Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour

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The Count of Cavour SOMHA, OSML, COS
Portrait by Antonio Ciseri
1st Prime Minister of Italy
In office 23 March 1861 – 6 June 1861
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel II
Preceded by	Himself as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia
Succeeded by	Bettino Ricasoli
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia
In office 21 January 1860 – 23 March 1861
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel II
Preceded by	Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora
Succeeded by	Himself as Prime Minister of Italy
In office 4 November 1852 – 19 July 1859
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel II
Preceded by	Massimo D'Azeglio
Succeeded by	Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora
Minister of Finances
In office 19 April 1851 – 11 May 1852
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel II
Prime Minister	Massimo D'Azeglio
Preceded by	Giovanni Nigra
Succeeded by	Luigi Cibrario
Minister of Agriculture and Trade
In office 11 October 1850 – 11 May 1852
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel II
Prime Minister	Massimo D'Azeglio
Preceded by	Pietro De Rossi di Santarosa
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Natoli (1861)
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 30 June 1848 – 17 March 1861
Constituency	Turin
Personal details
Born	Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso (1810-08-10)10 August 1810 Turin, First French Empire
Died	6 June 1861(1861-06-06) (aged 50) Turin, Kingdom of Italy
Nationality	Italian
Political party	Historical Right
Signature

Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (Italian pronunciation: [kaˈmillo ˈbɛnso]; 10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as the Count of Cavour (/kəˈvʊər/ kə-VOOR; Italian: Conte di Cavour [ˈkonte di kaˈvur]) or simply Cavour, was an Italian politician, businessman, economist and noble, and a leading figure in the movement towards Italian unification.^[1] He was one of the leaders of the Historical Right and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy. After the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, Cavour took office as the first Prime Minister of Italy; he died after only three months in office and did not live to see the Roman Question solved through the complete unification of the country after the Capture of Rome in 1870.

Cavour put forth several economic reforms in his native region of Piedmont, at that time part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, in his earlier years and founded the political newspaper Il Risorgimento. After being elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he quickly rose in rank through the Piedmontese government, coming to dominate the Chamber of Deputies through a union of centre-left and centre-right politicians. After a large rail system expansion program, Cavour became prime minister in 1852. As prime minister, Cavour successfully negotiated Piedmont's way through the Crimean War, the Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, managing to manoeuvre 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.

English historian Denis Mack Smith says Cavour was the most successful parliamentarian in Italian history, but he was not especially democratic. Cavour was often dictatorial, ignored his ministerial colleagues and parliament, and interfered in parliamentary elections. He also practised trasformismo and other policies which were carried over into post-Risorgimento Italy.^[2][3]