Camillo Benso - Earl of Cavour | Notable biographies

(1810/08/10 - 1861/06/06)

Camillo Benso
Count of Cavour
Italian politician

He was born on August 10, 1810 in Turin (Piedmont).
From 1826 to 1831 was Lieutenant of engineers of the Sardinian army. To leave military life collaborated in the founding of the newspaper Il Risorgimento in 1847, nationalist publication that advocated the expulsion of Austrian Sardinia and the unification of all Italy under a Sardinian constitutional monarchy .
In 1848 he was elected Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Sardinia. The mandate of the Marquis d'Azeglio (1798-1866), he held important positions in his Cabinet and in 1852 he was President of the Council. It established an alliance between Sardinia, Great Britain and France against Russia during the Crimean War (1854-1856).
In the year 1858 allied with Napoleón III against Austria. A year later, Cavour involved Austria in a war against Sardinia and France, trusting that the victory would help to expel the Austrians from Lombardy and Venice. Although France and Sardinia won, according to the peace treaty signed in Zurich in November 1859, Austria retained control over Venice and ceded most of Lombardy to France. This, in turn, transferred sovereignty over the Lombard cities of Peschiera and Mantua to Sardinia.
When Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia, accepted these conditions, which strengthened the power of Austria in Northern Italy, Cavour resigned as President of the Council. In 1859, the citizens of Parma, Modena, Romagna and Tuscany voted in favor of annexation to Sardinia. Cavour was Prime Minister in 1860 and ceded nice and Savoy to France, as compensation to Napoleón III by consenting to these annexations.
In September 1860 he sent Sardinian troops in aid of Giuseppe Garibaldi in the conquest of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies. As a result of his intervention, Sicily voted for unification with Sardinia. It was instrumental in securing the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on March 17, 1861 in the work of Cavour and Victor Emmanuel II as its first King.
Camillo Benso died in Turin on June 6, 1861.