HIST 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Firm Foundation
Document Summary
Niccol machiavelli was a diplomat from florence, italy, whose writings and philosophies were heavily based off of the words of ancient philosophers like aristotle and plato. He had very bold opinions about how a ruler should act and execute his power, and displays such ideas in a piece of literature, the prince in 1513, which was like a manual for future leaders to follow. In chapter xi, he states that princes" goals should be to mimic/follow the examples set by great rulers of the past like moses, romulus, cyrus, and theseus, even if it means setting unlikely goals. Machiavelli influenced great political thinkers and was named the founder of modern politics . Machiavelli believed that we could control/write our own destiny and was a humanist. Keeping those viewpoints in mind, machiavelli used this new humanism in presenting his ideas in the prince".
