Let’s become villain: Machiavelli’s legacy

Who would disagree that Machiavelli is one of the most controversial figures in human history? Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli would be just one of the millions o state officers who existed in the world, known to a handful of specialised historians if he hadn’t written “The Prince”.

Machiavelli lived was born on 4 May 1469 and died on 21 June 1527 and spent his life in Florence, Italy. During his life, Italy was not a safe and stable place; divided into city-states, it suffered acquisitive warfare which was waged by Popes. What is more, people and cities regularly lost power as a result of the competition among Spain, France and the Holy Roman Empire for regional influence and control.

In the period following the expulsion of the Medici family from power, Machiavelli worked as an officer of the Florentine Republic, in charge of diplomatic and military affairs. However, in August 1512, the Medici returned to the helm of Florence and Machiavelli was removed from office. The next year, the Medici accused him of conspiring against them, thus had him imprisoned and tortured for three weeks.

After his release, Machiavelli retired to his estate at Sant’Andrea in Percussina and spent the rest of his life there studying and writing political manuscripts and plays. What we are particularly interested here is a short book of his, known today under the title “The Prince”.

“The Prince” is a particularly short book devoted to the new governor of Florence Lorenco de Medici, with the hope that Machiavelli would be invited to return to his old office. The teachings of the book, which overlook the Christian values and recommend focusing on self-interest, provoked the governor’s angry reaction. The principles of the book became the base of what is known as Machiavellianism; “the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or general conduct”, according to the definition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

No matter how much it has been cursed, Machiavellianism has been widely used in Politics and Business as a method of winning!

Here is one very accurate documentary on Machiavelli, produced by BBC.