After 100 years, Mussolini's fascist party is a reminder of the fragility of freedom Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler before attending a conference in Munich, Germany. AP Photo/File Richard Gunderman, Indiana University One hundred years ago, in March 1919, Benito Mussolini created the fascist party in Italy. For more than two decades, when he came to be known as “Il Duce,” or “the leader,” Mussolini wielded broad powers.