The Honourable Grace Camillo Benso di Cavour SOMHA, OSML, COS |
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1st Prime Minister of Italy | |
In office 23 March 1861 – 6 June 1861 |
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Monarch | Victor Emmanuel II |
Preceded by | Office created |
Succeeded by | Bettino Ricasoli |
9th Prime Minister of Sardinia | |
In office 21 January 1860 – 23 March 1861 |
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Monarch | Victor Emmanuel II |
Preceded by | Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
In office 4 November 1852 – 19 July 1859 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Monarch | Victor Emmanuel II |
Prime Minister | Massimo D'Azeglio |
Preceded by | Pietro De Rossi di Santarosa |
Succeeded by | Giuseppe Natoli (1861) |
Member of the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies | |
In office 30 June 1848 – 17 March 1861 |
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Constituency | Turin |
Personal details | |
Born |
Turin, French Empire |
August 10, 1810
Died | June 6, 1861 Turin, Kingdom of Italy |
(aged 50)
Nationality | Piedmontese-Italian |
Political party | Historical Right |
Religion | Deist or Atheist |
Signature |
Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (August 10, 1810 – June 6, 1861), generally known as Count Cavour (Italian: [kaˈvur]) was an Italian statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was one of the leaders of the Historical Right, and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and 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 thus did not live to see Venetia or Rome added to the new Italian nation.
Cavour put forth several economic reforms in his native region of Piedmont 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 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's way through the Crimean War, the 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.