Machiavelli, the author of the classic document The Prince, spends a great deal of the story emphasizing on the point that in order for a prince to be a good ruler, it is better to be feared by his people than liked for too much of a certain emotion could result in unrest in his province. Throughout the first few chapters of the book, Machiavelli lays out the groundwork for his claim by giving his advice to a new prince on how to maintain composite principalities- or how to control a territory in which the prince is not familiar with the people his is ruling. Machiavelli states that no matter how strong a ruler is, he will always need the favor of his people to rule effectively for if he does not have that, he would face the risk of several…show more content… In chapter 12, Machiavelli describes that the two most important things a king must possess to have a strong state is good laws and a good army, which essentially, go hand in hand with one another. It is vital though that the prince command his own army for if he doesn’t or fails to correctly, his kingdom will never truly be safe from outside invaders. Commanding his own army also allows the king to provide his people with a sense of security but, since Machiavelli claims it is better to be feared than liked, a king could instill a sense of fear in the community even easier than he could secure them. Although I believe Machiavelli’s thesis to be correct from the standpoint of a leader, I don’t believe that some of the extents his philosophy has been taken to by other rulers is horrendous. For example, Ivan the Terrible was…show more content… He witnessed the expulsion of the Medici family in 1494 as well as the invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. Machiavelli also served as a diplomat to Pope Julius, as well as head of the Second Chancery and secretary to the Council of Ten for War but something that influenced him even more than all the years he worked in the Florentine politics, was the establishment of his son, Cesare Borgia as the Duke of Romagna. Borgia was known as a cunning, cruel and evil ruler who was hated by many people throughout the empire but in the eyes of Machiavelli, his son possessed all the traits needed by a ruler in order to unify Italy. When Machiavelli was finally dismissed from the Florentine politics office, he began to write several stories but interrupted them all to write The Prince. I believe that Machiavelli’s experience in the Florentine world of politics, his son’s experience as Duke and his own personal experiences of poor ruling make him an expert on the topic of the correct style of ruling by