Was "The Prince" Revolutionary?

There have been many works written throughout the years that been known as a revolutionary, but one of the most popular ones would be The Prince by Niccolo` Machiavelli. Although some may say that Machiavelli simply wrote down the "obvious" about the rules of being a good ruler, up until this time, no one had taken the initiative to write some of these controversial thoughts. Thoughts such as lying, cheating and stealing would be worth it in order to maintain power, and the ends justify the means. Throughout this book, Machiavelli states how things are in politics, and how they should be, hence making it revolutionary.

This book of political thought lays out the foundation of what a ruler would need to do in order to come to power, keep power, and keep the ruled people satisfied with them. Machiavelli starts his book by defining that there are two different types of states, a principality or a republic.

English: Cover page of 1550 edition of Machiavelli...

Statue of Niccolò Macchiavelli (Serie "the Great ...

The Prince

Since he has already defined the ideas behind a republic, he dwells on the idea of a principality. When telling of principalities, Machiavelli states that it is easier for a hereditary prince to keep the favor of the people then it is for a new one to gain it. The reason for this is that the hereditary prince is not required to rule much differently then the previous ruler, while a new ruler much change drastically, or they shall be overthrown as well. This would go along with the idea that people are not partial to change, if they don't have to. This idea is one that had never been brought up before, and many people realized that this was in fact truth.

Continuing his idea of how to keep authority, Machiavelli goes on to describe how to keep a mixed...