ABSTRACT
The achievement, by 1861, of an Italian kingdom comprising the whole of peninsular Italy except Rome, was something which though it happened partly because of Napoleon III and Cavour, happened to a considerable degree in spite of both of them. The first confusion arises out of the meaning of the words 'Kingdom of Italy'. To all who consider the phrase after 1861 it obviously means the area ruled over by Victor Emmanuel from that year onwards, an area felt to be incomplete because it did not at that date already include either Rome or Venetia. The dominating position of France in Europe in the past had depended on the weakness of both Italy and Germany. Napoleon III gained nothing; not Nice, to which he had little claim, nor even Savoy, to which he had, on national grounds at any rate, at least as good a claim as Piedmont had to Romagna and the Duchies.
