Camillo Benso (1810

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Biography

Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri, generally known as the Count of Cavour or simply Cavour, was an Italian politician, statesman, businessman, economist, and noble, and a leading figure in the movement towards Italian unification. He was one of the leaders of the Historical Right and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1852, a position he maintained until his death, throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy. After the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, Cavour took office as the first Prime Minister of Italy; he died after only three months in office and did not live to see the Roman Question solved through the complete unification of the country after the Capture of Rome in 1870.

Timeline

The story of Camillo Benso, told in moments.

1850 Life

Founded the newspaper Il Risorgimento, which argued for Italian constitutional government and economic modernization. The name itself became the word for Italy's unification movement.

Was naming your newspaper 'Il Risorgimento' a statement of intent? Did you know the word would define a movement?

1852 Event

Became Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He modernized the small kingdom's railroads, economy, and military, turning Piedmont into the engine of Italian unification.

Was modernizing Piedmont's railroads the unglamorous work that made unification possible? Did you see the small kingdom as the engine all along?

1858 Event

Secretly met Napoleon III at Plombieres. They struck a deal: France would help Piedmont fight Austria in exchange for Nice and Savoy. The agreement redrew the map of Europe.

Was the secret meeting with Napoleon III at Plombieres the most consequential handshake in Italian history? Was trading Nice and Savoy worth it?

1861 Event

The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed. Cavour became its first prime minister, but he was already gravely ill.

Was the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy everything you'd worked for? Did being gravely ill on your greatest day feel cruel?

1861 Death

Died in Turin at age 50, reportedly saying "Italy is made." He never saw Rome become the capital.

Did you really say 'Italy is made'? Is not seeing Rome become the capital the worst irony?

Artifacts (3)

Thoughts on Ireland

PREFACE. TN January and February, 1844, at a time when freedom of the press did not exist in Piedmont, there appeared in the BiUioihbque Universelle de Geneve (Nouvelle Serie, Tom. 49,) the following...

1868

Works Read Talk

Count Cavour and Madame de Circourt: Some Unpublished Correspondence

INTRODUCTION. 1 at the head of what theu was the most important and most difficult of Italian diplomatic missions, called upon, moreover, to move amid a society in great part hostile to the cause...

1894

Letters Read Talk

The Speech of Count Camillo Cavour, President of the Council of Ministers: At the Sitting of the ...

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has...

1858

Speeches Read Talk

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