by Sarah Fairhurst

Created on: November 20, 2008   Last Updated: January 21, 2009

Assess the view that in the period 1848-1861 Cavour was dedicated to the unification of Italy

In March 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was born. It consisted of most of the Italian peninsula with the exceptions of the patrimony of St Peter' the area around Rome which was under French occupation and controlled by the Pope and Venetia which was still under Austrian occupation.

There were many reasons for this but many people believe it was the actions of Cavour and Garibaldi. However there is some debate on Cavour's intentions. Did he want a unified Italy including the whole of the Italian peninsula or was it Garibaldi's actions in 1860 that swayed him from only having a unified northern Italy.

Before Garibaldi's expedition to the south of Italy to unite them through revolution. Cavour had realised that Charles Albert's views that Italy will make herself by herself, was unrealistic and that outside help was needed to get rid of all the Austrian influence in Italy.

The only place to go to for such help was France and Napoleon III. Napoleon obviously wanted a strong ally in Piedmont and would gladly help Cavour in his quest to expel the Austrians. However this came at a price, Cavour had to hand back Savoy and Nice to the French emperor. Napoleon also saw the threat of a very strong kingdom of Piedmont, how a united Italy could be an enemey is war and Cavour knew this. He therefore knew it was illogical to want a unified Italian peninsula as Napoleon would withdraw his help and do all he could to stop Italy' from becoming a threat to France.

Cavour also realised that he gained control of the northern states of Italy by diplomacy and little war. To gain more could create an immense civil war which could destroy any unification chances even that of Northern Italy.

This shows that it was clear that to begin with Cavour was not dedicated to the unification of Italy as a whole in the beginning of his career. However after Garibaldi's success in southern Italy in 1860 (where he managed to take control of all of the southern states) he quickly changed his mind. After this he said Garibaldi has done the greatest service that a man can do' and believed that Italian unification was inevitable. It is therefore possible to conclude that during 1848-61 Cavour was not completely dedicated to the unification of Italy as a whole, in fact it was only in 1860 that he saw unification as inevitable.

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