Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
Since 1848 Italian nationalist societies and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia had been trying to unify the post-Napoleonic Italian states into a single Italian nation. The main obstacle to Italian Unification was the Habsburg Monarchy, which directly or indirectly controlled much of Italy and was actively invested in keeping Italy divided.  To overcome Austrian military might Piedmont (then Italy from 1861) would need to rely on foreign intervention by other European nations to overcome Austria. To this end the Piedmontese Prime Minister, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, forged an alliance with France, agreeing to turn over the French speaking provinces of Savoy and Nice to France in exchange for military support against Austria. This support would be vital to Italian success in the Second War of Italian Unification, which resulted in the Austrians ceding Lombardy to Piedmont.