating platform replete with marble palaces, gardens, and a system of plumbing for baths. Roman historian Seutonius  described  the sight of the ships: “Ten banks of oars… the poops of which blazed with jewels… filled with ample baths, galleries, and saloons, and supplied with a great variety of vines and fruit trees.”

On these ships, Caligula was reported to hold parties where his wild and licentious appetites ran wild, with later historians repeating scurrilous and outlandish rumours about relationships with the wives of his generals and senators, and even with his own sisters.

A man poses with one of the Nemi ships.  (Credit: Archivio fotografico storico del Museo della scienza e della tecnologia L. da Vinci/Wikimedia Commons)

Until the discovery of the Nemi pleasure barges, it was thought that the Romans were incapable of building such large vessels. Historians had assumed that measurements of up to 164 feet given for grain-carrying vessels in some ancient sources were exaggerations. The Nemi ships show they may have been real. While excavating at Lake Nemi, Italian archaeologists uncovered a veritable treasure trove of artifacts from the wrecks. Vast anchors, bronze mouldings and marble statues came up from the depths, along with ornamental oar rings and joints in copper and bronze. They found carvings and mosaics, even gilded copper roof tiles that would have shone spectacularly in the sun. The expense of the vessels would have been enormous.

Bronze oar rings recovered from the pleasure barges.  (Credit: Folegandros/Wikimedia Commons)

The wooden beams of the ships were even coated with lead, a costly treatment designed to protect sea-going vessels from shipworms. Here this treatment was useless, since shipworms don’t live in fresh water. Despite their expense, these opulent palaces were afloat for only the briefest time. It seems they were only in use for about a year before Caligula’s four year reign came to an end. An alliance of senators and the Praetorian Guard ambushed him in a tunnel beneath Rome’s Capitoline Hill and stabbed him to death. Attempts to restore the Republic after Caligula’s death failed. The Roman military ignored the senate and reinstated Imperial monarchy. Caligula’s floating palaces, too, went the way of their creator. Their hulls pierced, the immense ships were weighted with stones  and sunk to the lake bottom.

Pride and the Fall

For Mussolini, the recovery of the ships had been a significant triumph. As the mud-soaked wrecks rose out of lake Nemi, it seemed a good metaphor for his promises to revive the legacy of ancient Rome in the modern day. He had a huge museum built in 1936 to house the wrecks, so that the public could visit. But Mussolini, like Caligula, would soon face a fitting downfall. And the Nemi ships would follow him into the ashes of history.

Mussolini at the dedication of the museum housing the Nemi ships, 1940.  (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

On the night of May 31 1944, less than four years since Mussolini entered the Second World War in support of Hitler’s Germany, Italy was on the brink of defeat. The country had nearly capitulated, and had been invaded by the Nazis to prevent their resistance from collapsing. But the Germans were on a multi-front retreat across all of Europe. Allied troops were closing in.

It’s not known whether the fires started as a result of US artillery or German arson. Nazi troops frequently set fire to positions they abandoned, blowing up bridges on the retreat and doing anything they could to slow the advance of the Allies. Either way, the Nemi ships burned. Only some bronzes survived, along with a handful of photographs of the colossal wrecks. Like Caligula, Mussolini met an ignoble end. Less than a year after the ships burned, he was shot while fleeing Italy in disguise. Two days later, Hitler followed by shooting himself.

Today, the ghosts of the Nemi ships live only in their photographs, and the few remaining artifacts that survived the fire. They form a haunting parable for those who would use the remains of the past for their own ends, while taking no heed of their warnings.

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Benito Mussolini in Dress Uniform

Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini. Benito Mussolini

History remembers Benito Mussolini as a founder member of the original Axis of Evil, the Italian dictator who ruled his country with fear and forged a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany. But a previously unknown area of Il Duce's CV has come to light: his brief career as a British agent.

Archived documents have revealed that Mussolini got his start in politics in 1917 with the help of a £100 weekly wage from MI5.

For the British intelligence agency, it must have seemed like a good investment. Mussolini, then a 34-year-old journalist, was not just willing to ensure Italy continued to fight alongside the allies in the first world war by publishing propaganda in his paper. He was also willing to send in the boys to "persuade'' peace protesters to stay at home.

Mussolini's payments were authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare, an MP and MI5's man in Rome, who ran a staff of 100 British intelligence officers in Italy at the time.

Cambridge historian Peter Martland, who discovered details of the deal struck with the future dictator, said: "Britain's least reliable ally in the war at the time was Italy after revolutionary Russia's pullout from the conflict. Mussolini was paid £100 a week from the autumn of 1917 for at least a year to keep up the pro-war campaigning – equivalent to about £6,000 a week today."

Hoare, later to become Lord Templewood, mentioned the recruitment in memoirs in 1954, but Martland stumbled on details of the payments for the first time while scouring Hoare's papers.

As well as keeping the presses rolling at Il Popolo d'Italia, the newspaper he edited, Mussolini also told Hoare he would send Italian army veterans to beat up peace protesters in Milan, a dry run for his fascist blackshirt units.

"The last thing Britain wanted were pro-peace strikes bringing the factories in Milan to a halt. It was a lot of money to pay a man who was a journalist at the time, but compared to the £4m Britain was spending on the war every day, it was petty cash," said Martland.

"I have no evidence to prove it, but I suspect that Mussolini, who was a noted womaniser, also spent a good deal of the money on his mistresses."

After the armistice, Mussolini began his rise to power, assisted by electoral fraud and blackshirt violence, establishing a fascist dictorship by the mid-1920s.

His colonial ambitions in Africa brought him into contact with his old paymaster again in 1935. Now the British foreign secretary, Hoare signed the Hoare-Laval pact, which gave Italy control over Abyssinia.

"There is no reason to believe the two men were friends, although Hoare did have an enduring love affair with Italy," said Martland, whose research is included in Christopher Andrew's history of MI5, Defence of the Realm, which was published last week.

The unpopularity of the Hoare-Laval pact in Britain forced Hoare to resign. Mussolini, meanwhile, built on his new colonial clout to ally with Hitler, entering the second world war in 1940, this time to fight against the allies.

Deposed following the allied invasion of Italy in 1943, Mussolini was killed with his mistress, Clara Petacci, by Italian partisans while fleeing Italy in an attempt to reach Switzerland two years later.

Martland said: "Mussolini ended his life hung upside down in Milan, but history has not been kind to Hoare either, condemned as an appeaser of fascism alongside Neville Chamberlain."

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How Mussolini led Italy to fascism—and why his legacy looms today

Although ultimately disgraced, the italian dictator's memory still haunts the nation a century after toppling the government and ushering in an age of brutality..

Benito Mussolini makes a speech in Italy. Known for his charisma and persuasive rhetoric, the future ...

In October 1922, a storm was gathering over Italy. Fascism—a political movement that harnessed discontent with a potent brew of nationalism, populism, and violence—would soon engulf the embattled nation and much of the world.

Benito Mussolini, the leader of the Italian movement, had amassed a strong following and began to call for the government to hand over power.

“We are at the point when either the arrow shoots forth or the tightly drawn bowstring breaks!” he said during a speech at a rally in Naples on October 24 of that year. “Our program is simple. We want to govern Italy.” He told supporters that if the government did not resign, they must march on Rome. Four days later, they did just that—leaving chaos in their wake as Mussolini seized control.

Mussolini, surrounded by supporters, enters Rome in October 1922. Days earlier, Mussolini had directed his movement’s ...

Mussolini’s name is still often invoked in the country as a brutal dictator, though some still revere him as a hero. But how did he rise to power and what exactly happened during that fateful march that toppled Italy’s government? Here’s what you need to know.

How Mussolini founded Italian fascism

Fascism galvanised a growing nationalist movement in Europe born in the face of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, in which Russian socialists overthrew the Russian Empire. ( Learn more about WWI. )

In Italy, Mussolini led the way to fascism. Born on July 29, 1883, in small-town southern Italy to a blacksmith father and a schoolteacher mother, he grew up on his socialist father’s stories of nationalism and political heroism. Shy and socially awkward, he ran into trouble at an early age due to his intransigence and violence against his classmates. As a young adult, he moved to Switzerland and became an avowed socialist. Eventually, he made his way back to Italy and established himself as a socialist journalist.

Mussolini speaks in Rome’s famed Colosseum in 1928.

When war broke out across Europe in 1914, Italy at first remained neutral. Mussolini wanted Italy to join the war—putting him at odds with the Italian Socialist Party, which expelled him due to his pro-war advocacy. In response, he formed his own political movement, the Fasces of Revolutionary Action, aimed at encouraging entry into the war. (Italy eventually joined the conflict in 1915.)

In ancient Rome, the word fasces  referred to a weapon consisting of a bundle of wooden rods, sometimes surrounding an axe. Used by Roman authorities to punish wrongdoers, the fasces came to represent state authority. In the 19th century, Italians had begun to use the word for political groups bound by common aims.

Mussolini was increasingly convinced that society should organise itself not along lines of social class or political affiliation, but around a strong national identity. He believed that only a “ruthless and energetic” dictator could make a “clean sweep” of Italy and restore it to its national promise.

Support for fascism grows

Mussolini was not alone: In the wake of the war, many Italians were chagrined by the Treaty of Versailles . They felt the treaty, which carved up the territory of the aggressor nations, disrespected Italy by awarding it far too little land. This “mutilated victory” would shape Italy’s future. ( How the Treaty of Versailles ended WWI and started WWII .)

In 1919, Mussolini founded a paramilitary movement he called the Italian Fasces of Combat. A successor to the Fasces of Revolutionary Action, this combat-focused squad aimed to mobilise war-hardened veterans who could return glory to Italy.

A World War II propaganda poster representing the alliance between Italy and Nazi Germany. The slogan ...

Mussolini hoped to translate the nation’s discontent into political success, but the young party suffered a humiliating defeat in that year’s parliamentary election. Mussolini only garnered 2,420 votes compared with the Socialist Party’s 1.8 million, delighting his enemies in Milan who held a fake funeral in his honour.  

Undeterred, Mussolini began courting other groups who were at odds with socialists: industrialists and businessmen who feared strikes and slowdowns, rural landowners who feared losing their land, and members of political parties who feared socialism’s growing popularity.

Mussolini’s powerful new allies helped finance his movement’s paramilitary wing, known as “the Blackshirts.” Though Mussolini professed to stand against oppression and censorship of all kinds, the group quickly became known for its willingness to use violence for political gain.

A bust of Mussolini on display in Predappio, Italy, his birthplace. The statue is part of ...

The Blackshirts terrorised socialists and Mussolini’s personal enemies nationwide. The year 1920 was bloody, with fascists marching through towns, beating and even killing labour leaders, and effectively taking over local authority. But the Italian government, which shared the fascists’ enmity with socialists, did little to stem the violence.

Mussolini’s rise to power

Though in reality Mussolini only controlled a fraction of the militia members, their tough image helped build his reputation as a powerful, authoritative leader capable of backing up his words with violent and decisive action. Known as Il Duce, (the Duke), he exercised a powerful influence over Italians, seducing them with his personal charm and persuasive rhetoric.

Italians celebrate the fall of fascism by pulling down and destroying a statue of Benito Mussolini ...

In 1921, Mussolini won a seat in parliament and was even invited to join the coalition government by Italy’s Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti—who assumed that Mussolini would bring his Blackshirts to heel once he was given a share of the political power.

But Giolitti had misjudged Mussolini, who instead intended to use his Blackshirts to seize absolute control. In late 1921, Mussolini transformed the group into the National Fascist Party, translating a movement that had numbered about 30,000 in 1920 into a political party 320,000 members strong. Although he had effectively declared war against the state, the Italian government was powerless to dissolve the party and stood by as fascists took over most of northern Italy.

Mussolini saw his opening in summer 1922. Socialists had announced a strike that historian Ararat Gocmen writes was “not in the name of workers’ emancipation but in a desperate cry for the state to bring an end to fascist violence.” Mussolini positioned the strike as proof that the government was weak and incapable of rule. With new supporters who wanted law and order, Mussolini decided it was time to seize power.

The March on Rome

On October 25, 1922, a day after his rally in Naples, Mussolini appointed four party leaders to lead members into the nation’s capital. Poorly trained and outfitted, these men would likely have lost a battle with Italy’s army. But Mussolini intended to intimidate the government into submission.  

An office room in the Villa Carpena, also known as Villa Mussolini, once the residence of ...

Fascist battalions were to congregate outside of Rome. If the prime minister did not give the fascists power—and King Victor Emmanuel III did not subsequently recognise his authority—his waiting men would march into the capital and seize control.

Items for sale in the Predappio Tricolor Shop. Located in Mussolini’s hometown, the shop specializes in ...

While Mussolini lingered in Milan, his supporters gathered. They left chaos in their wake, taking over government buildings in towns they passed through en route to Rome. Though the party consistently overstated their numbers, historian Katy Hull notes , fewer than 30,000 men joined the march.

Luigi Facta, then the prime minister, attempted to impose martial law. But the king thought Mussolini could usher in stability and refused to sign the order that would have mobilised Italian troops against the fascists.

In protest, Facta and his cabinet resigned the morning of October 28. Armed with a telegram from the king inviting him to form a cabinet, Mussolini boarded a sleeper car and took a leisurely, 14-hour journey from Milan to Rome. On October 30, he became prime minister—and ordered his men to parade before the king’s residence as they left the city.

The fall of Mussolini—and fascism’s legacy

The king, exhausted by the world war and a state of near civil war in Italy, had assumed Mussolini would impose order. But within three years, the strongman would be an outright dictator—and Victor Emmanuel let him do as he pleased.

Over the years, Mussolini increased his own power while chipping away at the population’s civil rights and forming a propagandistic police state. His agenda also went beyond domestic affairs. Mussolini’s imperial ambitions led Italy to occupy the Greek island of Corfu, invade Ethiopia, and ally itself with Nazi Germany, eventually resulting in the murder of 8,500 Italians in the Holocaust.

Mussolini’s ambition would be his downfall. Though he led Italy into World War II as an Axis power aligned with the seemingly unstoppable Adolf Hitler, he presided over the destruction of much of his country. Victor Emmanuel III convinced Mussolini’s closest allies to turn against him and, on July 25, 1943, they finally succeeded in removing him from power and placing him under arrest. 

After a dramatic prison break, Mussolini fled to German-occupied Italy, where, under pressure from Hitler, he formed a weak and short-lived puppet state. On April 28, 1945, as an Allied victory neared, Mussolini attempted to flee the country. He was intercepted by communist partisans, who shot him and dumped his body in a public square in Milan.

Soon, a crowd gathered, desecrating the dictator’s corpse and venting years of hatred and loss. His barely recognizable body was eventually deposited in an unmarked grave. Il Duce was dead. But his legacy still haunts Italy today—and the fascist movement he pioneered remains alive both in Italian politics and the international imagination.

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How Mussolini Seized Power in Italy—And Turned It Into a Fascist State

By: Fred Frommer

Updated: September 15, 2023 | Original: April 11, 2022

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) circa 1940

Before becoming one of the most famous fascists of the 20 th century, Benito Mussolini  was a young socialist, but he split with the movement and then rode a wave of anti-socialist violence to power in Italy.

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini’s middle names came from Italian socialists Amilcare Cipriani and Andrea Costa , and his father was a socialist. In his 20s, Mussolini briefly edited a socialist newspaper in Austria-Hungary, then in 1912, when he was around 30, he took over as editor of Avanti! (Forward!), the official daily newspaper of Italy’s Socialist Party.

But a couple of years later the party expelled Mussolini over his support for Italy’s entrance into World War I .

“Mussolini was more of an authoritarian revolutionary than an orthodox Marxist,” says Michael R. Ebner, an associate professor of history in the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and the author of Ordinary Violence in Mussolini's Italy (Cambridge University Press, 2011). “With the outbreak of World War I, he came to see nationalism and militarism as the keys to revolutionary upheaval. He therefore left behind Marxist economic determinism and pacifism.”

After WWI, Mussolini's 'Blackshirts' Target Socialists

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1883 - 1945) (center), general and Fascist politician Emilio de Bono and aviator and politician Count Italo Balbo leading the blackshirts in the Fascist "March on Rome"

Mussolini might have left the Socialist Party behind, but many Italians embraced it after the war, in part because establishment politicians were ineffective in solving postwar problems, says Ebner, who is also co-editor of The Politics of Everyday Life in Fascist Italy ( Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

“After the sacrifices of the war, and the example of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, anything seemed possible,” he says, adding that Socialists made huge electoral gains, taking over local governments, which alarmed some middle- and upper-class Italians.

Seeing those gains, Mussolini took on the Socialists by force. In 1919, Mussolini created the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento , (Italian Combat Squads), the precursor to his Fascist Party. This group engaged in violence against Socialists and other enemies. In 1921, he founded the Fascist Party, turning his paramilitary movement into a formal political party. He coined the name of the party based on the Italian word for bundle— fascio —in reference to bundles of rods used in ancient Rome to symbolize strength through unity. The party emphasized national unity—even if it required violence to keep dissenters in check.

“Basically, Mussolini hated the Socialists, and so did the rest of the Fascists,” Ebner said. “One driving force behind Fascist violence was their desire to punish the Socialists for not supporting Italy during the Great War (World War I). The Fascists viewed the Socialists as cowardly traitors, internal enemies, who needed to be eradicated.”

He noted Mussolini’s paramilitary groups that attacked the Socialist Party and labor unions—known as the Blackshirts—were often paid or supplied by wealthy landowners. Fascist squads burned down Communist and Socialist offices as they took over cities.

Italy's King Asks Mussolini to Form Government 

In 1921 Mussolini was elected to the lower chamber of Italy's parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, and the next year, tens of thousands of armed Fascists marched on Rome, demanding Mussolini be named prime minister. Italy’s King, Victor Emmanuel III, refused to declare a state of emergency and impose martial law. Instead he dissolved the government and asked Mussolini to form a new one. Mussolini became both prime minister and interior minister, the latter post, critically, giving him control over the police.

Before Mussolini became prime minister, Fascist squads had used violence to kill, harm, frighten, and humiliate their enemies. After Mussolini became prime minister in October 1922, the squads were still important, but Mussolini could also then rely on the police to go after enemies like Communists, Socialists and Anarchists.

“Mussolini could therefore mix 'legal' state repression with 'illegal' squad violence,” Ebner says. “The police found cause to arrest and harass left-wing political opponents, while the squads could engage in beatings and assassinations to silence other critics.”

The Rise of Mussolini's Cult of Personality

Benito Mussolini poses with a bust of himself made by sculptor Ernest Durig, circa 1925

In June 1924, assassins with ties to Mussolini killed socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti , prompting opposition deputies to boycott the Parliament. On January 3, 1925, Mussolini essentially took responsibility for that assassination in a speech to Parliament that is seen as the start of his Fascist dictatorship .

“I declare before this Chamber, before the world and before God that I personally assume the whole political, moral and historical responsibility for what has occurred,” he told the Chamber. “I declare that if the Fascists are an association of malefactors, then I am the head of that association of malefactors.”

In response to what he called “scandalous” press attacks against Fascism, Mussolini said, “The whole nation is asking what the government is doing, the whole nation is asking whether it is governed by men or by puppets.”

“Standing in his characteristic pose,” the New York Times reported , “with chest well thrust out, thumping the Ministers’ bench with his tightly clenched fist to emphasize his points… he spoke with fire, passion and vehemence … Only force, he said, can decide between Fascism and the Opposition, and this force he now proposes to use.”

Attendees stood and applauded every sentence, and shouted “Vivo Mussolini! Vivo Fascismo!”

“It was the greatest triumph of Mussolini’s whole political career,” the Times said. After his speech, “Deputies rushed at Mussolini from all sides and lifted him shoulder-high carrying him in triumph out of the chamber,” while others danced and sang.

Mussolini, known as “ Il Duce ” (the Leader), ruled as a dictator from that point on. He fostered a cult of personality, projecting himself as an omnipotent and indispensable leader. His government expelled all opposition, including Socialist members and arrested all Communist members of Parliament. He abolished local elections and reinstated the death penalty for political crimes. 

Mussolini's government also required movie houses to show government propaganda newsreels as part of a crackdown on the free press. In “ The Doctrine of Fascism ,” published in 1932, Mussolini and a fellow Fascist described the state as "all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value."

Mussolini Allies With Hitler, Then Executed at Close of WWII

Mussolini allied with German dictator Adolf Hitler in World War II , and ruled Italy until 1943 when he was voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested. After German commandos rescued him, he was placed atop a puppet government in German-occupied northern Italy from September 1943 to April 1945.

As the Third Reich lost its grip on northern Italy, Mussolini attempted to flee with his mistress to Switzerland. He wore German clothing and a helmet to try and disguise his identity, but, thanks to his years of promoting his cult of personality, he was quickly recognized. Mussolini was executed along with his mistress by Italian Communist partisans on April 28, 1945.

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IMAGES

  1. Launch of Mussolini's yacht Diana, later completed as fast aviso for

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  2. [611x415] The Italian yacht Aurora, a gunboat converted into Benito

    mussolini yacht name

  3. [Photo] Benito Mussolini and family aboard a yacht at Riccione, Italy

    mussolini yacht name

  4. Italian police seize Mussolini’s yacht from businessman linked to mafia

    mussolini yacht name

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    mussolini yacht name

  6. Mussolini's Yacht

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  1. When Hitler Met Mussolini

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  3. ATATÜRK VE MUSSOLİNİ

  4. Benito Mussolini's writers make fun of him with naval warfare speech #italy #ww2 #germany

  5. Benito Mussolini: Architect of Fascism

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COMMENTS

  1. Italian police seize Mussolini's yacht from businessman linked to mafia

    The finance police did not name the businessman. Squillante had bought the classic sailboat, which was christened the Black Flame by a fascist friend who gave it to Mussolini as a present in the ...

  2. Mussolini's yacht seized from suspected mafia businessman

    The yacht was a gift to the Fascist dictator in the 1930s. Italian police have seized a yacht that once belonged to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a businessman they believe has links to organised crime. The historic sailboat, called Fiamma Nera (Black Flame), was one of nearly €30m in assets taken from Italian entrepreneur Salvatore ...

  3. Italian police say seize Mussolini's yacht from businessman linked to mafia

    Italian police said on Monday they had seized a yacht that once belonged to Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from a businessman possibly linked to a huge organized crime network. A confiscation order from a Rome court named the businessman as Salvatore Squillante, 68. The lawyer named in the order as acting for Squillante declined to comment.

  4. Nemi ships

    The remains of the hull of one of the two ships recovered from Lake Nemi.Workers in the foreground give an indication of scale. 1930 The remains of a Lake Nemi ship in 1929. The Nemi ships were two ships, of different sizes, built under the reign of the Roman emperor Caligula in the 1st century AD on Lake Nemi.Although the purpose of the ships is speculated upon, the larger ship was an ...

  5. Mussolini's old Yacht Seized in Italy

    Mussolini's old Yacht Seized in Italy. The yacht was among €28m ($30.5m) worth of assets including real estate, luxury cars and company stakes sequestered in an investigation into three individuals and 10 companies, the finance police said in a statement. Mussolini's 'love boat', originally named Konigin II, was purchased in 1935 and given to ...

  6. Italian police say seize Mussolini's yacht from businessman linked to

    Italian police said on Monday they had seized a yacht that once belonged to Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from a businessman possibly linked to a huge organised crime network.

  7. Police seize Mussolini's former yacht from businessman

    Italian police seize a yacht once belonging to Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from a businessman suspected of organized crime links. The sailboat,...

  8. Italy: Yacht Once Belonging to Mussolini Seized in Anti-Mafia Operation

    A yacht which used to belong to Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini is among the seized assets. Benito Mussolini The police operation is part of an investigation into three people and 10 companies, ... did not name the businessman. According to Reuters, however, a confiscation order from a court in Rome named him as Salvatore Squillante.

  9. Italian police seize Mussolini 'love' yacht in 'Capital Mafia ...

    Mussolini's 'love boat', originally named Konigin II, was purchased in 1935 and given to the Italian dictator by his fascist friend, Alessandro Parisi. The yacht is said to be a typical Dutch yawl built by a famous German shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen in 1912, Italy's Il Tempo daily reported.

  10. Pulp International

    Clearly, he takes his yacht out for a spin on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Italian strongman Benito Mussolini used that yacht—the Fiamma Nera or "Black Fire"—for aquatic romps with his hot mistress Clara Petacci, but scuttled the boat in 1943 after Italy's World War II fortunes turned for the worse.

  11. Benito Mussolini

    Benito Mussolini. Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini ( UK: / ˌmʊsəˈliːni, ˌmʌs -/, US: / ˌmuːs -/, Italian: [beˈniːto aˈmilkare anˈdrɛːa mussoˈliːni]; 29 July 1883 - 28 April 1945) was an Italian dictator who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until ...

  12. What was the name of Mussolini's Yacht?

    The yacht club to which this yacht belongs, or the marina where it is moored will list the name of its owner. What was the Name of yacht used in film the long Good Friday?

  13. Benito Mussolini

    Benito Mussolini created the Fascist Party in Italy in 1919, eventually making himself dictator prior to World War II. He was killed in 1945. ... Name: Benito Mussolini; Birth Year: 1883 ...

  14. Nemi Ships: How Caligula's Floating Pleasure Palaces Were Found and

    The largest was 240 feet in length, the same length as an Airbus A380, and measured 79 feet across. From inscriptions on lead pipes and tiles, it soon became clear that what had been discovered were the floating pleasure palaces of the infamous first century Roman Emperor Caligula. The larger of the two Nemi pleasure palaces.

  15. Benito Mussolini

    Benito Mussolini was Europe's first 20th-century fascist dictator, and the word fascism comes from the far-right movement he led in Italy. Mussolini named the fasci di combattimento—paramilitary groups which were largely under his control and from which his movement derived its own name, fascismo—after the Latin word fasces, which was the bundle of wooden sticks topped with an axe-head ...

  16. BBC

    Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on 29 July 1883 in Predappio in northern central Italy. His father was a blacksmith. Employment prospects in the area were poor so in 1902 Mussolini moved ...

  17. Historic boat sinks off Isle

    Ciano was killed in 1944 and Mussolini and his mistress then took the boat, which bears the formal name of Chryseis. After Mussolini was executed in 1945, Italian rebels used the boat to smuggle arms.

  18. 9 Things You May Not Know About Mussolini

    Explore nine things you may not know about "Il Duce" and his 21 years in power. 1. Mussolini had a penchant for violence even as a youth. Born on July 29, 1883, Mussolini gained a reputation ...

  19. Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini. Benito Mussolini

    Tue 13 Oct 2009 15.15 EDT. History remembers Benito Mussolini as a founder member of the original Axis of Evil, the Italian dictator who ruled his country with fear and forged a disastrous ...

  20. How Mussolini led Italy to fascism—and why his legacy looms today

    Mussolini saw his opening in summer 1922. Socialists had announced a strike that historian Ararat Gocmen writes was "not in the name of workers' emancipation but in a desperate cry for the state to bring an end to fascist violence." Mussolini positioned the strike as proof that the government was weak and incapable of rule.

  21. How Mussolini Seized Power in Italy—And Turned It Into a ...

    Mussolini allied with German dictator Adolf Hitler in World War II, and ruled Italy until 1943 when he was voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested.After German commandos rescued ...

  22. Mussolini's Sex Life

    Wags in the foreign service dubbed him Italy's "Erection-in-Chief.". From 1922 to 1943, Mussolini lived like a sultan with palace, bachelor pad, country estate, private plane, yacht, and garage full of cars. Promiscuous sex became his all-consuming passion and "imperial" prerogative.

  23. Boat Names: 101 Suggestions For Naming Your Yacht

    Funny Boat Names: Have a Giggle Creating Puns. A pun or light-hearted name will amuse passers by and brighten up their day. Boating is an outlet, a release from the demands of life and a name that reflects the joy that your boat brings is something that should be embraced. A banterous name like "Aquaholic" will add a lighthearted vibe to ...