After the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, which granted to Piedmont-Sardinia the control over Northern Italy (except for Veneto), Neo-Guelphism was considered obsolete and unobtainable. In 1860, republican Giuseppe Garibaldi led his expedition in Southern Italy, which eventually led to Italian unification under Piedmont-Sardinia, however, leaving the Papacy as its own individual state. This eased the fears from Roman Catholic countries such as France who believed that a unified Italy could "corrupt" the Papacy.