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Essay on Ethics - Uses of fortresses in The Prince
Right through his career Machiavelli sought to institute a state competent of resisting overseas harass. His writings are apprehensive with the main beliefs on which such a state is founded, and with the means by which they can be implemented and maintained. In his most eminent work, The Prince (1532; trans. 1640), he describes the technique by which a prince can get hold of and preserve biased power. This study, which has time and again been regarded as a defense of the authoritarianism and oppression of such rulers as Cesare Borgia, is based on Machiavelli's principle that a ruler is not bound by conventional principled norms. In his outlook, a prince should be concerned just with control and be bound only by rules that would lead to success in political actions. Machiavelli believed that these rules could be discovered by deduction from the political practices of the time, as well as from those of earlier periods.
By using examples from Rome, he shows that their difficulties are not similar as those of princes who rule through inheritance. He generalizes and offers some conclusions based on information discussed previously. Princes use unusual means to maintain and organize their domains. Some deactivate their people, others put up fortresses, and still others have destroyed fortresses. Each case must be considered on its own merits, but Machiavelli will try to make a few generalizations. A new Prince has never disarmed his subjects. Instead, he has often given them arms with which to fight for his cause. In this way, the Prince's subjects become his partisans. All subjects cannot be armed, and those who receive arms will recognize the importance and honor of the distinction, and support the Prince all the more. Further, the Prince will be able to deal more effectively with the rest, since they lack power..................
