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The Prince Chapter 24 Summary

Why Italian rulers have lost their states

  • These rules are a quick-start guide to ruling a kingdom. In just a few short years, you, too, can have all the prestige of a well-established ruler. Plus, people will love you more because they will be extra surprised that you didn't fail—just like people are amazed when babies do anything.
  • Enough of that. Let's talk about why Italy has been failing so hard recently.
  • We all know why. What is Machiavelli's number one rule? Have a strong army. What haven't they had? Any kind of decent army at all. Yet they are whining about how they lost their states because of "bad luck."
  • It's not luck, people. You should have been training an army.
  • Mr. Machiavelli gets himself pretty worked up about this.