The movement to unite Italy into one cultural and political entity was known as the Risorgimento whic meant "resurgence". Giuseppe Mazzini and his follower, Giuseppe Garibaldi, failed in their attempt to create a united Italy. After Garibaldi failed due to the rise of conservatism in Europe, the Sardinian minister Camillo di Cavour was successful in uniting Italy under the crown of Sardinia. In 1855, the kingdom of Sardinia participated on the British and French side of the Crimean War. In 1858, Cavour formed an alliance with France that included a pledge of military support against Austria, Italy's major obstacle to unification. Austria declared war against Sardinia in 1859 and was defeated by the French army. The peace treaty of November 1959 signed in Zurich, Switzerland, made Lombardy, a former Austrian province, a part of Sardinia. In 1860, armed volunteers under Garibaldi liberated Sicily and Naples, which together made up the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Assemblies in the central Italian provinces of Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and Romagna voted in favor of unification with Sardinia in the summer of 1859. In 1861, Italy was declared a united nation-state under the Sardinian king Victor Immanuel II.