ABSTRACT
Cavour's domestic achievements were overshadowed by his extraordinary triumphs in foreign policy. No ministerial career has ever been more successful than his. Having become Prime Minister when his small country was struggling to recover from the defeats of 1848–49, he died leaving his King ruler of a state five times as large, able to claim rank as one of the Great Powers. It is not surprising that many historians, as well as patriotic propagandists, should have represented unification as the direct outcome of Cavour's long-matured plans. Clearly, though, it was not. In the first place, Cavour, when he came to power, had very little knowledge or experience of foreign affairs — though he knew Western Europe better than Italy — and he seemed to have had no very specific ideas about them. He hoped for the eventual attainment of Italian independence, but had as yet devoted little thought to Italian unification. He had no doubt that Austria was his country's enemy, though it is not clear to what extent he thought in terms of Piedmontese expansion, rather than Italian national unity. Certainly he occasionally referred to the ‘Piedmontese nation’ and even the ‘Ligurian nation’ 1 . However, the ever closer connection between Piedmontese liberalism and the Italian national cause, and the influence of refugees from other parts of Italy, would soon reshape his outlook.
