The Prince Ch. 20: Why Fortresses Are Usually

Summary

Machiavelli lists the tricks princes use to hold a state: disarm subjects, keep towns split by faction, foster enmities, win over early distrust, build fortresses, or tear them down. He will not give one rule for every state, but he can reason about each tool.

New princes never disarm their people; they arm them. Weapons turn distrusted men loyal and give you adherents instead of mercenaries. Disarming signals cowardice or disloyalty and breeds hatred. When you add a province, disarm its men except your early supporters, then soften them over time and keep armed strength near your old capital. Factions are worse than useless today: divided cities invite the enemy, as Venice learned after Vaila when one party seized power. Fortune also raises enemies so a new prince can climb on them; some even craft animosity to crush for renown.

Men who were hostile at the start, if they need your help to survive, often serve with fierce loyalty because they must cancel your bad opinion by deeds. Pandolfo Petrucci of Siena ruled through former distrusts. Beware secret favours from the discontented: they are harder to keep than former loyalists of the old regime who became your enemies.

Fortresses help or hurt by circumstance. Build them if you fear the people more than foreigners; skip them if the reverse. Francesco Sforza's Milan castle has done more harm to his house than any disorder. The best fortress is not being hated, because walls will not save a prince the people want gone; foreigners will assist a risen populace. Catherine Sforza, Countess of Forli, held out once after her husband's murder, but when Cesare Borgia came with the people against her, the fortresses failed. Machiavelli praises the builder and the demolisher alike and blames only the prince who trusts walls while letting hatred grow.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Reading Security Versus Trust

Leaders often reach for walls, NDAs, and faction games when what they really need is loyalty from the people who can betray them. Machiavelli walks through disarming, arming, factions, and fortresses, then closes with Catherine Sforza holding a fortress once and losing when the people and Cesare Borgia turned against her, because the best fortress is not being hated.

Ask whether your defenses protect you from outsiders or from your own base, and to treat popular goodwill as the structure that outlasts stone.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: The Disarmed Subject

Some princes, so as to hold the state securely, have disarmed their subjects. The act looks like caution. It is also a public sentence. A man whose weapons are taken has been told that he is the danger inside the walls. Factions and fortresses come later in the chapter. This first move has already taught the people what the prince believes they are.

Continue this thoughtThe Best Fortress Is Not Being Hated

Coming Up in Chapter 21

Esteem comes from great enterprises and a fine example, not from cautious invisibility. Ferdinand of Aragon is Machiavelli's living proof: he rose from a minor king to the foremost ruler in Christendom by chaining bold deeds that kept opponents from ever uniting.

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Chapter 20

Why Fortresses Are Usually a Trap—And Where Real Security Actually Comes From

ARE FORTRESSES, AND MANY OTHER THINGS TO WHICH PRINCES OFTEN RESORT, ADVANTAGEOUS OR HURTFUL? 1. Some princes, so as to hold securely the state, have disarmed their subjects; others have kept their subject towns distracted by factions; others have fostered enmities against themselves; others have laid themselves out to gain over those whom they distrusted in the beginning of their governments; some have built fortresses; some have overthrown and destroyed them. And although one cannot give a final judgment on all of these things unless one possesses the particulars of those states in which a decision has to be made,…

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Why Fortresses Are Usually a Trap—And Where Real Security Actually Comes From

Summary

Why This Matters