Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour

Born into Piedmontese nobility in 1810, Cavour spent his early career on economic reform and founded the newspaper Il Risorgimento before entering the Chamber of Deputies. He rose fast, built a coalition of centre-left and centre-right politicians, and became Prime Minister of Sardinia in 1852 after pushing through a rail expansion. Over the next nine years he steered Piedmont through the Crimean War, the Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, using diplomacy and timing to absorb territory until Piedmont controlled a nearly united Italy five times its former size. When the Kingdom of Italy was declared, he took office as its first prime minister. He died on 6 June 1861, three months in, the Roman Question still unsolved. Historians call him Italy's most successful parliamentarian, though he governed by dictate as often as by debate.