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Machiavelli's Life And The Political Climate In Italy

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Describe Machiavelli’s life and the political climate in Italy while this book was being written.
Machiavelli was a bureaucrat under the Republican government before he lost his job to the supporters of Medici during 1512. At the end of 1513 or even the early 1514, the time period when Nicolo Machiavelli, wrote The Prince. During that time period, Machiavelli was seeking to regain his status in the Florentine government. Meanwhile, the Medici family had been driven from power in Florentine. In addition, during the time period when this book was written, Italy was not a united nation. The nation was divided into city-states. Furthermore, as in the political climate, there were more circumstances for a prince to struggle with maintaining his power among his state and establishing his dominion.

Identify and discuss three major themes in The Prince (look at chapter titles). …show more content…
The first major theme is principalities/ powers and fortune. In the first few chapters of The Prince, Machiavelli had mentioned principalities and powers a couple of times in his writing. Therefore, I believed that principalities of the prince and how the powers are held and kept to rule over men are important concepts throughout this book. Nonetheless, there are ability and fortune that mitigate in becoming a prince. Furthermore, the second theme that I have identified is hatred, to remain his power over his state, the prince must avoid hatred from his men, or else, it will cause him his downfall. Instead, the prince should establish his dominion and bring positive feelings for his people, win their affections toward him. The third theme is cruelty, when Machiavelli mentioned in chapter XVII, that it is much safer for a prince to show cruelty and be feared than

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