Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini (also known as "Il Duce") was the former prime minster and Fascist dictator of Italy. Founding the fascist movement in 1919, Mussolini became prime minister in 1922 and began establishing a facist state the following year. He dissolved parliament in 1928 and enforced with his Blackshirts, a forerunner and inspiration for Adolf Hitler's Brownshirts.

In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the Holy See, creating the Vatican City state inside Rome. Ethiopia was invaded by Italy in 1935 and took Addis Ababa in 1936. In 1938, Mussolini was one of the signatories of the Munich Pact giving Hitler's Germany control of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Italy invaded Albania in 1939 and also signed the Pact of Steel with Germany. After the outbreak of World War II, Italy declared war on Great Britain and France on June 10, 1940.

In 1941, Mussolini met with Pope Pius XII in Vatican City while a disguised Indiana Jones was present looking to search the Vatican's library. The archaeologist's command of Italian and German languages allowed him to overhear a telephone conversation taken between Mussolini and Hitler which ended in the Italian leader getting berated over the phone.

Mussolini was forced to resign as leader on July 25, 1943 and Italy became the first of the Axis powers to fall in September, surrendering immediately after Allied invasion. Mussolini was killed two years later, executed by Italian partisans on April 28, 1945.

Appearances

 * Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs
 * Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Mount Sinai