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Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour (August 10, 1810 - June 7, 1861) was a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and ruled it throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy (besides a small six-month resignation from the post). Cavour died only three months after the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, and thus did not live to see Venetia or Rome included in the kingdom. Cavour, as he is usually referred to, put forth several economic reforms in his home province of Piedmont in his earlier years, and founded the political newspaper Il Risorgimento . After being elected into the Chamber of Deputies, he quickly rose in rank through the Piedmontese government, coming to dominate the Chamber of Deputies through a union of left-center and right-center politicians. After a large rail system expansion program, Cavour became prime minister in 1852. As prime minister, Cavour successfully negotiated Piedmont through the Crimean War, Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's expeditions, managing to maneuver Piedmont diplomatically to become a new great power in Europe, controlling a nearly united Italy that was five times as large as Piedmont had been before he came to power.
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