UNIFICATION OF ITALY · Part 3

with Napoleon III of France who offered to support Piedmont-Sardinia in its conflict with Austria. War with Austria, Cavour then provoked war with Austria by mobilising troops near the Austrian border. When Austria issued an ultimatum to disband the troops he allowed it to expire. As a result Austria attacked Piedmont-Sardinia in April . The combined armies of Piedmont- Sardinia and France defeated the Austrian armies. They won a major victory at the Battle of Solferino. Instead of continuing the war, Napoleon III of France concluded a peace agreement with the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph II at Villa Franca on July . Cavour was disappointed at French withdrawal and resigned. In November , Piedmont- Sardinia and Austria concluded the Treaty of Zurich. Austria ceded Lombardy but retained control over Venetia. Cavour was reappointed as Prime Minister in . Parma, Modena and Tuscany were merged with the Kingdom of Piedmont- Sardinia through plebiscites. Similarly, Savoy and Nice were annexed to France on the basis of plebiscites. Garibaldi and the Conquest of Southern Italy Giuseppe Garibaldi ( – ) played a key role in the unification of Italy by waging guerilla warfare. He joined Mazzini’s Young Italy and was influenced by his ideas. Garibaldi Participating in Mazzini’s rebellion in Piedmont, he then fled to South America as an exile. He took up the cause of revolutionaries there and fought for the cause of Rio Grande and Uruguay against Argentinian occupation. Therefore, he was called the ‘Hero of Two Worlds’. In , he started the Italian Legion. This force of volunteers came to be known as the Red Shirts. Garibaldi accepted the invitation of the people of Sicily in their revolt against their monarch. He left the port of Genoa with volunteers to Sicily. Landing unnoticed on the coast of Sicily he and his volunteers defeated the 20000 strong Neapolitan (Naples) troops without any loss of life. He then crossed into Naples and defeated the royal troops with the help of the locals. However, Cavour, suspicious of Garibaldi’s triumphant march, sent the Piedmontese force to stop him from invading Rome. Garibaldi submitted