Project Gutenberg #1232
The Prince
Niccolò Machiavelli
1532Machiavelli's political classic, prepared section by section from Project Gutenberg HTML.
Project Gutenberg #1232 Public domain in the United States Cover source Local typographic cover created for MojiMori from public-domain source metadata
Section 8 of 35
CHAPTER I. HOW MANY KINDS OF PRINCIPALITIES THERE ARE, AND BY WHAT MEANS THEY ARE ACQUIRED
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Chapter 8 — CHAPTER I. HOW MANY KINDS OF PRINCIPALITIES THERE ARE, AND BY WHAT MEANS THEY ARE ACQUIRED Central question What is the basic taxonomy of political rule? Main argument Machiavelli distinguishes...
All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or principalities.
Principalities are either hereditary, in which the family has been long established; or they are new.
The new are either entirely new, as was Milan to Francesco Sforza, or they are, as it were, members annexed to the hereditary state of the prince who has acquired them, as was the kingdom of Naples to that of the King of Spain.
Such dominions thus acquired are either accustomed to live under a prince, or to live in freedom; and are acquired either by the arms of the prince himself, or of others, or else by fortune or by ability.