Cavour’s contempt for the Mazzinians persisted, as they continued to believe that the Italian people could still try to liberate themselves in the same way that had been attempted in the past and failed miserably. An example of this is in 1849 when the Roman Republic headed by Mazzini fell to the soldiers of the French Republic.
Cavour’s decision to involve Piedmont in the Crimean War in order to gain recognition among the powers of Europe, together with the knowledge that Napoleon III had interest in Italian nationalism persuaded him to secure Napoleon as an ally. Subsequently, at Plombieres this aim became a reality as they established a Franco-Piedmontese coalition. Napoleon’s promise to defend Italy, on the grounds that Austria is provoked into declaring war ensured that Piedmont had a successful chance of victory. Thus foreign aid is considered to be the event that motivated the attitude that Italian unification is attainable.
However, it should be acknowledged that both leaders, Cavour and Napoleon had very different motives at Plombieres and there were no intentions of working towards a unified Italy. It can not be denied that Napoleon III played a indispensable role in supporting Italy. Napoleon was keen to act as the champion of liberal causes as he believed that support for Italian Independence would be popular at home. This interest coincides also with his desire to see Austria’s power diminish, therefore he provided 20,00 troops to fight in the war against Austria.
Also, he wished for a federated Italy with an enlarged Piedmont in the north acting as a benevolent ally: a united Italy was rejected as it could act as a threat to France. Cavour’s obvious aim was to eradicate Austrian possession, in conjunction he hoped to expand his state of Piedmont into the Papal States and Lombardy. An obvious indication that unification was not considered as a possible option at Plombieres was the fact that when he signed the treaty with Napoleon, he was prepared to sacrifice Savoy and Niece to the French. Proving that Cavour was not particularly determined to unite Italy, but instead was ambitious to unite northern and southern Italy as two separate countries.
Although Cavour faced betrayal from Napoleon when he decided to put an end to the war without consultation, and Victor Emmanuel had been persuaded to sign the armistice of Villafranca. The outcome was that Lombardy was eventually handed to Piedmont after it had been handed to Napoleon. Therefore it can be said that Italy no longer had the aid of foreign support, leaving Cavour and Garibaldi to unite Italy by themselves.
In hindsight, without the help of France, Italy would not have been given a chance of unification. There would have been no war of 1859, and without the alliance between Cavour and Napoleon at Plombieres Italy would have undoubtedly been defeated by the Austrians. Piedmont gained the first piece of the jigsaw in reclaiming Lombardy, therefore Italy was slightly closer to unification. However the possibility of unification was not fully realised until 1860 in mid-March when the population of Tuscany and the new state of Emilia voted for union with Piedmont.
The Italian peninsula had once been surrounded by revolutionary turmoil, where aims were divided and popular support was lacking. Secret societies such as the Carbonari possessed neither competence nor the desire to work for an Italian state, as they never took extreme action against the Austrians or embarked on outside help. So to some extent it has been proved that the war of 1859 did contribute to the path of Italian Unification as it made it a real possibility for the first time. This is what spurred Garibaldi to capture Sicily and Naples after his expedition to recover Nice from France. In which he endeavoured to blow up the ballot boxes that were to be used by those voting on whether Nice should remain Italian or again become French. If it had not been for the work of Garibaldi, Sicily and Naples would never have been annexed to Piedmont until much later. Moreover it was Cavour’s political diplomacy which guided Italy to unification. The war of 1859 is evidence of Cavour’s ability to understand that to have any success in ousting Austria France was essential as an ally.