The 'Risorgimento' ('Resurgence') was the 19th-century movement for Italian political unification.

After the failure of the 1848 revolutions, leadership of the movement passed to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.

The political architect of unification was Count Camillo di Cavour, the brilliant and pragmatic prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia.

Cavour's strategy involved strengthening Piedmont's economy and army and using diplomacy and alliances to expel Austria from Italy.

In 1859, Cavour provoked a war with Austria after securing a military alliance with Napoleon III of France.

The Franco-Piedmontese victory in this war led to the annexation of Lombardy and inspired other northern Italian states to join Piedmont.

The romantic revolutionary, Giuseppe Garibaldi, led an expedition of 1,000 volunteers ('the Redshirts') and conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the south.

Garibaldi patriotically handed over his southern conquests to King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont to create a united Italy.

The Kingdom of Italy was officially proclaimed in 1861.

The unification was completed with the annexation of Venetia in 1866 and Rome in 1870.