Welcome to Chapter V!
In the fifth chapter of Machiavelli's book, The Prince, we are confronted with three main concepts which are put forth by Niccolo Machiavelli, in his book dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici who would become duke of Urbino in 1516.
Lorenzo De Medici
“When those states which have been acquired are accustomed to living at liberty under their old laws, there are three ways of holding them…” Machiavelli then goes on to list the three ways of holding them, which he says are either despoiling them, going to live their in person, or allowing them to live under their own laws.
I would disagree with the premise that you could hold a free city by despoiling them. Most revolutionaries rebelled against their rulers because the rulers were stealing from the people. The American, French, and Russian revolutions were all started because the people were being despoiled by their rulers. In America they were unfairly overtaxed and coerced to house soldiers, in France they had no food to eat and felt mocked by their rulers, and in Russia people were dying from starvation while their nobles lived like kings. All this happened while the rulers of those nations enjoyed the fruits of their subjects labor. In response to this, the people rose up and the rulers were either killed, forced to abdicate, or forced to release that part of the country or colony from the nation.
Now, I could somewhat agree that by living there in person you could hold the free state. Imagine the state of the American Revolution if King George III had gone to live there in person. It would have given a huge moral boost to his supporters and soldiers, and many of the colonial dissenters would have felt more pressure and perhaps a loss of moral.
However, the king going to live in the provinces of rebellion during the French and Russian revolutions would not have helped much. In fact, the French revolution was started in the city where the king lived, to further prove my point.
So, I would say that some free states could be held by living in the actual state youself.
Could one hold a free state by allowing the to live under their old laws? No, because their old laws will become outdated and they will need new ones. The best solution to this would be to let the state in question live under laws of their choosing, and pay tribute to you. That way they could be satisfied and you could remain their ruler and make a profit.
“And whoever becomes the ruler of a free city and does not destroy it will be destroyed by it.”
This would seem to contradict Machiavelli's earlier statement. As he said earlier, to hold a city accustomed to liberty you could allow them to live under laws of their choosing.
“In republics there is greater life, greater hatred, and more desire for vengeance; they do not cast aside the memory of their ancient liberty.”
Unfortunately this is not always true. Let us again take a look at the American example.
America began beautifully, but with much hardship. People fought for their rights, blood was spilled, and men died on those battlefields. The fires of freedom and of liberty were strong, and men from all walks of life recognized and fought for these individual freedoms.
Then it would have been unthinkable to forget what we have fought to hard to gain, but already in America we are seeing more and more people stop caring about their rights and become apathetic. It has become an attitude of, “I care not what the government does so long as I am well off.” Some feel that their wealth or wellbeing is threatened, so they sacrifice their liberties to the ruler who promises to give them the most money or valuables. In some cases, people have forgotten their ancient liberties out of fear.
Fear of terrorism, fear of the unknown, fear of crime. Time is beginning to show us that in times of fear, the people will forget their ancient liberties and flock to a ruler that pledges to protect them.
So, unfortunately this is untrue. People will cast aside their ancient liberties if they can be bribed or coerced by their fear into doing it.
Well, this concludes our analysis of chapter V. Chapter VI will be posted soon. If you enjoyed this, upvote it! If you have a critique or suggestion, let me know in the comments. I'm active fairly often and will try to answer you as soon as I can.
Cheers friends, and remember, keep Steeming!
