Status-Seeking and Nation-Building: The “Piedmont Principle” Revisited

The pursuit of status on the international stage through participation in the Crimean War was critical to Italy’s drive toward unification. Piedmont’s Prime Minster Count Camillo di Cavour’s entry into the wartime alliance with France and Great Britain was a major component in his nation-building project, which Italy’s enhanced status after the war brought to fruition. Primary sources highlight the nexus between status competition at the international level and domestic political outcomes. Similar processes can explain the success and failure of other nation-building enterprises.