Did Cavour or Giuseppe Garibaldi contribute more to the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861?
Count Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi both contributed heavily to the Italian unification process and are each known for there unique style of politics. Each of them contributed differently. Garibaldi was more military minded and brought together forces like the red shirts to oppose the Austrian influence with force. Cavour becoming the Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1852 had more of a political stance on unification, Cavour was very ‘tunnel minded’ he was only focused on the welfare of Piedmont; he believed piedmont should be the centre of a united Italian infrastructure.
Cavour spent his career improving infrastructure, stabilising economy and strengthening Sicily. He believed in a constitutional monarchy and made Italian unification evident at the Paris Peace Conference which created an opportunity for France to intervene and to reap the benefits. Garibaldi was firmly against foreign intervention which caused the two to clash when it came to any coalition efforts. Cavour’s ideology led him to create the Plombieres alliance July 20, 1858 which involved a secret agreement between Cavour and Louis Napoleon, Napoleon had promised an army of 200,000 which Cavour had also promised to match. Although Cavour had only amounted 60,000 men there was no enthusiasm for the war it seemed manufactured, and it was, before 1850 people saw it as a crusade for a greater Italy. Garibaldi’s fears of foreign support became plausible as France’s real intentions of taking land became evident. After Cavour “justified” war with Austria by sheltering Austrian deserters and encouraging Austria’s Italian provinces to revolt and sent their ultimatum in 1859 to Sardinia, France received what seemed a pre arranged reward for aiding piedmont they claimed Nice and Savoy as spoils of war.
