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Machiavelli The Prince Essay

417 Words2 Pages

Machiavelli’s The Prince presents a guide of certain qualities of the ideal political leaders such as, kindness towards the citizens, advocates preservation of one 's custom or policy, and having excellent control over territory they acquired. Firstly, Machiavelli presents a point that citizens will not tolerate the ill-treatment from the Prince after he deceived them the first time. “Because those who had opened the gates to him, finding themselves deceived in their hopes of future benefits, would not endure the ill-treatment of the new Prince. Therefore, the Prince should initially be kind to his citizens and satisfy them no matter how powerful he is. “For, although one may be very strong on armed forces, yet in entering your province one …show more content…

“Preserving in other things the old conditions, and not being unlike in customs, will live quietly together, as one has seen in Brittany, Burgundy...and the people will easily be able to get amongst themselves”. Thus, it is important to alter less of the of the laws and taxes imposed by the previous lords. “That the family of their former lord is extinguished; the other, that neither their laws nor their taxes are altered, so that in a very short time they will become entirely one body with the principality. Therefore, to take over other states, a few things need to be considered. Ultimately, Machiavelli advises the Prince to reside on the state he conquerors in order to control disorders before it gets worse. “Most real helps would be that he who has acquired them should go and reside there. This would make his position more secure and durable, as it has made that of the Turk in Greece, who, notwithstanding all the other measures taken by him for holding that state, if he had not settle there, would not have able to keep it up”. Thus, to control the states, he must have full involvement in his home state and his conquered state. Machiavelli’s The Prince is one of the most important books of political theory ever published in the western world; presenting the qualities of the ideal political leader should possess, such as, kindness towards

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