The Contributions of Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour in the Unification of Italy were as follows:

Mazzini

(i) He was the founder of the Young Italy movement with the aim of ending Austrian rule over Italy and to make it a Republic.

(ii) He wanted unification through a democratic revolution but his lofty ideals were not supported by the peasants and middle classes. As a result, he failed in his efforts but prepared the ground for others.

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Garibaldi

(i) He was a member of the Young Italy movement. He was skilled in gue­rilla warfare and deserves credit for uniting Southern Italian states under the leadership of Piedmont.

(ii) He organized a revolutionary force called Red Shirts, and succeeded in liberating Sicily and Naples and uniting them under the control of the King of Sardinia.

Cavour

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(i) He strongly believed that only through diplomacy and policy of war (simi­lar to Bismarck’s policy of ‘blood and iron’) could Italian unification be achieved.

(ii) He united Italy under the leadership of Sardinia. Lombardy, Tuscany, Parma and Papal States also united with Sardinia.

(iii) Finally in 1871, Rome was liberated from French control and Italy was united, with the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II, becoming the King of Italy with Rome as the Capital.