Cavour

Evaluate the contributions of Cavour to Italian unification. Count Camillo di Cavour (1810-1861) was the architect of Italian, unification. He held that only by economic and military strengthening of Piedmont and by timely alliance with foreign powers could Italy be united. With these in mind, he prepared Italy and Europe for the unification and took the first steps to bring it about by making the fullest use in his favour of the changing circumstances. He himself was a supreme practitioner of Realpolitik. Insist on constitutional monarchy - whereas all Italian patriots agreed that Italy must be welded into a single state, there were three main schools of ideas on how to achieve Italian unity: the democratic republicans, the Papal federalists, and the liberal monarchists. Young idealists followed the leadership of G. Mazzini who was devoted to the founding of a republic. Religious-minded patriots believed that the most practicable solution would be to federate the Italian states under the presidency of the Pope. The majority of moderate nationalists advocated a consti­tutional monarchy built upon the foundations of the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. These three groups disliked each other and had no wish to cooperate. Each attempted to pose itself as the leader of Italian unity. Cavour was a strong advocate of constitutional monarchy in Italy. He had studied the political life of Britain and France and from the beginning he insisted that the united Italy should be a parliamentary monarchy on the English pattern. In 1847 he founded the liberal newspaper, Il Risorgimento, to propagate this viewpoint. In 1848 he was elected to the first Piedmontese parliament, established in accordance with the 1848 Constitution. In 1852 he became Prime Minister. In his insistence on constitutional monarchy, Cavour opposed and finally triumphed over the republican policy of Mazzini and the federalist idea of the Papacy. Such charting out of the course of Italy's destiny was a major contribution of Cavour to unification. Establish Piedmont's leadership - Piedmont's role in the 1848 revolution (when King Charles Albert attempted to drive the Austrians from Italy) had made Piedmont­-Sardinia the leading state in Italy. This trend was strength­ened by the enlightened rule of King Victor Emmanuel II who retained the 1848 Constitution and by the various measures of Cavour who became Piedmont's Prime Minister in 1852. After a period as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce (1850-2) Cavour became Prime Minister. In these capacities he first aimed at making Piedmont politically liberal, financially stable and economically progressive. Such self­-strengthening was to make Piedmont strong enough to assume the leadership of Italy in the event of another war with Austria. Cavour had himself made a fortune out of applying modern scientific methods and mechanization to the farming of his family estates before 1850. He knew that railways, mills, factories, banks, business enterprises were the only road to economic prosperity in Italy. He thus carried out full-range administrative, legal, religious and military reforms. He made a series of commercial treaties with Belgium, France and England. He raised loans for railway construction, docks and ports improvements. Genoa was changed from a naval base into a great commercial port with new harbour facilities. By rail and steamships Piedmont came to be linked more closely with the West. Cavour also passed legislation modernizing the structure of business corporations, banks and credit institutions, the civil administration, and the army. By the time Cavour died in 1861, he had gone far toward running Piedmont on sounder businesslike lines and assimilating her economic life to that of the West. Diplomatic role - Cavour's most eye-catching contri­bution to Italian unification was his careful manoeuvre of diplomacy in Italy's favour. The Italian failure of 1848-9 convinced Cavour that Austrian strength was superior to Piedmont and this being the case, Italy could not be unified without foreign help. Britain was sympathetic to the Italian cause, but was unlikely to provide material assistance because she desired Austrian power to maintain a balance of power in central Europe between France and Russia. In France, Napoleon III was interested because he wanted to pose himself as the champion of nationalism, and he hoped that French influence would replace that of Austria in Italy. In an attempt to arouse foreign interest in Italian problems, Cavour managed to bring Piedmont into the Crimean War (1854-6) on the side of Britain and France despite the fact that he had no quarrel with Russia. At the Paris Peace Conference, Cavour did his best to advertise Italian grievances on which Napoleon III continued to express concern. Later in the 1858 Plombieres meeting, Napoleon agreed to help Piedmont if she were at war with Austria. France would gain Nice and Savoy for her assistance; and Piedmont would gain Lombardy and Venetia in the event of an Austrian defeat. Soon in Aril 1859 the Austro-Piedmontese War broke out with Austria appearing as the aggressor. France did give help to Piedmont and they defeated Austrian forces in the battles of Magenta and Solferino. At this very stage, Napoleon III suddenly changed his mind. Partly because of the heavy French casualties, partly because of clerical opposition inside France, and partly because of the upsurge of nationalism within Italy, Napoleon came to terms with Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria in July 1859 at Villa­franca. Austria was to transfer Lombardy to Piedmont and retain Venetia. All Italy was to be included in a new confederation under the nominal presidency of the Pope. Cavour, not being consulted before-hand; resigned in disgust. Partial unification of Italy 1859-1861 - however, the Villafranca terms were unenforceable. There had been nationalist uprisings in the Papal states and the duchies, and pro-Piedmontese agents were asking for annexation by Piedmont. In January 1860 Cavour resumed office, bent upon utilizing this new turn of events to annex central Italy. He proceeded to negotiate with Napoleon. Cavour agreed to cede Savoy and Nice in return for Napoleon's consent of Piedmont's annexation of the duchies. Plebiscites were held in the areas concerned and they resulted in overwhelming majorities in favour of annexation by Piedmont of the central Italian states, and for annexation by France of Nice and Savoy. Meanwhile, the successful nationalist movements in the north encouraged similar movements in the south - the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. Garibaldi and his thousand volunteers easily controlled the island of Sicily by July 1860 and then captured Naples by September. Cavour intervened. He wanted to regain the initiative for Piedmont and strengthen his political position. He also wanted to prevent Garibaldi's occupation of Rome which would surely lead to foreign intervention. He also wanted to forestall the creation of a republic in the south under Garibaldi and Mazzini. After informing the great powers, Cavour sent troops to the Papal states to re-establish order and to push on into the Neapolitan kingdom. The Pied-­montese invasion was successful. Plebiscites were held in the South in late 1860 and they resulted in large majorities for annexation by Piedmont. Garibaldi handed over authority to King Victor Emmanuel and returned to his home on the island of Caprera. With most of the peninsula now united under a single rule, Victor Emmanuel II, king of Piedmont-Sardinia, assumed the title of Kin of Italy, and the first Italian parliament met in Turin (March 17 1861) Only Venetiaand Rome were not included in the new state. On June 6, 1861, Cavour died, dying at the very moment when his survival seemed essential if his work were to be completed and true national unity preserved. Conclusion - to sum up briefly, the important first stage in the unification of Italy had been completed by Cavour. He had created, by a series of diplomatic alliances and wars, a kingdom of Italy with Piedmont as its core, but still excluding Venetia and Rome. Furthermore, a consti­tutional monarchy for which Cavour had been working was imposed on the new state, despite Mazzini and Garibaldi. Such political and diplomatic achievement is his most memorable. Yet it took place against a background of economic development which had an essential place in the whole scheme, and which in itself would have earned for Cavour a high position in the history of Italy.