Cavour, Camillo Benso, Conte di

Cavour, Camillo Benso, Conte di (1810-1861), Italian statesman, the chief architect of Italy's unification. Cavour was born in Turin, Piedmont, then part of the kingdom of Sardinia, on August 10, 1810. From 1826 to 1831 he was a lieutenant of engineers in the Sardinian army. After resigning his commission, he became interested in politics, and in 1847 he helped to found the newspaper Il Risorgimento (The Resurgence), a nationalist journal that advocated expelling the Austrians from Sardinia and unifying all Italy under a Sardinian constitutional monarchy. In 1848 Cavour became a member of the Sardinian chamber of deputies. During the ministry of the Marchese d'Azeglio (1798-1866), Cavour served in important Cabinet positions, and in 1852 he became prime minister. He improved internal conditions in Sardinia and conducted the foreign affairs of the country with the aim of unifying the Italian Peninsula. He allied Sardinia with Great Britain and France in the Crimean War (1854-1856) against Russia. In 1858 he made an alliance with Napoleon III against Austria. The following year Cavour manoeuvered Austria into a war against Sardinia and France, expecting by a victory to drive the Austrians from Lombardy and Venetia, which they controlled. Although France and Sardinia were victorious, Napoleon III made peace with Austria in July 1859 without consulting Cavour. By the terms of the Treaty of Zurich in November 1859, Austria retained Venetia and ceded most of Lombardy to France. France in turn transferred the Lombardy cities of Peschiera and Mantua to Sardinia. When Victor Emmanuel II, king of Sardinia, accepted these peace terms, which left Austria powerful in northern Italy, Cavour resigned as prime minister.

In August and September 1859, the people of Parma, Modena, Romagna, and Tuscany voted for annexation to Sardinia. Cavour became prime minister again in early 1860, and, as the price of Napoleon III's consent to the annexations, ceded Nice and Savoy to France (Treaty of Turin, March 1860). In September 1860 Cavour sent Sardinian troops to aid Giuseppe Garibaldi in the conquest of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. As a result of Cavour's intervention, Sicily voted (October 21 and October 22, 1860) for union with Sardinia. Cavour was also instrumental in bringing about the proclamation of the kingdom of Italy on March 17, 1861, and the proclamation of Victor Emmanuel II as the first king. Cavour's diplomacy, which prepared the way for the unification of Italy in 1870, earned him the reputation of being one of the most skilful European statesmen of the 19th century. He died in Turin on June 6, 1861.