He Founded A Fascist Political Party

Italian World War I veteran and Socialist newspaper publisher Benito Mussolini splits from the Italian Socialists and founds the nationalist Fasci di Combattimento, which was given the name of the Italian peasant revolutionaries, or "Fighting Bands," of the 19th century. Mussolini's new right-wing group, commonly known as the Fascist Party, promoted Italian nationalism, wore black shirts as uniforms, and started a terrorist and intimidation campaign against its leftist rivals.

The fasces, which the members of Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party of Italy selected as their insignia in 1919, inspired the party's name. The fasces are shown on the reverse of the Winged Liberty dime, which was produced in the United States from 1916 to 1945. With the establishment of the Fascist Revolutionary Party in 1915, Mussolini made his first overt political move. In 1919, the "Fascist Manifesto," which called for equal voting rights for men and women, abolishing the Senate (which was presided over by the nobility), and imposing hefty taxes on the wealthy, became well known.

However, in 1921 Mussolini changed the name of the organization to the National Fascist Party and rebuilt it, emphasizing the Italian national identity considerably more. Following the Fascist march on Rome in October 1922, King Emmanuel III, who had little confidence in Italy's legislative government, requested that Mussolini form a new administration. At first, Mussolini, the three-member Fascist cabinet's prime minister, worked with the Italian parliament, but with the help of his violent police force, he quickly established himself as the country's de facto ruler. A socialist backlash in 1924 was put down, and in January 1925, Mussolini has formally proclaimed Il Duce, or "The Leader," of the Fascist regime.