law breakers in a cruel fashion that led to people hating Borgia. To create a feeling of fear for punishment rather than hatred for the prince Borgia decided to punish his minister for all to see. “One morning, Remirro’s body was found cut in two pieces on the piazza at Cesena, with a block of wood and a bloody knife beside it. The brutality of this specticle kept the people of the Romagna at once appeased.” Finally, once control has been established the prince is now obligated to defend the people. This only comes through a strong military. Machiavelli believes that the military is essential to help create friends for the prince, form trust from the people, and avoid attempts from foreign lands to invade his principality or citizens to overthrow his government. Machiavelli writes that, “a prince should assume personal command and captain his troops himself. Experience is shown that only princes...achieve solid success.” Though these keys were expressed by Machiavelli over 450 years ago they are most definitly applicable today, and in the future. In examining the 20th century two leaders have seemingly emulated the ideas of Machiavelli, Adolf Hitler and Mao Tse-Tsung. Hitler understood the nature of the German people, which allowed him to eventually rise to power, by one vote. By exploiding the vulnerability of his comrads in the post-World War 1 era he appealed to their needs. Once in power he used the minority as an example that he should be feared which at the same time allowed him to gain the trust of the majority. Hitler stands alone in history as being an individual that was able to justify horrid acts in the minds of his people. The same people that formed an army and nearly succeeded in conquering the European continent. Hitler possessed the three keys of understanding, controlling, and defending, and as hard as it is to say he was a successful leader in the 20th century. A leader who didn’t u...
