Mixed Princedom In Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince

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The Prince, written by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a controversial work of literature that offers the frightening reality of how any government is truly ruled. It varies from the popular patriotic belief that our nation does no wrong, and produces the idea that greed, lies, and sin are necessary evils to a functioning nation. During Machiavelli’s time there were many transitions of power, as mankind was still settling in, and it seemed necessary to him to outline steps for the new rulers, the De’Medici family, as to gain favor. He had also hoped to influence the De’Medici rulers to form a government that was just and constant. In his hopes to influence the De’Medici, Machiavelli outlined various forms of government for the new rulers to consider …show more content…
The negative aspects of ruling a mixed princedom is that the prince cannot ever attain full power and they must inevitably hurt those he has conquered. The prince presiding over a mixed princedom can never gain full power due to his ties with the nation who appointed him ruler. This does not allow for very much wriggle room, as the prince will be under constant scrutiny of the stronger state. The prince must also hurt those he has conquered in an effort to weaken them in order to disallow any rebellion. This strongly entails the slaughter of any powerful political families, so the common people do not retain any loyalty to the past rulers. Also, by killing them in one swift move it removes the focus of the prince’s evil deeds, onto other actions of the prince. However, a positive aspect is that if the prince is acquainted with the proper knowledge on how to run the mixed principality he may rule a strong, successful reign. The prince will have an extraordinarily facile conquering of the territory if their customs are similar, and if they are not, the prince could easily stay among his people and learn from experience. A mixed princedom is also a much cheaper alternative than sending an army to conquer the land as Machiavelli writes, “A prince does not spend much on colonies, for with little or no expense he can send them out and keep them there” (Machiavelli 9). An …show more content…
Machiavelli made it clear that he believes that religious powers should not coincide with political or governmental powers, because they are completely separate entities. Machiavelli writes, “they are sustained by orders that have grown old with religion, which have been so powerful and of such a kind that they keep princes in the state however they proceed and live”(Machiavelli 45). The path to ruling such an ecclesiastical state is difficult, requiring great fortune or merit, by either proving yourself to the god or being chosen by chance. However, once selected to be of power, the prince can essentially do whatever he wishes, because the people reason that what the prince does is the wish of the higher power. An example of such a nation would be Egypt, a nation which deceived the residents into believing in a hereditary ecclesiastical government. Such rulers were called pharaohs and they were thought to be the embodiment of one of their many gods, Horus. Once born, the pharaoh-to-be lived a life of luxury, and as he grew up and transitioned into essentially complete power he was able to rape, kill, and continue living his life of abundance. The pharaoh was untouchable due to his god-like stature, so he received his life by sheer chance, but was rewarded with power and freedom to do as he

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