Evaluate the importance of foreign influence in the unification of Italy.

Candidates are required to appraise the contribution of foreign powers to the unification of Italy. Candidates may appraise the importance of the role of foreign powers as compared with other factors in achieving unification. The impact of France is also likely to be a focus, from the support of Napoleon III in the partial unification by 1861 but also the presence of a French garrison in Rome preventing full unification. Other powers involved—either positively or negatively—include Austria and Prussia. There are arguments against the primacy of foreign powers in the unification of Italy, these include the importance of Cavour, who helped to develop Piedmont as a liberal state that Italian nationalists could support, and the activities of Garibaldi in increasing the size of the new Italian state.