Verso un corpo ufficiali costituzionale e nazionale. La trasformazione dell’istituzione militare piemontese, 1849-59

After the revolutionary phase of 1848-49, among all the Italian states Piedmont alone maintained its liberal constitution. The choice was to be crucial to the future of Italian unification, giving to the House of Savoy the opportunity to take the lead of the entire geopolitical process. However, diplomacy and politics needed a military institution deeply different than the one which fought half-heartedly the late war against the Austrian Empire. As a consequence, between 1849 and 1859, a new military élite took the head of the Piedmontese Army. Alongside the new liberal political élite, which ruled the Kingdom of Sardinian, a group of constitutional generals and staff officers led by Alfonso Lamarmora shaped the Piedmontese officer corps after the pan-Italian and liberal features of Cavour’s politics. Their work mutated the vastly plethoric and strictly conservative Piedmontese Army of King Charles-Albert into a French-style institution commanded by a new kind of professional officer, respectful of the liberties sanctioned by the Statuto Albertino.