Machiavelli's The Prince, Chapter III (first in a series of chapter III posts)
Chapter III: Concerning Mixed Principalities
New principalities present the greatest challenge to a new ruler. In new principalities, peasants change their rulers willingly in hopes of a better life, and this hope inspires them to resist new kings. However, the peasants are deceived by their fantasies, because experience dictates that life will go from bad to worse. The desire for change is bolstered by the ruler’s need to suppress the peasantry of his new lands.
In this way, a ruler has made enemies of all whom he has oppressed. Additionally, you are not able to satisfy your supporters in the new land because they want more than you can give, but you cannot take measures against these supporters because you feel grateful to them. Thus, a ruler must always be popular in a territory before he can conquer it.
When a new territory has a culture and language similar to that of the conqueror, the population is easier to control because the conqueror will cause few changes. If a king annexes a territory similar to his kingdom, he simply needs to eradicate the family of the former nobility and not alter laws or taxes, so the population remains unaffected and, therefore, will not resist the new king.
Updates to come later. It is somewhat difficult to understand Machiavelli, and even harder to explain him, so it takes a while to modernize the text.
There seems to be little of note in the news, with the exception of the elections, which everyone knows about already.
New principalities present the greatest challenge to a new ruler. In new principalities, peasants change their rulers willingly in hopes of a better life, and this hope inspires them to resist new kings. However, the peasants are deceived by their fantasies, because experience dictates that life will go from bad to worse. The desire for change is bolstered by the ruler’s need to suppress the peasantry of his new lands.
In this way, a ruler has made enemies of all whom he has oppressed. Additionally, you are not able to satisfy your supporters in the new land because they want more than you can give, but you cannot take measures against these supporters because you feel grateful to them. Thus, a ruler must always be popular in a territory before he can conquer it.
When a new territory has a culture and language similar to that of the conqueror, the population is easier to control because the conqueror will cause few changes. If a king annexes a territory similar to his kingdom, he simply needs to eradicate the family of the former nobility and not alter laws or taxes, so the population remains unaffected and, therefore, will not resist the new king.
Updates to come later. It is somewhat difficult to understand Machiavelli, and even harder to explain him, so it takes a while to modernize the text.
There seems to be little of note in the news, with the exception of the elections, which everyone knows about already.
posted by Chris at
10:33 PM
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