Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I THE COMING OF NECESSITY
- PART II BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN
- PART III SEIZING THE HELM
- PART IV INFORMAL ADVISER TO THE PRINCE
- PART V A PRINCE IN HIS OWN RIGHT?
- PART VI THE LESSER OF EVILS
- 21 1800 and After
- 22 From Fortune into Providence
- Conclusion: Hamilton Then and Now
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
21 - 1800 and After
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I THE COMING OF NECESSITY
- PART II BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN
- PART III SEIZING THE HELM
- PART IV INFORMAL ADVISER TO THE PRINCE
- PART V A PRINCE IN HIS OWN RIGHT?
- PART VI THE LESSER OF EVILS
- 21 1800 and After
- 22 From Fortune into Providence
- Conclusion: Hamilton Then and Now
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
There are times when fortune inflicts wounds that simply won’t heal, when the story of a life breaks into two distinct sections, a before and an after. Those who experience this sort of caesura discover that from a certain day on they are no longer the same person, they suffer an anguish they have never felt before, they discover personal resources they did not know existed, and they see the world and their fellow humans in a new and chilly light. They may find they are stronger; they may find that they are more vulnerable; in any case they find that they are different.
This is how a biographer describes the impact on Machiavelli of the events of late 1512.
Abandoned by its ally, Florence felt the wrath of France’s enemies, Pope Julius II and the Spanish, who aimed to oust Machiavelli’s patron, Piero Soderini and to restore the Medici family to power. At the end of August 1512, a force of five thousand hardened Spanish troops broke through the walls of Prato, twelve miles northwest of Florence. After the militiamen defending the city threw down their arms and ran, the half-starved Spaniards went on a rampage, killing several thousand people. Panic-stricken Florence yielded to the will of the Medicis. In mid-September, a general assembly, or parlamento, controlled by their supporters sent Soderini into exile and abolished the Great Council and the Nine Officials of the Ordinance and Militia.
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- American MachiavelliAlexander Hamilton and the Origins of U.S. Foreign Policy, pp. 251 - 264Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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