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Count Camilio Benso di Cavour was the statesman who presided over Italian unification, the architect of the Italian Constitution, and the first Prime Minister of the new Kingdom of Italy.
Path to Unification
In November 1852 Cavour became Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia. As Prime Minister, Cavour finally had an opportunity to extend his power into the realm of foreign affairs. In 1854, at the outbreak the Crimean War, he saw his opportunity to enhance his nation's international standing. Sardinia entered the war {February 1855} as an ally of Great Britain and France in exchange for promises that the future of Italy would be seriously considered as an international issue. After the war, Cavour used the Congress of Paris as an opportunity to denounce the neutral Austria's occupation of Italy.
Cavour was not the only important leader to rise to power in 1852 - that same year, Napoleon III became Emperor of France. Napoleon, a quasi-liberal, sympathized with Cavour's plan for Italian unification, and in July 1858 the two met at Plombières to shape Italy's future. At the meeting, Napoleon agreed that if Austria was to attack Sardinia, France would protect her. Cavour immediatly set to provoking Austria into war, and in April 1859 Austria attacked the small Italian state. However, after extremely costly victories at Magenta and Solferino, Napoleon III decided to withdraw from the war with the Truce of Villafranca. The treaty allowed the Austrians to keep Venetia and transferred the territories conquered by the Sardinians to their former rulers. Sardinia received only Lombardy. Although Cavour was furious at Napoleon, the situation soon reversed itself when the citizens of Tuscany, Modena, Parma, Bologna, and Romagna voted through plebiscites in March of 1860 to become part of Sardinia. Napoleon recognized these annexations in return for Savoy and Nice.
Soon after, the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi led his famous army of a thousand red-shirted adventurers into the Hapsburg-Controlled Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (May 1860), and Victor Emmanuel led his troops into the province of Umbria. The kingdoms voted for union with Sardinia, and the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in March of 1861. Cavour's territorial aims were complete except for Venetia and Rome - two months later, the Prime Minister died, his dream of a united Italy nearly fufilled. Venetia was added to the kingdom in 1866, and Rome in 1870.