The End of the Renaissance^77
The pensive Niccolo Machiavelli.
capable of threatening social
order.
The devoted Florentine Nic
colo Machiavelli was among
those seeking to understand
why the once proud and inde
pendent city-states of Italy
now seemed virtually helpless
before the invasion of foreign
powers. Machiavellis view of
politics reflects his experience
living in Florence during these
tumultuous decades. The tur
moil in Florence led him to
write his Histories in 1494,
which described the decline of
the city-states. Influenced by his experience in government, Machiavelli,
who had served as a Florentine diplomat at the court of the king of France
and in Rome, believed himself to be a realist. He considered war a natural
outlet for human aggression. But he also preferred the resolution of disputes
by diplomacy. He believed that the absence of “civic virtue” accounted for
the factionalism within and rivalries between the city-states. By civic virtue,
Machiavelli meant the effective use of military force.
In 1512, the Medici overthrew the Florentine Republic, returning to
power with the help of the papal army and that of Spain. Following the
discovery of a plot, of which he was innocent, against the Medici patri
archs, Machiavelli was forced into exile on his country estate outside of
the city. Florence had changed. A Medici supporter wrote one of the family
heads: “Your forefathers, in maintaining their rule, employed skill rather
than force; you must use force rather than skill.”
A year later, Machiavelli wrote The Prince (1513). In it he reflected on
the recent history of the Italian peninsula and offered a pessimistic assess
ment of human nature, marked by his belief that a strong leader—the
prince—could arise out of strife. By making his subjects afraid of him, the
prince could end political instability and bring about a moral regeneration
that Machiavelli believed had characterized antiquity. Drawing on Cicero,
he studied the cities of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.
Machiavelli can be considered the first political scientist, because his works
reflect a systematic attempt to draw general, realistic conclusions from his
understanding of the recent history of the Italian city-states. This preoccu
pation with the past in itself reveals the influence of the Renaissance.
Machiavelli put his faith in political leadership. Regardless of whether
the form was monarchical or republican, he believed that the goal of govern
ment should be to bring stability to the city. A sense of civic responsibility