"Cavour United Italy Not Because He Wanted to or Intended to, but Because Circumpstances Forced Him to". to What Extent Do You Agree?

Cavour was from Piedmont, which was a state in northern Italy still under the control of the Habsburg in the XIXth century. Because he was from the northern, european, civilized Italy states, it is questionable wether or not he wanted to create one nation along with the southern, more african-like, uncivilized Italy states. However, it can be shown that Cavour did want a unification of some sort for Italian states. To unify a nation to form a single state, a very strong nationalism is needed, which he showed by creating a local newspaper in 1847 bearing the name of the Italian unification movement (Il Risorgimento), as well as by causing a war with Austria jsut to get a free Italy. He also created a youth movement called the young Italy. So we know Cavour truly wanted to unify Italy. However, as stated before, there was a very strong discrimination between the North and the South of Italy. Therefore, it is hard to believe that a nationalist diplomat from Piedmont would want to include the illiterates from the south. Thus we can consider that Cavour did want to unify Italy, but what he tought of as Italy in this case was the Northern part of it, no more to the south than Naples. However, Cavour was aware that Italians wouldn't be able to unify Italy alone. At first, he asked the Pope for help, but he couldn't go against the Austrians, as they had a huge christian population. So he asked for help to the French Emperor, Napoleon III. At first, he didn't reply, but when an Italian nationalist attezmpted to murder him, he suddenly felt like he had to help the Italians. It is suspected that one of the reason (other than the fear of being assassinated) that made him help the Italians was that his goal was to shake the balance of power in Europe so that France could make a comeback. Napoleon III and Cavour then held a secret meeting in Plombière where they came up with a plan. Cavour would provoke the Habsburg ruling over Piedmont by making liberal changes,