feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Prince/section_21_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Prince.chapter 24
feat_summary_id: chapter 24
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter 24", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201108110625/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/p/the-prince/summary-and-analysis/chapter-24", "summary": "If a new prince follows all of these principles, he will soon be as secure as a hereditary ruler, because if people find they are doing well in the present, they will not look for changes. But anyone who acquires a new state and then loses it through incompetence is disgraced. The Italian rulers who have lost their states did so because they lacked military power, made their subjects hate them, or were unable to defend against the nobles. They should not blame bad luck but their own laziness for their losses, because they did not make preparations, and when trouble struck, they ran away, hoping the people would restore them. A prince can only rely on defenses that he can personally control.", "analysis": "This chapter brings Machiavelli back to his discussion of Italy's political situation in his time, which he last treated in his discussion of military matters in Chapters 12 through 14. He specifically mentions the King of Naples and the Duke of Milan as rulers who have lost their power, but he is most concerned with Ludovico Sforza, whom Machiavelli regarded with contempt. Sforza provided a perfect example of how not to follow Machiavelli's precepts. He encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, and when Louis XII returned, the French deprived Sforza of his state and made him their prisoner. Machiavelli blamed him for many of Italy's troubles resulting from the foreign invasions. Frederick of Aragon , the King of Naples, is probably less fair as an example, because he was forced out of power by a secret agreement between Louis XII and Ferdinand II to divide Naples between them. In the face of two major powers, there was very little Frederick could have done to preserve his position. In particular, Machiavelli has harsh words for the laziness and indolence of the Italian princes, because an ideal prince must always be planning and maneuvering to avoid future disasters. Finally, Machiavelli returns to his theme of self-sufficiency: Relying on others is always a mistake, because others are out of your control. Only by controlling your own resources can you be really secure. Machiavelli takes up this theme more fully in Chapter 25. Glossary Philip of Macedon Philip V , king of Macedon. He was defeated in 197 B.C. by Titus Quintus Flaminius, a Roman general, at Cynoscephalae."}
text: 
  The previous suggestions, carefully observed, will enable a new prince
  to appear well established, and render him at once more secure and fixed
  in the state than if he had been long seated there. For the actions of
  a new prince are more narrowly observed than those of an hereditary
  one, and when they are seen to be able they gain more men and bind
  far tighter than ancient blood; because men are attracted more by the
  present than by the past, and when they find the present good they enjoy
  it and seek no further; they will also make the utmost defence of a
  prince if he fails them not in other things. Thus it will be a double
  glory for him to have established a new principality, and adorned and
  strengthened it with good laws, good arms, good allies, and with a good
  example; so will it be a double disgrace to him who, born a prince,
  shall lose his state by want of wisdom.
  
  And if those seigniors are considered who have lost their states in
  Italy in our times, such as the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan,
  and others, there will be found in them, firstly, one common defect in
  regard to arms from the causes which have been discussed at length; in
  the next place, some one of them will be seen, either to have had the
  people hostile, or if he has had the people friendly, he has not known
  how to secure the nobles. In the absence of these defects states that
  have power enough to keep an army in the field cannot be lost.
  
  Philip of Macedon, not the father of Alexander the Great, but he who
  was conquered by Titus Quintius, had not much territory compared to
  the greatness of the Romans and of Greece who attacked him, yet being a
  warlike man who knew how to attract the people and secure the nobles, he
  sustained the war against his enemies for many years, and if in the
  end he lost the dominion of some cities, nevertheless he retained the
  kingdom.
  
  Therefore, do not let our princes accuse fortune for the loss of their
  principalities after so many years' possession, but rather their own
  sloth, because in quiet times they never thought there could be a change
  (it is a common defect in man not to make any provision in the calm
  against the tempest), and when afterwards the bad times came they
  thought of flight and not of defending themselves, and they hoped that
  the people, disgusted with the insolence of the conquerors, would recall
  them. This course, when others fail, may be good, but it is very bad to
  have neglected all other expedients for that, since you would never
  wish to fall because you trusted to be able to find someone later on to
  restore you. This again either does not happen, or, if it does, it will
  not be for your security, because that deliverance is of no avail which
  does not depend upon yourself; those only are reliable, certain, and
  durable that depend on yourself and your valour.
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter 24
target: If a new prince follows all of these principles, he will soon be as secure as a hereditary ruler, because if people find they are doing well in the present, they will not look for changes. But anyone who acquires a new state and then loses it through incompetence is disgraced. The Italian rulers who have lost their states did so because they lacked military power, made their subjects hate them, or were unable to defend against the nobles. They should not blame bad luck but their own laziness for their losses, because they did not make preparations, and when trouble struck, they ran away, hoping the people would restore them. A prince can only rely on defenses that he can personally control.
feat_summary_analysis: This chapter brings Machiavelli back to his discussion of Italy's political situation in his time, which he last treated in his discussion of military matters in Chapters 12 through 14. He specifically mentions the King of Naples and the Duke of Milan as rulers who have lost their power, but he is most concerned with Ludovico Sforza, whom Machiavelli regarded with contempt. Sforza provided a perfect example of how not to follow Machiavelli's precepts. He encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, and when Louis XII returned, the French deprived Sforza of his state and made him their prisoner. Machiavelli blamed him for many of Italy's troubles resulting from the foreign invasions. Frederick of Aragon , the King of Naples, is probably less fair as an example, because he was forced out of power by a secret agreement between Louis XII and Ferdinand II to divide Naples between them. In the face of two major powers, there was very little Frederick could have done to preserve his position. In particular, Machiavelli has harsh words for the laziness and indolence of the Italian princes, because an ideal prince must always be planning and maneuvering to avoid future disasters. Finally, Machiavelli returns to his theme of self-sufficiency: Relying on others is always a mistake, because others are out of your control. Only by controlling your own resources can you be really secure. Machiavelli takes up this theme more fully in Chapter 25. Glossary Philip of Macedon Philip V , king of Macedon. He was defeated in 197 B.C. by Titus Quintus Flaminius, a Roman general, at Cynoscephalae.