Machiavelli's Rule Over Italy

1107 Words5 Pages
During the fifteenth century, Italy was constantly struggling to stay strong and unified. This gave Barbarians, France, and Spain a perfect opportunity to invade Italy and battle for control. Since Italy did not have one unified, cenralized government, there was much confussion and chaos throughout the country. For over fifteen years, the French and Spanish battled eachother to dominate Italy. The Italian writer and poet, Niccolo Machiavelli, wrote a world famous book titled The Prince, which gave suggestions on how a proper ruler should lead his country. If Machiavelli was the ruler of Italy during the fifteenth century, he would have defended his country and restored the success and power they once had. Machiavelli became a politician at Florence in 1498, which was four years after the Medici family had been expelled from the city. Machiavelli loved politics, and was always traveling between Italy, Germany, and France. However, with the French defeat and Spanish victory over Florence in 1512, Machiavelli was sent into exile. Forced to give up politics, he decided to write books, which reflected on his governmental ideas. Machiavelli ended up writing one of the most famous books in the Western world, titled The Prince. Through his book he spoke about how order should have been maintained and how a ruler ought to have behaved in Italy during his time. His advice for rulers covered a broad range of subjects, including reputation, cruelty, defense, and generosity. One of his ideas was how it was better for a prince to be feared than loved by his people. If a ruler was too well liked and loved, he could easily have been taken advantage of which could eventually lead to disorder. If his people feared the prince, order would be maintained in his state because the community would be scared to revolt or try to take control of the prince. A second idea of
Open Document