Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, of Isolabella and of Leri (August 10, 1810 – June 6, 1861), generally known as Cavour, is a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification.

He is the founder of the original Liberal Party and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a position he maintains (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy.

After the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, Cavour takes office as Italy's first Prime Minister; he dies after only three months in office, and thus does not live to see Venetia or Rome as part of the new Italian nation.

Cavour puts forth several economic reforms in his native region of Piedmont in his earlier years, and founds the political newspaper Il Risorgimento.

After being elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he quickly rises in rank through the Piedmontese government, coming to dominate the Chamber of Deputies through a union of left-center and right-center politicians.

After a large rail system expansion program, Cavour becomes prime minister in 1852.

As prime minister, Cavour successfully negotiates Piedmont's way through the Crimean War, Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's expeditions, managing to maneuver Piedmont diplomatically to become a new great power in Europe, controlling a nearly united Italy that is five times as large as Piedmont had been before he came to power.