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Machiavelli: North Italy
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To Machiavelli, a writer and statesman, Florentine patriot, and original political theorist, all the chatter about chads would be nothing more than the whisper of a butterfly's wings. Born in Florence, Italy, in 1469, little is known of his early years, but he might have been involved in overthrowing the government of Girolamo Savonarola in 1498. He was then appointed head of the new government's Second Chancery, and secretary of an agency concerned with warfare and diplomacy (1498-1512). During there years he traveled on several missions in Europe for the Republic of Florence and helped to set up a standing army, which reconquered Pisa in 1509.
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To come to grips with the political theories of Machiavelli one will have to first understand that the politics of his era were unbelievably corrupt. Most of Italy's, northern neighbours, politically and militarily speaking, had their acts together. Italy, being Italy, did not; she was conquered and put under the control of foreigners, time after time. Machiavelli perceived his role as being one who might be able to show the light to the Italian leaders who had been, for centuries, hopelessly at odds with one another. (England, France and Spain, after long struggles of their own, had all united, each under the rule of one powerful leader, the chief of the lords and barons, the king of the country.) Machiavelli's goal was to bring to the attention of the leaders of Italy, Italy's condition; and how Italy's unity was essential; and how this unity might be achieved. As for the northern barbarians: well, there was only one way to defeat barbarians, -- and that was by the use of barbarian tricks.
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At this moment Machiavelli intervenes. He was conscious of the change which had come over Italy and Europe. He was aware that the old strongholds of medieval thought must be abandoned, and that the decaying ruins of medieval institutions furnished no basis for the erection of solid political edifices. He felt the corruption of his country, and sought to bring the world back to a lively sense of the necessity for reformation. His originality consists in having extended the positive intelligence of his century from the sphere of contemporary politics and special interests to man at large regarded as a political being. He founded the science of politics for the modern world, by concentrating thought upon its fundamental principles.
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The remaining years of Machiavelli's official career were filled with events arising out of the League of Cambrai, made in 1508 between the three great European powers already mentioned and the pope, with the object of crushing the Venetian Republic. This result was attained in the Battle of Vaila (now usually known as the Battle of Agnadello), when Venice lost in one day all that she had won in eight hundred years. Florence had a difficult part to play during these events, complicated as they were by the feud which broke out between the pope and the French, because friendship with France had dictated the entire policy of the Republic. When, in 1511, Julius II finally formed the Holy League against France, and with the assistance of the Swiss drove the French out of Italy, Florence lay at the mercy of the Pope, and had to submit to his terms, one of which was that the Medici should be restored. The return of the Medici to Florence on September 1, 1512, and the consequent fall of the Republic, was the signal for the dismissal of Machiavelli and his friends, and ... put an end to his public career, for, as we have seen, he died without regaining office.
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Niccoló Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy. Little is known of his early life, although he once described his background: "I was born in poverty and at an early age learned how to endure hardship rather than flourish." Niccolò's father, Bernardo di Niccolò di Buoninsegna, belonged to an impoverished branch of an influential old Florentine family. Bernardo was a lawyer and he had a small personal library that included books by Greek and Roman philosophers and volumes of Italian history. Bernardo died in 1500, Machiavelli's mother, Bartolomea de' Nelli, had died in 1496.
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Machiavelli lived from 1469-1527 and was born in Florence, Italy. As well as an Italian statesman, and a Florentine patriot, he was the head of the Second Chancery at the age of twenty-nine. Nicolo was a senior civil servant but when the republic was overthrown, he was imprisoned and tortured. Machiavelli was released in 1513 and retired to work on his major writings. He had a preoccupation with military affairs.
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