Discourses On Livy In Machiavelli's The Prince

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Discourses on Livy is Machiavelli’s book claiming that promoting a common good is the purpose of politics. In The Prince, Machiavelli gives his views on how a prince should rule, as in what his focus should be on, what he should try to do, and what he should believe. While Machiavelli believes that he is right about his arguments, the question of whether it really is for the common good or not comes up. Machiavelli claims that crime is a sufficient way to gain power, that a prince should only focus on his militia, and that generosity will do harm, but they are not for the common good because all of those things are hurtful to most people instead of a few. According to Machiavelli, committing a crime is an acceptable way to get power and…show more content…
He believes that preparing his militia and knowing how to organize a war is on the top of the list of things a prince should know how to do. “A prince, therefore, must have no other object or thought, nor acquire skill in anything, except war, its organization, and its discipline. The art of war is all that is expected of a ruler.” (47) He truly believes that knowing every aspect of war is what’s most important about being a prince. If you want to keep your rule over land or fight to gain new land, Machiavelli believes war is completely necessary, which sounds awful, but he’s not wrong. If a prince is skilled in war, he will definitely not lose his land. His soldiers will be trained extremely well in defending their territory and their knowledge will certainly be deeper than others. He will also be able to easily win new land because his soldiers are strong in battle and can take over other armies. Machiavelli also adds that knowing one’s geography and history will help with war also. Learning about the geography of your land will give you an advantage to knowing where an army relatively is and figuring out exactly where to place your army to defend or attack. Knowing your history can help as well. When you study past rulers who were successful or failures with their armies, you will learn what strategies for organization and execution work and which ones don’t. You can then apply the strategies you want to your own army and easily win your battles. Knowing every aspect of war and your army is definitely helpful because you will never lose your land and you can acquire more when you think you can, but it is obviously not the only thing a prince should know. A prince should know about how politics works and what works specifically for the land he rules or else he could possibly be overthrown by his own citizens when they are unhappy with his choices
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