Just one little sidenote: Mussolini didn't lead the Blackshirts during the March on Rome, he was in Milan ready to flee if things went wrong

We can't have an episode on Mussolini without the Alexei Sayle quote in the Young Ones.

It's been a terrible blow to my life looking like Mussolini, you know. Especially when I was a kid, you know, I was about seven, right, and I was down the Youth Club, you know, dancing away, right, like in the sixties, doing the Twist you know. And, em, there was this girl, right, and she comes up to me, and she goes "'Ere! Are you Mussolini?" I said, "Emmm... Yeah." She says, "I thought you was dead." I says "No, it was just me day off, you know." So she pulled me over the dance floor and butted me in the face! I said, "What's that for?" She said "That's for the invasion of Crete!"

You could surprise me by saying mussolini actually prepared for the war

Loving the countdown to war series, going to do not-see Germany next I assume?

I'm very sorry to say there's a major mistake in this video. Mussolini never participated in the march on Rome. He was in Milan with his luggage ready and a ticket to France if the march failed. Instead he received a phone call from that waste of oxygen of a king we had. This is a historical fact.

Mussolini was always an "Armiamoci e Partite"(We arm ourselves and You go Fight) kind of guy. A craven PoS.

A little unfortunate that almost every Italian war stereotype was rehearsed during the opening section with reference to WW1, but no mention was made of the successes on the Piave river and in particular Vittorio Veneto that in effect triggered the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of 1918.

9:08 The police didn't just "not stand in the way" but also supplied weapons and vehicles for Fascist squads when raiding union or cooperative headquarters.

I looked and I can’t find Countdown to War: Germany. Only Japan and Italy.

I am Italian and I truly appreciate this video, is always nice to see in the history of your country with a foreign look. It reminds you of the countless bias that is still in place. Thank you for looking at my country :)

"Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State."  - Benito Mussolini

Greetings, Mr. Whistler. Can you make videos about the Lebanese Civil War and the Algerian War of Independence, please? Thank you!

Loved this 😍 I attend an almost daily college level lecture and my professor is Simon Whistler. He teaches geography, history, sometimes astronomy and chemistry, he even has a class on criminology. Thank you Simon.

I will consider historical precedent in both Italy and in America in the future to come.

Will you be doing videos like this on the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Soviet Union, and Australia?

You never mentioned Mussolini's initial opposition to Hitler's agression and the potential "Franco-Italian" alliance where Mussolini wanted to be prepared and France wrote off quite support for the Italian fascist invasion of Abbyssinia.

My favorite channel in the Whistlerverse. Allegedly. Cheers from Tennessee

Wait, they did prepare??? Imagine if they hadn't... (HOI4 vibes)

Video suggestion: "Greatest Naval Battle in History". The battle of Leyte gulf.

You've done a video on the Russo-Japanese war, may i ask for a video on the Battle of Tsushima please on this channel?

1:40 - Chapter 1 - Great war & aftermath
7:15 - Chapter 2 - Mussolini rise to power
11:00 - Chapter 3 - Dictatorship
16:45 - Chapter 4 - War & expansion
20:55 - Chapter 5 - Point of no return
23:40 - Chapter 6 - Aftermath