Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 outside the village of Dovia di Predappio in Italy. He had a sister named Edvige and a brother named Armaldo. His mother Rosa Maltoni was a well-respected and appreciated schoolteacher. His father Alessandro Mussolini was a both a blacksmith and a committee socialist. Alessandro, being an admirer of the Mexican revolutionary Benito Juarez, named his son after the patriot and hero (euronet.ne). As a child, Benito lacked proper manners and bullied other children. For this reason, he was kicked out of his first boarding school. Both Benito and his father, Alessandro had very violent tempers, which he would later display in his methods of ruling the Italian people. Mussolini can be considered very infamous for the fact that the majority of his political decisions were not for the benefit of the Italians, but to strengthen his individual power. .
Growing up, Mussolini was surrounded by numerous political philosophies such as anarchism, socialism, and fascism. He was a supporter of the socialist party and later became the editor of La Lotta di Classe (The Class Struggle). His early enthusiasm for Karl Marx was modified by a mixture of ideas from the viewpoints of Friedrich Nietzsche, the revolutionary doctrines of Auguste Blanqui, and the syndicalism of Georges Sorel. In 1910, Mussolini became secretary of the local socialist party at Foril. When Italy declared war on Turkey, he was imprisoned for his pacifist propaganda. Appointed editor of the official socialist newspaper Avanti, he established himself as the most forceful of all labor leaders of Italian socialism (Smith). When World War I began in 1914, he did not want Italy to join. Only a class war was acceptable to him, and he threatened to lead a proletarian revolution if the government decided to fight. However, several months later, he unexpectedly changed his position on the war, leaving the socialist party and his editorial chair.
