Write a note on Count Camillo de Cavour

Count Cavour was the chief planner who united Italy using diplomacy, reforms, and alliances. Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (1810–1861), served the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. He was a statesman, not a soldier. He believed in constitutional monarchy, economic growth, and careful foreign policy. His goal was a unified Italy under the House of Savoy.

Key actions

• Modernized the economy: railways, banks, industry, free-trade treaties.
• Limited Church power through secular laws to build a modern state.
• Joined the Crimean War to gain a seat at European talks.
• Formed an alliance with France (Plombières, 1858) against Austria.
• Won Lombardy for Piedmont after the 1859 war.
• Managed Garibaldi’s southern conquests and annexed states by plebiscites.

Impact

He balanced liberal reform with royal authority. Italy was proclaimed in 1861. Cavour died soon after, but his strategy set the blueprint.