Benito Mussolini also goes by the name Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini is Italian born. Benito was born in July 29th 1883 and died in April 28th 1945 close to Dongo. Apart from leading Italy, Benito Mussolini was also the prime minister of Italy around 1922-1943 and was considered among the first of 20th century dictators in Europe.
His early life
Mussolini was born as the first child of a local Italian blacksmith which was expressed in the later years of his life where he expressively took pride of his humbler background, speaking of himself as being a people person. His family was so humble that he claimed because his father was a well-known blacksmith and a part time social journalist who was brought forth a lieutenant man in the National Guard. Mussolini’s mother was a school teacher and generally their family was considered poor. As a family, the found shelter in two crowded rooms on the second floor of a dilapidated house and since Mussolini’s father loved spending most of his time discussing politics; he had little money which he spent on his mistress (Hibbert 1). Having less money to spend on his family made his three children eat very small meals which were scarce too. Being a restless child ever since his birth, Mussolini was unruly, aggressive and disobedient: he was a bully both at school and home though most times when at home he was more moody. In school, teachers could not control him and therefore he was sent to the board school with the aggressive Salesian order at Faenza and here he proved more troublesome compared to the past. He was expelled and joined another school where he was also expelled after using his penknife to assault another student.
However, being a difficult boy, he was very intelligent and this was evident in his final examinations. He headed a school after acquiring his diploma but realized he was not fit for this position. At 19 years, he left for Switzerland and from his account, he had empty pockets and so at Switzerland he lived from job to job and day to day. He was gaining remarkable popularity because of his exceptional talents and interests into theorists and philosophers. He later joined trade unions and led in union strikes and went back to Italy.
It was in Italy that he decided to be part of the Italian Fascist party. During this time, it was the goal of Mussolini together with party members to control each aspect of the daily lives of Italians. Eat, worship, play, rest, leisure was influenced by Mussolini and his government during the time of Fascist regime (Hibbert 1). As stated in the 1927 Labor Charter ‘The Italian nation operates as an organism that possesses life, instruments of action and purpose in power and the time to those who possess it and those composing it. Being a dictator, Mussolini and his government attacked all cultural norms through replacing them with usual handshakes with the fascist rules. Their main aim was to seek control of individual movement, gain the correct review and cancel passports, firing on persons who want to leave the country illegally. Mussolini and his team tried also to deprive Italian citizens living abroad of their right to property and citizenship particularly for those who criticized his leadership.
Labor and land
In 1925, the relative stable labor and land of Italy begun to decline. This was not in any way related to the conditions in Italy but was highly related to universal speculation against its currency which was pegged to the gold standard (Myers 1). A higher monetary crisis hit the country during the Fascist labor movement even though they had made sincere efforts to improve on working conditions and salaries. During the great depression, Fascists worsened economic crisis conditions as violence and strikes increased with people wishing the regime had fallen.
Leisure
The world of leisure was changed wholly by the Fascists. The new regime broke won the class affiliation of leisure into more parts that would promote recreational buildings, consumer patterns and mass communications. The regime increased production and technology within the area of leisure making the radio the most special item and a significant source in entertainment (Myers 1). Two other leisure activities were also promoted during this time; the cinema and the theatre which were not very common in the past. However, the introduction of new leisure aspects did not make them less susceptible to Fascist influence. The radio, theatres and cinemas were privately controlled by the Fascist regime as the decided how much profit they would create, how they distribute leisure activities to the public and they largely affected the public.
Sports
The Fascist regime was determined to control every aspect of Italians daily life including the sport culture. The government decided on who became the Olympic committee, how much money from funding organizations reached the committee and who represented the country. In the end, the success of the Fascist party was in developing competent trainers, providing training facilities and ensured all teams were financially supported.
Religion
Not even the church could stop Mussolini’s influence on Italians day to day life. The relationship between the church and the regime grew sour as most children of religious men were expelled from all state schools and activities as ordered by Mussolini (Ebner 1).
It is evident that just like the Government, the Fascist party was unsuccessful. They did so much to paralyze every activity of the Italians and this led to an ultimate failure and collapse of the regime.
