Napoleon had lots o intentions towards Italy. Actually what he meant by Italy was northern Italy, the equivalent of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy and that napoleon III would not have wanted in any the whole Italian Peninsula united into a single kingdom because it could represent a threat to France.
As we saw before, it was now quite certain that Napoleons plans were based on the expulsion of the Austrians and the setting up of an enlarged Piedmont as part of the extension of French influence. The new Piedmont would be large enough to by an ally for France but not to have independent policies and intervene on France’s demand to annex Savoy and Nice. The Pope was going to be persuaded to agree to the new arrangements by being president of the Italian Federation. So we can see now how Napoleon gains influence and popularity because everyone would be satisfied; Italian nationalists by the removal of Austrians; liberals by the abolition of the old autocratic government, Victor Emmanuel and Cavour by the expansion of Piedmont, the clergy by the increase in the pope’s temporal power, French nationalists by the gain of new territories and the replacement of Austrian influence by that of France and the Bonapartes by the extension of family power.
Napoleon also had great contribution on the war 1859. When Piedmont refused an ultimatum of Austria, Austria declared war on Piedmont and Napoleon declared war on Austria helping piedmont. He sent troops and the Austrians were heavily defeated at Magenta on 4 June and Solferino on 24 June. However the carnage at both battles was horrific. The Austrian Emperor, Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon where all shocked at what they saw. As a military leader Napoleon was well intentioned but incompetent and quite unable to deal with the problems which faced him after sofrino. Some of these problems were the growing criticism in France of the whole Italian adventure and failure on military and financial support. Plus cavour’s activities in Tuscnay were very suspicious and it looked as if france was taken advantage off.
So for these reasons Napoleon decided to make peace. He met with the Austrian Emperor and an armistice was signed and Victor Emmanuel accepted the terms without consulting Cavour. Piedmont therefore received Lombardy which was ceded to Napoleon III and then passed by him to Victor Emmanuel. So we can see how Napoleon was having a significant contribution in limiting Austrian influence and fortifying Piedmont for Unification.
Garibaldi started taking over the south of Italy like Sicily and intended to attack Neapolitan area. Napoleon acts well here as he suggests a joint naval blockade of the Straits of Messina to tries to contain Garibaldi. He tries to do it with Britain but she refuses it. So he takes over Sicily and the Neapolitan area. Another contribution of Napoleon was he made a secret agreement with Cavour that France would not interfere so long as Garibaldi did not reach Rome.
During the next 10 years of the Italian Unification the problems of how to incorporate Venetia and Rome into the Italian Kingdom were pressing ones. Rome was the home of the old Roman Emperors and the symbol of past greatness. The French garrison in Rome and Austrian occupation of Venetia were constant reminders that the work of driving the foreigner had not been completed. So Napoleon was going to provide solutions to these problems.
Firstly to ensure that Venetia went to Italy Napoleon signed a secret treaty with Austria, that said that they would help them in the war against Prussia, but if Austria won, Venetia would go to France which would then be passed on to Italy. This happened because at that time the Austro- Prussian war was happing to see who would unify with Germany. And so beforehand Italy made a deal with Prussia that if they went to war with Austria in two months, Italy will join them and if they won, Venetia would go back to Italy. So we can see how Napoleon insured a 100% guarantee that Venetia would go back to Italy.
As in the case with Rome, it was liberated by the French troops when they went to fight the Franco-Prussian War. And as Napoleon was taking Prisoner Victor Emmanuel took over Rome. So we can see that unintentionally Napoleon contributed as when his troops left Rome, it led to a total Italian Unification.
Overall, I think Napoleon contributed a lot to the unification as limited the Austrian influence in various places like Piedmont and helped the rest of the provinces to get under Italian influence. Also all of this happened because of his love affair with Italian nationalism.
