Old paper on Machiavelli

Matthew Butcher
History 102
Unit 5 paper
August 1, 1995

Machiavelli's The Prince

Renaissance Italy had many new startling political developments in the fifteenth century.  Italy saw the expansion of smaller city-states as the major governing powers.  There were five major powers and some independent city-states that dominated the peninsula.  These provinces had the same notable factor:  a strong ruler that governed with the express idea of improving his kingdom.  The Italian Renaissance was thus preoccupied with political power.  Italians remained loyal to their own states.  This brought about the birth of modern diplomacy, where the pursuits of the individual state took precedence over any other interests.  This individualism of the state also produced the power struggle over the peninsula by the Italians and the French and Spanish monarchies.  Wishing to help only the individual state, Italian rulers fought with each other and with the other Europeans.  This eventually brought the entire Italian peninsula under the control of foreign powers. (Spielvogel 415-419).
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a servant of Florence during these turbulent times.  Machiavelli applied himself to safeguarding and strengthening the independence of his city with the enthusiasm of an ancient republican.  He wrote The Prince in 1513 after the Medici family became the rulers of Florence and Rome.  In it, he hoped to show how Italy could be freed from its terrible position and become one of the great powers of the world.  The Prince became the foundation of a new science of statesmanship.  The treatise was the first to develop a secular basis of politics.  It also uses the political lessons of history to show how power can be used to restore and maintain order in the state.  It shows how statecraft has ways and means of its own and how politics has a morality of its own.  The Prince speaks about four main things:  the existence of monarchies, the importance of standing armies, the behavior of the prince of a state, and the contemporary political situation of Italy.
With monarchies, Machiavelli tries to point out the different kinds and the flaws and strengths of each.  In the first eleven chapters, the book lists them and tries to define them.  There are four different kinds as seen by Machiavelli:  hereditary, mixed, new, and ecclesiastical.  Hereditary monarchies are the easiest to maintain while new ones are probably the toughest because there is no precedent for ruling those people.  Hereditary rulers simply have to follow the path of their predecessor and try not to make too many mistakes.  Mixed monarchies can be difficult to maintain because the people could rebel.  They were prone to rebel to replace their old ruler and they might realize with a new regime that they have gone from bad to worse.  Mixed monarchy rulers must try not to oppress their new subjects.  Ecclesiastical monarchies are easy to maintain because the laws of the religious institutions are ancient.  The new monarchies are the most difficult to acquire and maintain.
The new monarchies have certain characteristics that make them the most difficult to gain and preserve power over.  Machiavelli distinguishes different types of new monarchies and makes this the main point of this section.  Those acquired by one's own arms are very difficult to maintain except with great military ability.  There are those acquired by the arms of others which can be lost easily.  Villains that come to power cannot be called great men even if they completely control a powerful state.  And there are civic principalities where the people bring to power a prince of their own choosing.  These are maintained by keeping friendly with the people and the people simply ask not to be oppressed.
The next section of the book speaks on how the strength of a state can only be maintained with standing armies under the complete guidance of the prince.  "A prince should therefore have no other aim of thought, nor take up any other thing for his study, but war and its organisation and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands, and it is of such virtue that it not only maintains those who are born princes, but often enables men of private fortune to attain to that rank"  (Machiavelli 81). 
The next section of the book involves the conduct of princes.A prime example is Machiavelli's analogy to the fox and the lion.  "A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves" (Machiavelli 92).  In doing so, Machiavelli does not base the standards of a prince's behavior on Christian moral principles.  He says that princes do not have to keep their word when it goes against the welfare of the state.  Machiavelli also says that princes should be cruel rather than kind.  This helps to maintain the state against oppressors from within.  The prince should be feared more than loved.  Machiavelli's answer to this dangerous claim is the inner truth of mankind:  "For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, covetous of gain" (Machiavelli 90).  These are the people that a prince governs and must therefore be able to outwit them at every turn.  Cruelness achieves this.
The last section of the book brings this discussion so far to the contemporary Italian situation.  His points meet the dangers of Italy government.
The main reason that Italian princes lost their states during their times is because they lacked a standing army.  They relied on mercenaries and eventually sought help from other monarchies such as the French and the Spanish.  Some rulers did not know how to appease the people.  Others did not protect themselves from treachery within their own kingdom, especially among the nobles.  Machiavelli uses specific examples to show how his rules are justified.  His is not the ideal of politics.  Machiavelli is simply trying to point out how things really are.  "But my intention being to write something of use to those who understand, it appears to me more proper to go to the real truth of the matter than to its imagination"  (Machiavelli 84).
Machiavelli seems to imply that an excellent prince cannot rule according to the principles of Christian morality.  Christian morality will not let the prince eradicate trouble.  The modern ruler, as pointed out, must be secular.  He must not stray from doing the good of the state but be able to do evil if he must.  A prince must rely on his own power and not on the power of others (Machiavelli 91).  As Machiavelli likes to point out, the end completely justifies the means.  "Let a prince therefore aim at conquering and maintaining the state, and the means will always be judged honourable and praised by everyone" (Machiavelli 94).
When the end justifies the means, it does not matter how foul the mean might have been.  It goes back to the analogy of the fox and the lion (Machiavelli 92).  The fox is sly and must be able to prevent traps while the lion is proud and protects himself from harsher enemies.  Since mankind is bad and would stab the prince in the back when possible, the prince can therefore use any means necessary.  If all men were good, the moral principles could be followed.  Since they are not, the prince cannot possible be expected to maintain power against people that do not follow the same rules.
The reason that this book is still important in today's society is that it is the foundation of modern secular politics.  Many think it harsh when our rulers war or impose taxes or condone some heinous acts.  The whole point is that it is tough to be a ruler.  When our rulers war, it presumable is for a greater good.  When taxes are levied it is for a greater good.  The end justifies the means in the case of a great ruler. 
All in all, I have established a much greater respect for some political maneuvering by reading this book.  It is amazing to think of politics as old as this book.  Things have not changed in over five hundred years.  Today's governments choose their rulers by the aspects decided by Machiavelli long ago.  The Prince focuses on the acquisition and maintenance of political control.  This is how the world operates, today and in Machiavelli's times.

Works Cited
Machiavelli, Niccolo.  The Prince.  Trans. Luigi Ricci.  New York:       The New American Library, 1952.
Spielvogel, Jackson.  Western Civilization.  Vol. 1.  Second ed.       New York:  West Publishing, 1991.