Italian Unification, also known as the Risorgimento, was a political and social movement in the 19th century that aimed to consolidate the various states of the Italian peninsula into a single nation. This process began in the early 1800s and gained momentum after the 1848 revolutions, leading to significant events like the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859. Key figures in this movement included Giuseppe Garibaldi, Count Camillo di Cavour, and King Victor Emmanuel II. The unification was largely completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, marking the end of centuries of division among Italian states.