Is It More Accurate to Say That Piedmontisation or Unification Happened up Until 1861?

Is it more accurate to say that Piedmontisation or unification happened up until 1861?

It is argued as to whether it was Piedmontisation or unification that occurred mostly before 1861. Unification is the process of unifying the different regions of Italy to form a nation whereas the process of Piedmontisation is annexation of Piedmont and not the unification of the whole of Italy.

On the one hand, it can be argued that it is more Piedmontisation that occurred in Italy before 1861 rather than the process of unification. This can be shown by how Cavour strongly promoted Piedmont and attempted to advance its economic and industrial status. He regularly public money to enhance Piedmont’s reputation such as the construction of the railway line in 1854 that connected Piedmont to Genoa, Turin, Milan and the French border. Cavour’s aims were mainly Piedmont oriented and he rarely showed interest in the South as he viewed it as a drain on the economy and resources. This conveys how he was interested in developing Piedmont but his interest in unifying the whole of Italy, both the North and the South, was limited.

Furthermore, the plebiscites of 1859 were an opportunity for them to engineer the annexation of Piedmont. It was successful as nearly all the votes were in favour of Piedmont’s annexation - but this was because the votes were rigged. The use of rigging the votes meant that countries, like Britain and France, didn’t intervene as they would have if it had not appeared that the public were in favour of annexation. This shows how it was Piedmontisation that occurred because Piedmont slowly begun to take control over the other regions of the peninsula rather than the whole peninsula beginning to unify.

On the other hand, it can be suggested that it was unification that occurred before 1861 in Italy. This is shown through the ideas of the Risorgimento and was conveys the Italian peoples desire for the whole peninsula to be unified and to