Count Cavour &
Risorgimento Italy
Cavour (Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour) was born in Turin,
Piedmont, then part of the kingdom of Sardinia, on August 1st,
1810. As a younger son of an aristocratic family it was expected
of him that he would seek a career in the army or another
gentlemanly profession.
For several years after 1826 Cavour was a lieutenant of
engineers in the Sardinian army. By these times he had developed
liberal and anti-clerical views so the succession to the
Sardinian throne of Charles Albert, whose own views were thought
to be somewhat conservative and clericalist, caused Cavour to
resign his commission in 1831.
From these times Cavour interested himself in politics,
foreign travel and practical agriculture. He took notice of the
way a July revolution of 1830 in France was followed by the
historic French monarchy adopting a liberal and constitutional
aspect under King Louis Phillipe. He became convinced of the
benefits of constitutional monarchy in relation to either
monarchical despotism or populist republicanism. He applied his
knowledge of agriculture to the family's estates and greatly
raised their productivity. This aspect of his life being
continued through his sponsorship of a Piedmontese Agricultural
Society. Cavour also promoted modernisation in industry and
industrial infrastructure being a champion of the development of
factories and the use of steam ships and railways.
In 1846 there was a papal succession with the new pope being a
person who was thought to hold relatively liberal and somewhat
"Italian" nationalist views. Previous holders of the papal
dignity had been notably conservative and had recently allowed
the Austrian minister Metternich to effectively intervene in the
Papal territories and more widely in the Italian penisula in the
suppression of such populist radicalisms as liberalism,
republicanism and nationalism. This intervention moreover occured
against a background where the Austrian Empire directly and
indirectly controlled many territories in the Italain
peninsula.
Several early measures adopted by the incoming Pope, including
a political amnesty, tended to encourage an acceptance that there
was now, unprecedentedly, a "liberal" Pope and the associated
view that liberalism and Italian nationalism now had something of
a patron in office in the Vatican. In 1847 Cavour helped to found
the newspaper Il Risorgimento (The Resurgence), a Turin based
journal that advocated constitutional reform and had liberalist
and nationalist leanings.
In January 1848 there was a spate of unrest in support of
liberalism and constitutionalism in Sicily, then incorporated in
a Kingdom with Naples (also known as the kingdom of the Two
Sicilies). In response to these events Cavour urged constituional
reform in Piedmont. On February 8th king Charles Albert awarded a
"Charter of Liberties" to his kingdom.
Cavour as editor of Il Risorgimento was widely influential in
these times. The year 1848 was proving to be a "year of
revolution" across much of western Europe. By mid March King
Louis Phillipe of France had abdicated and his prime minister,
Guizot, had resigned. The longtime "architect of reaction"
Metternich had resigned and was destined for exile. Many rulers
of greater or lesser German states had awarded constitutions. The
Magyars of Hungary were attempting to show a legislative
independence of the Austrian Empire of which the kingdom of
Hungary was then a part.
On March 19th news reached Turin that Milan was in revolt
against the Austrian Empire and Cavour urged that Charles Albert
order the Sardinian army to support the Milanese revolt. On 25th
March the Sardinian monarchy declared war on the Austrian
Empire.
In "war elections" of June 1848 Cavour became a member of the
Sardinian chamber of deputies where he chose to present himself
as a conservative. Cavour lost his seat in the chamber upon its
dissolution in January 1849. In March 1849 the Sardinian, and
"Italian" forces, were overthrown by a resurgent Austrian Empire
at a major battle of Novara. Charles Albert abdicated in favour
of his son Victor Emmanuel. In the July 1849 elections associated
with this succession Cavour was again returned to the chamber of
deputies.
During the ministry of the Marchese Massimo d'Azeglio Cavour
served in such important cabinet and ministerial positions as
Agriculture and Finance and showed himself to be a politician of
high ability but eventually resigned after a disagreement with
d'Azeglio.
On 7th March 1850 Cavour had made a speech in the chamber
where he had suggested that "Piedmont, gathering to itself all
the living forces of Italy, would soon be in a position to lead
our mother-country to the high destinies to which she is called."
Cavour used his freedom from responsibilites of office to travel
to England and France to ascertain to positions of their
statesmen and their public opinion about the possibility of
Piedmont seeking to place itself at the head of a movement
intended to draw other territories in the Italian peninsula into
a constitutional association under the Sardinian monarchy.
In November 1852 there was a cabinet crisis in Turin and
Cavour was invited to lead a new ministry. As Prime Minister
Cavour promoted industrialisation and liberalism and also
conducted the foreign affairs of the country with the aim of
facilitating the joining of other territories in the Italian
peninsula with the Sardinian state. He allied Sardinia with Great
Britain and France in the Crimean War (1854-56) against Russia
having received assurances that the situation in the Italian
peninsula would be one of the items on the agenda at an eventual
peace conference.
During this Crimean War Tsarist Russia received a military
check and became diplomatically estranged from Austria. Austria
also became diplomatically estranged from England and France. As
Austria, in association with Russia, had up to these times been
the principal guarantor of the previous settlement of Europe in
her own interests the isolation of Austria was now important to
Cavour as he hoped to achieve a new settlement in the Italian
peninsula. Also of relevance to Cavour's ambitions was the
replacement of King Louis Phillippe of France by Louis Napoleon
who was a relation of Napoleon Bonaparte and who had had
involvements with the Italian liberalist-Nationalist Carbonari in
his younger days.
Before many months had passed Louis Napoleon was accepted as
Emperor Napoleon III of France and seemed to be sympathetic to
attempts to resettle Europe in line with the "National Principle"
which Napoleon III held to have been championed by his
illustrious predecessor Napoleon Bonaparte.
Cavour resigned from office after there was strong opposition
to his policy favouring the suppression of all monastic orders
not connected with education, preaching, or charity but, given
the support for the other policies he was attempting to promote
was recalled to office. There was a suppression of some
monasteries as set out in a measure passed in May 1855.
Although Cavour had initially hoped for an extension of the
territories of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont such that a
fairly large North Italian Kingdom could be established his aims
developed into something more ambitious.
"...We shall not have long to wait for our opportunity...I
have faith that Italy will become one state and will have Rome
for its capital...But remember, among my political friends no one
believes the enterprise [vis. the union of Italy]
possible..."
(Cavour, in a letter to La Farina, Secretary of the Italian
National Society, September 1857)
In January 1858 an Italian, who hoped to encourage
opportunities for reform in the Italian peninsula by provoking
turmoils in France (and more widely in Europe) through the
assassination of Napoleon III, was responsible for several deaths
and many tens of persons being injured in an attempt on the life
of the French Emperor. This Italian, Orsini by name, expected
that subsequent disruptions would probably produce change in the
Italian peninsula that would leave it less under Austrian rule
and more liberally governed. This attempt on his life, by a
person committed to change in the Italian peninsula, contributed
to Napoleon III deciding to become more deeply involved in
developments there.
At a shadowy meeting at the French resort of Plombieres in the
summer of 1858 between Napoleon III and Cavour, ( who was
supposed to be on holiday in Switzerland!!! ), the possibility of
France gaining territories on the French side of the Alps from
Sardinia-Piedmont in return for assistance in reshaping the map
of Italia was mooted. Savoy was a particular object of French
desire, it had been annexed to France during the revolution, and
was held to be within the "Natural Frontiers" of France. (Another
aspect to this agreement being the politically inspired marriage
of Napoleon III's relatively old and dissolute brother Prince
Jerome with Victor Emmanuel's young daughter Princess
Clothilde).
Cavour also sought, through contacts with would-be "Italians"
living in states in the Italian penisula that were under the
sovereignty of Austrian or locally originated rulers, to ensure
that any outbreak of hostilities between Sardinia and Austria
would be accompanied by revolts intended to displace such
Austrian or locally originated rulers.
On January 10th 1859 King Victor Emmanuel made Sardinia's
position as a champion of "Italy" clear in a speech delived from
his throne that included these words:-
"...that he could not remain deaf to the cry of pain that
reached him from all parts of Italy..."
Cavour managed to avoid a Russian proposal that matters be
placed before an international Congress and Austria, after
initially demanding that Sardinia disarm, entered into a war
against Sardinia. Although France and Sardinia were victorious it
was at the cost of a formidable toll of lives, including battles
the horror of which led a Swiss observer, Henri Dunant, to strive
to found the International Red Cross Association.
There were "Italian" risings in Parma, Modena, Florence and
Bologna which seemed to offer that far more territory than
Napoleon III had anticipated at Plombieres might become
associated with Sardinia. The Prussians engaged in military
manouevers that, it seemed to French policy makers, might be
considered to be a threatening indication of support for
Austria.
Napoleon III made peace with Austria on July 8th 1859 without
consulting Cavour. By the terms of this peace Austria was to
retain Venetia, the princes of the peninsula who had been deposed
in "Italian" revolts were to be restored, and Austria was to hand
over much of Lombardy to France. Some days later when Victor
Emmanuel II, king of Sardinia, accepted these peace terms, which
left Austria powerful in northern Italy, Cavour resigned as prime
minister after much intemperate protest.
In August and September 1859, the people of Parma, Modena,
Romagna, and Tuscany voted for annexation to Sardinia. Britain
made it known that she would not tolerate any French or Austrian
intervention intended to reimpose unpopular rulers in central
parts of the Italian peninsula. By the terms of the subsequent
Treaty of Zürich of 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.
Despite his intemperate manner of July 1859 towards king
Victor Emmanuel Cavour was again invited to become prime minister
in early 1860. Cavour sensed that Napoleon III might be induced
to accept the adherence of the central Italian states to Sardinia
and it proved that, as the price of Napoleon III's consent to
such adherences, it was necessary to cede Nice and Savoy
(territories of a longstanding association with Victor Emmanuel's
dynastic House of Savoy) to France (Treaty of Turin, March 24th
1860). Although plebiscites ratified these transfers doubts were
cast on the validity of the reported outcome - Nice, in
particular, being considered to be quite strongly "Italian" in
sentiment.
On May 5th Giuseppe Garibaldi and a "thousand" volunteers, who
had been outraged by the execution of insurrectionists captured
in arms by the Kingdom of Naples sailed for Sicily in order to
assist the insurrection there. In the event they were generally
supported by the populace and the authority of the King of Naples
was largely overthrown initially in Sicily and then on the
Neapolitan mainland.
By September of 1860 Cavour, worried in case republican
elements close to Garibaldi might try to prevent Garibaldi
handing over the Two Sicilies to a Sardinian / Italian
constitutional monarchy and worried in case Garibaldi's forces
intemperately attacked the Papal authority in Rome in order to
win that city for "Italy" decided to send Sardinian troops across
the territories of the church to "aid" Garibaldi. After arranging
for some "disturbances" in the territories of the church that
Sardinian forces might help to quell Cavour ordered Sardinian
forces to begin their advance across church territories. As this
advance continued it happened that these Sardinian forces were
obliged to overcome a force that sought to defend the church
territories in the name of the Pope.
Cavour, despite his intention that Rome itself should
eventually be incorporated into Italia, accepted that Italian
nationalism would have to move carefully in order to achieve this
objective. Many persons in the Italian peninsula and many outside
it accepted that Rome should definitely have a special status as
the historical seat of the papacy. A case was made that alongside
directly religious considerations Roman territories had been
awarded in perpetuity to the papacy by such notable Roman
Emperors as Constantine and Charlemagne in the distant past. It
was further accepted by Cavour that any direct move to capture
Rome at that time would have very likely brought a powerful and
determined French intervention into affairs. Cavour did however
make a parliamentary declaration in October that stated that Rome
must be the capital of Italy and that no other city was
recognised as such by the whole country. The parliament itself
adopted such a resolution in January 1861.
Following on from Garibaldi's and Cavour's recent involvements
in the affairs of the Two Sicilies and the territories of the
church most of the territories of the Church, Sicily and Naples
opted for union with the Sardinian monarchy. All of the earlier
and later adherences of territory to Sardinia as a core state
culminated in a proclamation of a kingdom of Italy on March 17th,
1861. Victor Emmanuel II was recognised as the first king of
Italia "by the grace of God and the will of the people" in March
by an Italian Parliament in session in Turin 1861.
Cavour's diplomacy had by this time earned him the reputation
of being one of the most skillful of European statesmen. His
strenuous diplomatic and political efforts had involved some cost
to his health and, after an onset of fever, he died in Turin on
June 6th, 1861 at only fifty years of age.
Cavour is remembered as probably the most significant figure
in the Italian Risorgimento or resurgence. The example of
Cavour's Realpolitik, where a monarchical state effectively
exploited nationalism to secure an expansion of its territories
albeit at the cost of some slight compromises with liberalism,
may well have been emulated in ways by Bismarck in his own career
of sponsoring "Prussian consolidation" leading up to the
formation of the second German Empire in 1870-1.
Other Popular European History pages
at Age-of-the-Sage
The preparation of these pages was influenced to some degree by a particular "Philosophy
of History" as suggested by this quote from the famous Essay "History" by Ralph Waldo Emerson:-
There is one mind common to all individual men...
Of the works of this mind history is the record. Its genius is
illustrated by the entire series of days. Man is explicable by
nothing less than all his history. Without hurry, without rest,
the human spirit goes forth from the beginning to embody every
faculty, every thought, every emotion, which belongs to it in
appropriate events. But the thought is always prior to the fact;
all the facts of history preexist in the mind as laws. Each law
in turn is made by circumstances predominant, and the limits of
nature give power to but one at a time. A man is the whole
encyclopaedia of facts. The creation of a thousand forests is in
one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie
folded already in the first man. Epoch after epoch, camp,
kingdom, empire, republic, democracy, are merely the application
of his manifold spirit to the manifold world.