Your contestants in the ring: Spain and France (united under the Bourbons) who want all of Italy The Habsburg Empire who want to keep the part of Italy they already have The Kingdom of Piedmont who want a Milanese slice of Italy The United Kingdom who want no part of Italy but wants all the other European powers to be kept busy squabbling over it.
The French & Spanish, who already control southern Italy, are confident they can get the rest if they can send in enough troops to drive out the Habsburg forces who control the north. The troops have to get there either from France through the Piedmontese Alpine passes or from Spain across the Mediterranean Sea currently controlled by the British navy.
The Habsburgs are not at all confident they can survive as an Italian power if Spanish and French troops turn up in appreciable quantities so they have engaged the Piedmontese and the British to stop them arriving.
The Piedmontese are happy to accept Habsburg military assistance and British financial subsidies for selectively blocking mountain passes but are worried, when the smoke has cleared, they might not be…
