The Different Meanings of Power
Marco Polo, Niccolò Machiavelli, Bartolomé de Las Casas, Olaudah Equiano, and the Signatories of The Declaration of Independence define ideas of power and difference through their personal narratives or texts and the intentions of their writings. Primary sources that will be explored in this essay are Marco Polo’s The Travels of Marco Polo (1298) translated by Thomas Wright and William Marsden, the Venetian, Machiavelli's The Prince (1532) translated by W.K. Marriott, Bartolome de Las Casas’s A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1532) translated by R.Hewson, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) by Olaudah Equiano, and The Declaration of Independence (1776) by Signatories. …show more content…
His audience members are directly for princess or rulers. Its for the leaders of the countries that have conquered them. He provides an example of Louis XII who planned to take over Italy, the people supported Louis because they believed he could help them obtain Lombardy through his intervention. However, once King Louis was in power, he made many mistakes in which came to loss of his position. Machiavelli explained there errors Louis had made, “he destroyed the minor powers, he increased the strength of one of the greater powers in Italy, he brought in a foreign power, he did not settle in the country, and he did not send colonies.” These were all mistakes that led to the loss of Lombardy and the fall of his reign. Machiavelli’s text maybe very helpful or advantageous to leaders; however, he has underemphasized the people and their impact on the leaders. Las Casas criticized the spaniards for brutalizing the natives of the New World (America). He presented the injustice and the killings of the innocents to rationalize the Spanish. He starts by discussing the natives and how welcoming they were towards the Spaniards; this gave the Spaniards easy access to take over. They would steal, rape, or take the people as slaves and would kill innocent children along the
Marco Polo, Niccolò Machiavelli, Bartolomé de Las Casas, Olaudah Equiano, and the Signatories of The Declaration of Independence define ideas of power and difference through their personal narratives or texts and the intentions of their writings. Primary sources that will be explored in this essay are Marco Polo’s The Travels of Marco Polo (1298) translated by Thomas Wright and William Marsden, the Venetian, Machiavelli's The Prince (1532) translated by W.K. Marriott, Bartolome de Las Casas’s A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1532) translated by R.Hewson, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) by Olaudah Equiano, and The Declaration of Independence (1776) by Signatories. …show more content…
His audience members are directly for princess or rulers. Its for the leaders of the countries that have conquered them. He provides an example of Louis XII who planned to take over Italy, the people supported Louis because they believed he could help them obtain Lombardy through his intervention. However, once King Louis was in power, he made many mistakes in which came to loss of his position. Machiavelli explained there errors Louis had made, “he destroyed the minor powers, he increased the strength of one of the greater powers in Italy, he brought in a foreign power, he did not settle in the country, and he did not send colonies.” These were all mistakes that led to the loss of Lombardy and the fall of his reign. Machiavelli’s text maybe very helpful or advantageous to leaders; however, he has underemphasized the people and their impact on the leaders. Las Casas criticized the spaniards for brutalizing the natives of the New World (America). He presented the injustice and the killings of the innocents to rationalize the Spanish. He starts by discussing the natives and how welcoming they were towards the Spaniards; this gave the Spaniards easy access to take over. They would steal, rape, or take the people as slaves and would kill innocent children along the