Why Is Mussolini Called Il Duce?

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Why Is Mussolini Called Il Duce?

2 Answers

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Answer 1

Mussolini was called as Il duce because of the skilful use he made of his secret police, thus intimidating his opponents into silence. Also he was powerful enough to exercise absolute control over the ruthless Italian press. Hence he was also known as Il Duce, the name has been derived from the Latin word 'Dux' which means leader.

'Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on the 29th of July in the year 1883. He is very famously known as the prime minister and the dictator of Italy. He remained at this post since the year 1922 to the year 1943. Mussolini established his image as a repressive fascist and his regime valued anti-liberalism, nationalism and militarism. Mussolini in later years also became a close ally of the German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.

Mussolini along with his wife was shot dead on the 28th of April in the year 1945.

Answer 2

Benito Mussolini was the name of the Fascist dictator of Italy in the course of the Second World War He started getting actively involved in the Italian political system in the starting decade of the nineteenth century. He was then exiled to Switzerland and then Austria, where he worked as a writer and editor for newspapers, mainly those that were socialist in view and content. After having served in the First World War, he came back to Italy and gained authority and infamy as a revolutionary. He established the Fascist Party in the year 1919 and eventually took national power in the year 1922 by using force against political rivals. He then performed the dissolution of the Parliament and created an authoritarian structure with himself as dictator.

Around the year 1923, he adopted the title of (il) Duce as a de facto name in order to put himself on a pedestal as the country's unrivalled ultimate leader. It is quite similar to Hitler's title of Fuhrer in Nazi Germany.