UNIFICATION OF ITALY · Part 2

laid the foundations of the Italian unification. Born in Genoa in a well-to-do family, he graduated in law. Attracted to politics at a young age, he advocated the freedom of the Italian nation. He involved himself in the insurrectionary activities of the Carbonari for which he was arrested. He soon gave up the idea of secret plotting and began to believe in open propaganda against monarchy. He believed that Italy was a great civilisation that could provide leadership to the rest of the world. He started the Young Italy movement in with the aim of an Italian Republic. Exiled for working for the cause of unification of Italy in , when revolts were breaking out all over North Italy, Mazzini returned to Rome. The Pope was driven away and a republic declared under a committee of three, of which Mazzini was a member. But with the failure of Revolution and the restoration of Rome to Pope with the support of the French, Mazzini carried on his work by propaganda and preparing for the next programme of action. Count Cavour ( – ) Count Cavour was one of those inspired by the idea of Italian nationalism. In he started a newspaper. The Italian unification movement came to be known after the name of the newspaper as Il Risorgimento . The Risorgimento (the resurrection of Italian spirit) was an ideological and literary movement that helped to arouse the national consciousness Mazzini Count Cavour Europe in Turmoil of the Italian people. Cavour rose to become the Prime Minister of Sardinia and played a crucial role in the unification of Italy. He used a combination of diplomacy and war to achieve the unification under the leadership of Sardinia. Cavour realised that Italian unification could not be achieved without international support. He needed the support of other Great powers to expel Austria from Lombardy and Venetia. Therefore, he involved Piedmont-Sardinia in the Crimean War to draw international attention and get the support of England and France. In July , he struck an agreement