The Prince

“The Prince” originally written for princes and rulers is a book written with monarchies in mind, describing how to rule in all different varieties of monarchies; from dynasties to newly developing monarchies. This book also goes into great detail of how to maintain existing monarchies or how to conquer and keep them under your rule. Older monarchies or dynasties are tougher to conquer and keep because if you cannot win the hearts of the people they will rebel to restore power to their beloved leader they watched grow in front of their eyes. Once conquered you must remember to have the people be partial to your conduct. You can rule with an iron fist or a soft heart but you must show strength while being sensitive to the people you now rule. This is very important as your army is never as strong as the people you conquer and you will need them on your side when to control you new land. When Louis the XII took over Milan he made this same mistake along with a few others that Machiavelli goes into detail about. When Louis conquered the land he promised the people of Milan that he will be a great leader and that they needed him. Once in power the people were not impressed and overthrew his rule to bring back their existing ruler. The people of Milan found that the grass was not greener and wanted to get things back to the way they were. Machivelli also speaks about that when taking over a foreign land that is unknown to you, you must move to that land to offset any upheaval. Moving to the land will give the people faith in you as a rule and will let you deal with any discrepancies face to face. If you cannot move to the land you must consider colonizing the land by taking the land from the people and giving to your own. Colonization will upset the natives but they will be powerless with no land or money from that land. You now have the power to make your colony strong while making your neighbors weaker (thus as the Romans did). If you do not colonize