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How did the Battle of Magenta contribute to Piedmont’s acquisition of Lombardy?

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The Battle of Magenta was a pivotal engagement in the Second War of Italian Independence that facilitated Piedmont’s acquisition of Lombardy by forcing an Austrian retreat and opening the path to Milan.21

Following the narrow French victory on June 4, 1859, Napoleon III and the Piedmontese king Victor Emmanuel II made a triumphal entry into Milan. This defeat significantly weakened Austrian control in the region, triggering a wave of uprisings against Austrian rule in various districts and cities.213

While the subsequent armistice at Villafranca halted the immediate momentum of the war, the Peace of Zurich in November 1859 ultimately formalized the transfer of most of Lombardy to Piedmont. This victory was a key component of the broader strategy developed by Camillo Benso, count di Cavour, to unify northern Italy by driving the Austrians out of the peninsula.1