How Did Benito Mussolini Influence The Kingdom Of Italy

The kingdom of Italy was a fascist empire developed by Benito Mussolini, who believed in Fascism and rose into power by threatening the king of Italy. Fascist Italy tried reviving what they had back when the Roman Empire was the top dog, even if it meant committing war crimes and atrocities that some would argue are as bad as the Nazi war crimes during WW2. From siding with Nazi Germany during one of the bloodiest wars in history to invading a poorly equipped African nation, there is an abundant amount of evidence that proves Italy committed crimes comparable to Germany in many ways.

Mussolini was the leader and Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 until his death on 1945. Mussolini was originally a socialist but his political views later changed when he later ran into Fascism. After making a fascist party,Mussolini stormed into rome with members of said party and threatened King Victor Emmanuel III to make him prime minister. That was step 1 of Mussolini’s master plan. Mussolini’s main goal was similar to hitler in many ways including capturing territories that include Greece and aiding in the Spanish Civil War on Francisco Franco’s side. Mussolini ultimately didn't succeed in his goals but still left a negative impact on the world due to his actions from early

1900’s to WW2
A War Crime is considered by the United Nations as “Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention” or simply an act that against the rules set by the Geneva Convention. This includes the torture of soldiers or Civilians, immoral killing of others, invading towns or countries, killing unarmed soldiers who surrender, forcing Prisoners of War to side with the power they are captured by, using Prisoners of War and Civilians in experiments, and anything else that involves the injury of a Civilian, Prisoner of War, or anybody else that is unable to defend him/herself.
In 1935 Italian forces invaded Ethiopia to start their ”new roman empire” due to Ethiopia being such a weak nation and having a large amount of land to conquer. When Mussolini invaded the African nation he brought imperialism and the start of Italy’s habit to attack foreign countries for their land. The problem with this specific action is that invading land is against The League of Nations, but since the League of Nations was very ineffective at their job Italy, Germany, and even Japan took over land that eventually leads to World War 2. At Ethiopia Mussolini massacred the Ethiopian forces and started his reign over North Africa.
Starting at 1936, a civil war in Spain gave Italy and Germany a perfect place for their military to practice their military forces.

This was due to the 2 fascist governments ruling in favor of Francisco Franco and Germany/Italy were getting ready for a great war that Britain didn’t see heading its way. As the nationalist spread all across Spain, Italy was spreading it’s nationalistic ideas and further influencing its ideas to the new Spain that will soon be surfacing. Even though the war was just training for the Germans and Italians, it still had an impact on the Republicans that tried to resist defeat, but had no match towards the forces of Spanish military leaders,German soldiers ,and Italian

forces.
So far the actions Italy participated in proves that Italy was as brutal as the Nazi reign over germany at the time. Many of the actions named are extremely huge war crimes because they included the breaking of various treaty’s, the killing of Civilians, and the invasion of another country. Conquering land that is already controlled by a government, let alone neutral, is condemned by the league of nations and various amounts of treaties for European nations. Since The League of Nations wasn’t very efficient at its purpose, Italy was only warned not to do such an action again but that didn’t work. Italy continued invading nations and helping the Germans conquer North Africa due The League of Nations being so ineffective.
A major atrocity Italy participated in was back in 1941-43 when Italy decided to go into the Greco-Italian War. This war started with the Italians winning but the Greeks soon changed that by revolting, later the Germans joined and took over Greece for the Italians. After the Italians gain full control over the nation of Greece and the reek people, Greece was split into different parts under a triple occupation. Germany took over the northeastern Aegean islands that are beside mainland Greece,more than half of the island of Crete that is located below mainland Greece, a small portion of Piraeus, and the top region of mainland Greece.Bulgaria was in the war so they took their share of Greece, Bulgaria took over the land from Macedonia to Thrace. The rest of Greece belonged to Italy which consisted of The Cyclades Islands, Most of mainland Greece, some of Crete, and then other areas that aren’t controlled by Bulgaria and Germany is under Italian control.
This just further added to the list of war crimes Italy has gained over time. Italy later tried to annex some of the islands Italy was in control of like what they did with the Dodecanese Islands. The Greeks still saw the Italians as week and losers of the Greco-Italian War making it so that the Greeks treated the Italians as worthless and lower class which most likely fuelled Italian anger. Since Germany partially owned Greece, the Italians, also occupying Greece, saw it as an excuse to commit atrocities that are seen as the most maleficent atrocities done by the Italians under Mussolini’s reign. These atrocities involve rape, murder, stealing/theft, the burning of villages, the opening of the camps for the torture of Greeks, the massacre of innocent Greek citizens, and more. The Italians constructed camps and opened them for the Greeks that were supposedly misbehaving but were in reality are just normal citizens. These camps appeared in Lazaretto, Othoni, and Paxos which all contained around 3,500-4,000 Greeks. The Greeks in these camps were under harsh conditions while being tortured and executed. Basically these camps acted like tiny Concentration Camps like the ones Germans have and use to execute the Jews and other races Hitler sees as worthless.
The Italians in Crete were occupied from performing anything that includes the torture of or injury of Greeks, forcing captured Greeks to construct military defences and be forced to to task for the Italians instead. The Italians also took vegetables and other crops from the Greeks at Crete because they couldn’t find other ways to gather crops.
The Germans never started a mass execution event in Crete unlike what the Italians did in 2 instances. The Greeks started making a resistance movement that is against Italian forces and their rule over Greece. This resistance movement stumbled towards a challenge when the Italians immediately decided to seek out resistance members and kill them. At some point in December 1942 Italians burned down 2 villages, Mikro Chorio and Chryso. The burnings killed almost the whole population of both villages and this was to counter the resistance movement that is being built up by the Greeks. A major event that occurred during the Italian reign over Greece was when Italian soldiers burned down a village named “Village of Domenico” and then proceeded by killing and massacring 194 Greeks, all of this took place on February 13, 1943. Afterwards on March 12, 1943, Italians killed 40 villagers who lived in Tsaritsani and then burned the village down. The resistance decided to bomb a railway tunnel to most likely sabotage the Italians, due to this the italian army executed 106 Greeks as a way of retaliation on June 6, 1943. This Italian reign ended when The commander of the Italian troops in Greece surrendered the troops to Germany.
The atrocities in Greece can be compared to the atrocities the Germans participated in from the execution on particular ethnicities to camps being built to deal with those ethnicities. Many war crimes can be linked to the Italians reign over Greece. One is the execution and killing of Civilians for an unlawful or unjustifiable cause. The conquering of Greece is also a war crime due to it practicing imperialism. From the different acts the Italians joined in it shows that Italy was as horrible and evil as the Germans even if the Italians were seen as weak during the war.