Episodes

The village of Hienghène illustrates the terrible chaos into which New Caledonia sank in 1984: as elections loomed, relations between Kanaks and "Caldoches" turned into a nightmare. Hienghène was all the more symbolic because its mayor was Jean-Marie Tjibaou, the emblematic leader of the Kanak independence movement. On December 5, 1984, a group of Caldoches organized an ambush against Kanaks. The latter's vehicles were riddled with bullets, the fugitives coldly shot down. The result: ten dead, all Kanaks. Three years later, the seven murderers were brought before the Noumea Assize Court. When the verdict was delivered, it was shocking: a general acquittal, on the grounds of self-defense. From then on, New Caledonia would become even more inflamed.

An outstanding orator, Benito Mussolini seized Italy in October 1922, four years after the end of the First World War. The son of a far-left activist, he enjoyed the support of business circles and many veterans. By dangling the promise of a return to greatness before the Italian people, by repressing the communists and suppressing civil liberties, he won the admiration of many personalities in the 1920s, and reached the height of his popularity during the Ethiopian War in 1935. His fall was to be harsh.

In the mid-1930s, Mussolini sought to consolidate his power as his regime ran out of steam, and he decided to ally himself with Hitler. He would be drawn into the fatal spiral towards world war, and his armies would experience failure. Overthrown in 1943 by several of his former friends, imprisoned, he would be freed by Hitler's commandos and would remain in power until April 1945, before being executed by the resistance, and hanged by the feet in a square in Milan.