Chapter Summaries IV - VI The Prince Chapter Summaries IV - VI

The Prince Chapter 4 Conquered by Alexander the Great, the Kingdom of Darius did not rebel against his successors after his death. Why not? Now you're thinking: didn't Alexander the Great get land quickly and hold on to it even after his death? And weren't you just saying how difficult it is to hold on to new lands, Machiavelli? Well, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that.

There are two ways to govern a monarchy By a king and non-elected barons or by a king and his appointed ministers. (Barons are big-shot nobles or ministers, like the president's Cabinet, only hereditary and with their own land and armies.)

In the second one, the king is more powerful since he's the only person who has real power.

Turkey is one example of this kind of government. Because the king has all the power, a country like Turkey is pretty hard to conquer. There are no barons to help you by turning against the king. But on the plus side, once you do take over, ruling is a piece of cake because there are no barons to try to challenge you.

On the other hand, we have places like France, where there's a king and barons that go back a long time. It's super easy to get into one of these places, since a baron somewhere is probably pissed at the king and wants him gone. The problem is, those same barons can turn against you after the old king is gone, so it's hard to hold on to these sorts of kingdoms.

Back to Alexander Why was it easy to keep his lands? You guessed it: they were like Turkey and had no barons to complicate things.

The Prince Chapter 5 How to govern cities and states that were previously self-governing Now let's talk about conquering places used to governing themselves, like republics or democracies.

There are three ways to do this: (1) burn it all down (2) go live there (3) basically leave them alone but make them pay taxes and create a small government.

Got it? Now forget the last two, because those aren't going to work. You need to destroy these places. Republics are too feisty, and they don't seem to like the idea of being conquered by kings, oddly enough. If you don't burn it all down, they'll come back to bite you when you least expect it, even 100 years later.

The Prince Chapter 6 States won by the new ruler's own forces and abilities

Now on to totally new states with rulers who have never ruled before. In this case, whether things go good or bad is based on whether the new ruler is good at his job. True, there is some luck involved, but those guys who were just lucky didn't last long.

Let's talk about those guys who weren't "just lucky Let's talk about those guys who weren't "just lucky." Machiavelli starts talking about the big shots: Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus.

Just like any new ruler, these guys had a lot of trouble at first. The hardest thing is to establish a new type of government in an area, because everyone hates change at first—just ask those people starting petitions to bring back the old Facebook. But the real question you have to ask is this: does the new ruler have his own army? If not, well, you're out of luck.

None of these mythical greats like Moses relied on other people; they had armies backing them up and they weren't afraid to use them. Once all those people who didn't like you have been "dealt with" (that's code word for massacred), you can rest easy and kick back in your new kingdom. All this time, Machiavelli has been talking about fancy old leaders, but he has a slightly less fancy modern-day (for him, at least) example for all the people who will say that the examples are just fairy tales.

Hiero, the King of Syracuse followed Machiavelli's recommendations to the letter. He was lucky at first and was made king because people seriously needed a leader. After that, it was all hard work. He got rid of the old army, made a new one, forged alliances, and broke off the old ones, so in the end he was only relying on his own power. No wonder he was able to keep his new lands, even though he was a regular dude.