Mussolini and the intervention crisis
             Benito Mussolini was born in Predappio, near Forli, in Romagna, on July 29, 1883. Like his father, Benito became a fervent socialist. He qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901. In 1902 he emigrated to Switzerland. Unable to find a permanent job there and arrested for vagrancy, he was expelled and returned to Italy to do his military service. After further trouble with the police, he joined the staff of a newspaper in the Austrian town of Trento in 1908. Expelled by the Austrians, he became the editor at Forli of a socialist newspaper, La Lotta di Classe (The Class Struggle). His early enthusiasm for Karl Marx was modified by a mixture of ideas from the philosophy 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 Forli.When Italy declared war on Turkey in 1911, he was imprisoned for his anti-war propaganda . Appointed editor of the official Socialist newspaper Avanti, he moved to Milan, where he established himself as the most forceful of all the leaders of Italian socialism. At this stage in his life, his political views were anti-militarist and anti-war however throughout the intervention crisis his views altered dramatically and became opposite of what they were before.
             On June 28 the Archduke of Austria Franze Ferdinand, Hapsburg heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The death of the heir was greeted with relief and joy because he once stated publicly that he wanted to declare war on Italy, but also because Italy's relations with Austria had became increasingly tensed since the war in Tripoli. As the war began to take shape on the horizon, Italy found itself in an undesirable position. Under the leadership of Antonio di San Giuliano, the Foreign Minister, the nation had become increasingly tied to ...