Benito Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism and premier of Italy from 1922-43 and ruling as a dictator from about 1925. In 1919 Mussolini and other veterans from the war founded a revolutionary, nationalistic group called the Fasci di Combattimento in Milan. His movement gained the support of many landowners in the lower Po valley, industrialists, and army officers. Fascist blackshirt squads carried on local civil was against Socialists, Communists, Catholics, and Liberals.
On Oct. 28, 1922, after the Fascists had marched on Rome, Mussolini secured a mandate from King Victor Emmanual lll to form a coalition government. In 1925-26, after a lengthy crisis with parliament he imposed a single party totalitarian dictatorship. In his new "corporate-state", employers and workers were organized into party-controlled groups representing different sectors of the economy. The system preserver capitalism and expanded social services, but abolished free trade unions and the right to strike. He ended a half century of friction between the church and the state with the Lateran pacts with the Vatican in 1929. He also defied the League of Nations and conquered Ethiopia in 1935. This won him acclaim in almost every sector of the general public. His popularity declined after he sent troops to help General Franco in the Spanish Civil War, linked Italy to Nazi Germany, enacted anti-Jewish laws, and invaded