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Fascist Italy was the Kingdom of Italy under the rule of "Il Duce" Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party from 1922 to 1943.

The NFP rose to power after the October 1922 March on Rome, in which the fascists marched into the city's capital and demanded that Luigi Facta resign to grant Benito prime minister status. Despite Italy's military being much better armed than the blackshirts, the NFP's previously assembled immense support, combined with King Victor Emmanuel facing heavy political weakness and pressure, lead to him officially granting Mussolini prime minister position. Shortly afterwards, Benito assembled a personality cult that painted him as Italy's savior. While he manipulated laws to rig elections in his favor, the Fascist Party violently suppressed opposition groups through means of physical assault and intimidation, even assassinating a politician who called out the unfair election. By 1928, Benito had given himself virtually unlimited political power, and all political parties that were not the NFP were banned.

When World War II began with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, Mussolini decided to keep Italy out of the war for the first few months, though he warned Belgium and Netherlands of an oncoming German invasion. He later decided to invade parts of Africa and the Middle East, but due the Italian military's lack of vehicles it was not until France's defeat by Germany that Italy got involved in WWII by declaring war on France and United Kingdom.