Relationship Between Benjamin Franklin And Machiavelli

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. He was the first general Postmaster of the United States as well as the first diplomat to France and England and greatly increased America’s relationship with these countries. Both Machiavelli, the Italian politician who wrote The Prince, and Sun Tzu, the Chinese war philosopher who wrote The Art of War, write about what it means to be a good leader. Although, Benjamin Franklin was a great leader he could have still received some advice from Sun Tzu and Machiavelli.
From an early age Benjamin Franklin was very interested in politics and government. Due to this, he was a firm believer in civic duty and public service. Benjamin Franklin was a great example of a citizen who does their …show more content…
Franklin was an amazing diplomat and believed in talking out differences and conflicts. During the American Revolution Franklin was assigned to enlist the French army to help them fight against England (Allison 156). His popularity and diplomatic skill convinced France to recognize American independence and conclude an alliance with the thirteen states in 1778. This alliance helped America win the Revolutionary War. Consequently, Machiavelli states that war can be a good thing. War can help build alliances, increase land and wealth and help solve issues and conflicts outside the country (Machiavelli 97). On the other hand, Sun Tzu believes that a country only fight when necessary. He takes Franklin’s policy one step further. Tzu states only after discussing an issue and trying every way possible to resolve it a country can resort to violence. During war a country loses people, resources and money while fighting a war so, “a country should only fight when they have to” (Sun Tzu 67). But, what if a conflict can’t be resolved? One needs to be able to resort to violence. Benjamin Franklin could have learned this principal from Machiavelli and Sun