Approaches to the justification, methodology and exercisers of violence and its relation to the sovereign in three different contexts are covered. The Broken Spears by Aztecs, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, and Levithan by Hobbes are the three contexts discussed.
In Broken Spears, violence needs to be considered in two different aspects. First one is the violence among the natives of Mexico. The sovereign of the natives was called Motecuhzoma who had the authority to order violence when necessary, as happened to the magicians. Motecuhzoma ordered the killing of magicians’ families, including their children and wives, along with the request of razing their houses just because they could not explain what bad omens meant . On another
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According to him, using violence is a part of the nature of the people; and it could be used for various reasons or for various gains . Since safety does not exist for anyone, the natural state of the people needs an adjustment to establish it. This adjustment proposed by Hobbes is gathering all the power in one man who can establish common peace . This is a contract between the people and the sovereign and it enables the sovereign to merge his body with the body sovereignty. This model legitimizes the power of the sovereign without including the god’s will into the equation but by simply defending such power is the source of establishing peace. The power being discussed is the right to punish without being punished with the same standards and the right to decide when to make war or peace . In Hobbes’ approach, violence as a tool is centralized on one man as a mechanism to bring peace by punishing; however, violence cannot be used against the sovereign himself or to the people who are outside of this contract