Success Through The Ways The Princes example essay topic

Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469. He was a man who lived in Florence. He worked as a diplomat and grew up to be a lawyer and politician. As he grew up, he took office until the Medici took power and pushed him out of office. In 1512 to 1527, he was kicked out of office again and this led to his in-depth view of the politics at that time. When he wrote The Prince he was determined to regain the favors of the Medici Family and to help other rulers keep their power.

This was intended to help only the rulers and not the lower classes. He uses a few themes in his book to help these leaders maintain power. These themes are ways to become a ruler, free will and qualities and characteristics of a prince. There are different ways in becoming a ruler. Such ways include hereditarily, mixed inheritors, and conquering. Hereditarily, you can become a ruler by being born into royal blood.

Machiavelli says that this way is the easiest of all ways because it gives little problems. Now, if you have mixed inheritors, then problems start showing itself. The people start to think for themselves and they choose their own ruler. They think of how it will benefit them in the future and then decide who will rule.

An example Machiavelli includes is the rise and fall of King Louis XXII of France which occurred twice. Louis XXII had acquired himself a bunch of rebellious lower classmen. They didn't think the new ruler would be beneficial to them so with Lodovico's forces, they claimed back the country. If you are able to become a ruler by conquering, that means you are more superior to other rulers.

The current lower classmen see no other better ruler so they accept you. Machiavelli's evidence for this was in a situation during his time. The Turk's government had one ruler and a bunch of servants to help him govern. The king of France was almost the same.

He was the ruler and had no servants to carry out his commands. However, even though he didn't have servants the people supported him. "Hence, who attack the Turks must bear in mind that he will find him united, and he will have to rely on his own strength thank on revolt of others; but, if once the Turks has been captured, and routed in the field in such a way that he cannot replace his armies, there is nothing to fear but the family of this prince, and, this being exterminated, there remains no one to fear, the others having no credit with the people, and as the conqueror did not rely on them before his victory, so he ought not to fear them after it". (Machiavelli, Niccolo The Prince, 42) Machiavelli stated this in order to give us a visual image about what he was talking about. Because the Turkish leader was so well loved by the people, an opposing country will have to use their own power and not expect any inside damage. Depending on how a prince rules, there are different types of principalities.

Through Machiavelli's eyes, a prince can be judged from his ways of governing. It can be told through a situation where a prince can support themselves when need be or if they must rely on others. "The cities of Germany are absolutely free, they own little country around them, and the yield obedience to the emperor when it suits them, nor do they fear this or any other power, because they are fortified in such a way that everyone thinks that assaulting them would be tedious and difficult, seeing as they have proper ditches and walls, they have sufficient artillery, and they always keep in public depots enough for one year's eating, drinking, and firing". (Machiavelli, Niccolo The Prince, 82) This quote shows the example he used to determine the prince's principality. Machiavelli uses the German prince to show how he depended on his own strength by stocking up on enough supplies. The defense of this city must " ve been great because of their high and fortified walls.

Additionally, with a great army, no opposing prince would dare to go attack this city. This type of principality is only kept by keeping a military and defense. Hereditary principality as mentioned before is the easiest to keep because it is one family ruling over them. Mixed principality is harder to keep because of rebellions. The last principality not yet talked about is ecclesiastical principality. Ecclesiastical principalities basically mean the church-related politics.

Machiavelli used the example of Charles V taking over France. Before Charles V took over France, the Pope, Venetians, King of Naples, Duke of Milan and Florentine's ruled. France was ruled by theocracy before Charles V took over. Theocracy is when the country's political system is based on religion.

Because it was ran by theocracy, it was hard to achieve at first due to the secularism at the time. A ruling prince should have every single quality and characteristics of the 'ideal' Renaissance man. The ideal Renaissance man has knowledge in all subjects, is fluent in many languages, athletic and knows politics. However for a prince, he should focus on all these but the only thing to lead him astray of his studies is war. Princes who have not focused enough on the art of war had lost their country or empire in the past. Therefore, a prince should focus and learn the art of war to develop strategies against the opposing nation.

A prince should be wise and study strategies that were used by heroes and leaders in wars of the past. This way he can see the errors in their plans and not make the same mistake. The basics that a prince should learn are that you should never stop planning or taking action in war. You should have spare supplies also so that if you are in need, you would have plentiful more.

Aside from all war or knowledge aspects, a prince should be lenient and merciful instead of being cruel. However the prince should use it wisely and not be taken advantage of. Cesare Borgia was the prince in northern-central Italy, known as Romagna. He was a cruel leader in that region but he managed to unify the land once more. With this example in mind, Machiavelli asks the question "Is it better to be loved than feared or feared than loved?" His perspective on this was to be feared than loved. His argument says that love can be broken in an instant, which will cause the prince to lose support from the people very fast, and that if you are feared, they will have to obey or they shall be punished.

Machiavelli stresses the fact that a prince should be feared and not hated. To be feared means that they will acknowledge your power. To be hated results in rebellions and overthrowing of his rule. The war in Iraq existed so that the coalition forces can rid of the Taliban regime, gain control of oil reserves, to search for weapons of mass destruction and to free Iraqis from their poverty. Germany reported that they would not be helping out in the Iraq war because of their concerns about military action.

Germany and their chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, have been opposing war. They did felt strongly opposed to any vote or plan that would give legitimacy to war. France had many people who opposed war as well. China and Russia wanted to give inspectors more time to do more thorough searches on the weapons while France, United States and Great Britain wanted to take action immediately. Poland, however, was in it for the oil reserves. They wanted to control the massive oil reserves in Iraq so that they may earn money and boost their economy.

This could also be abused politically and militarily if Poland can get their hand on the oil reserves. In this case, Germany did not follow Machiavelli's idea of how princes should always study and fight in wars. Many of the leaders in present day times resemble only a few of the qualities of a prince during the Renaissance. Leaders usually know multi languages, are knowledgeable in politics and have knowledge in many other areas too. Machiavelli would probably act astonished.

He would view every single one of these ways as a new type way the leader of a nation does things. Such governments such as communism and democracy did not exist back then. He would view this event as a new way for princes to control their future power. It wouldn't be about what the prince or leader has now but what they can achieve or bring to the people through these events.

If one was to argue with Machiavelli's thoughts, he might defend the ways of the Renaissance as the best way to go about things. This is because he saw success through the ways the princes acted during his time. They were feared but brought success. The leaders in today's time and world are stretched out more. We had leaders such as Bill Clinton who was loved by the majority and brings success while as Stalin of Russia who was feared but brought success. However, Machiavelli's ideas are still being used in parts of the world in the 21st century.

The holy war between the Palestinians and Islam still exist today. The events leading up to it now was basically invasion and war over undisputed lands. The Palestinian refugees needed a place to stay and so they settled on the Israelis' land. The Israelis did not like this and attacked them, hoping they would get scared off and not come back.

However all this fighting has led to nowhere even up till today. Recently, there had been massive bombings and casualties in Palestine. The violence had started in September 2000 and has not stopped since then. This violence resembles the civil war in Palestine in 1947. The civil war in Palestine in 1947 occurred because the Arabs did not like the partitioning of land between them and the Israelis. In the year of 2000, Clinton proposed another partitioning of the land between the Palestinians and Jews.

In April 2002, Israeli forces reoccupied much of the West Bank, causing many Palestinian villages to be wiped out. The Palestinian Liberation Organization was a pro-terror group which has caused much of the destruction amongst the Israelis. In 2002, George W. Bush had intervened with the Palestinians in order to stop war. Like what Machiavelli said about it's better to be feared than loved in most cases, the PLO has caused fear in many people.

Both the Palestinian and Israeli governments are theocratic. This gives them a good amount of control over their people. However this holy war they are fighting does not look all that holy. Machiavelli said that a prince should learn the vast strategies of warfare. The Palestinians and Israelis have fought for nearly a century but neither side has fallen yet. Machiavelli was a great political interpreter during the Renaissance.

However, as time moved on, many different types of governments such as democracy and communism sprung up. What Machiavelli failed to interpret were the types of governments ancient civilization had. So as time moved on, some governments chose to branch off from ancient civilization rather than Machiavelli's interpretation of politics. Machiavelli's primary error was that he only looked at politics from the dictator's or monarch's point of view. He did not realize that if democracy had existed like with the Athenians, there would be no need to cause fear or any violence.

Bibliography

Machiavelli, Niccolo The Prince Translated by Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella United Kingdom, Oxford University, 1984 Oren, Michael B.
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East New York, The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group, 2002-2003 School, Daniel History and Faith Cradle & Crucible in the Middle East Washington D.
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S. News & World Report, July 21, 2003 CNN, web BBC, web BBC, web.