Niccolo Machiavelli was devious and ruthless. The type of person who wrote a handbook for politicians, which shaped politicians into the people we know them as today, devious and ruthless. This handbook, The Prince, is his legacy and the reason why he’s regarded as “the father of modern political history”.
The Prince, as I mentioned before, is a sort of handbook for politicians. It centers around the statement “the ends justify the means”. It says that the most vile, backstabbing things rulers do are justified by the horrible things the people being ruled do. This was the first and is the most famous of his writings but certainly not the last. He wrote poems and plays, as well as another manuscript on politics. The Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy poses as commentary on the work of Livy, a famous historian of the Roman Republic, but is said to be an “exposition on the principles of republic rule”. This book was written over a long period of time and like The Prince it was published after his death. The Prince was originally written to be Machiavelli’s ticket back into power in the Florentine government but Lorenzo de’Medici never read it and his political status was never regained.
Niccolo Machiavelli was power-hungry and ruthless. However, he died before he could fully regain his for status in the Florentine government. He did a number of odd jobs for the Medici family but nothing did a greater service then his death. It was after his death that his writings were published and it shaped modern politics into what it is today.
Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1496. He grew up and when he was 24 he saw the trouble the French invasion caused and decided to do something about it. He became the secretary for the Ten of War and confirmed, by the Great Council, as the second chancellor of the Republic. The Ten of War was the group the took care of Florence’s military matters. Through this he was sent on various missions, becoming a diplomat who, as Bio.com says, “enjoyed shocking his associates by appearing more shameless than he truly was”. His time as an Italian diplomat was after the temporary fall of the Medici family and stays in this position till 1512. During his time as a diplomat he was imprisoned multiple times