Strengths And Weaknesses Of Renaissance Italy

The Italian Renaissance brought a new and stimulating attitude to the table, with the concept of modern and ancient times combining through art and architecture and a society that wasn’t theological or scientific but centered on civics, posing questions about how humans ought to be or do. Renaissance Italy had been divided since the fall of Rome and with the different city-states governed by a wide variety of governments politics was extremely weak during that time. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote one of the most important documents in Renaissance Italy and history in general, The Prince, which dictated how leaders acted around him and could be interpreted as a guide to how the leaders should be acting. This document would be used as a blueprint for the unification of Italy but also proved to be of use to modern politicians when applied to the world we see today. The political weaknesses in Renaissance Italy were

caused by the variety of governments ruling and Machiavelli hoped to resolve the issues with The Prince.
The different governments that ruled the city-states varied from dictatorships, oligarchies, monarchies, republics, and more and the differences were the root cause for the weak political system of Renaissance Italy. There was no universal institution of politics to hold the people together; each city-state decided how to govern themselves in different ways, causing political confusion throughout Italy. The Roman Catholic Church itself was corrupt with the shift to Renaissance Popes, where the Medici family had an influence. The Medici family was a long lineage of papal bankers, who offered “indulgences,” where those who had sinned could pay money to have their “sins rescinded.” The income they received from this corrupt scheme was massive and eventually contributed to their appointment of two popes to the church with ease as well as to the overall corruption of the church in general. After the French arrested the pope and moved the papacy Avignon by 1409 the church met at Pisa, Italy, hoping to fix the corruption and answer the question as to which of the two were the real pope but ended up electing another pope. Another council meeting was held in Constance where three things were to be accomplished: end the trifold schism of the papacy, get rid of heresy that the corruption of the papacy caused, and reform the church from top to bottom. This meeting led the three popes to resign and Martin IV was elected. The corruption of the Catholic Church didn’t help institute a strong political bond between all areas of Renaissance Italy. The variety of governments lead to citizens who didn’t care, which gave rise to mercenaries, or paid soldiers who Machiavelli commented on in The Prince; stating that a ruler should use local citizens who have a reason to fight for their land instead of mercenaries who are only there for the money and have no real loyalty to the leader. The people of Italy began to lose interest in the affairs of their own governments and the wars they were fighting, which further weakened the political system that was already damaged enough in the Italian Renaissance.
The Ancient Romans incorporated participation in politics into their society and it was common for people to have an interest in the affairs of their governments. Not only did they stress participation in politics but they also stressed citizen armies. Machiavelli alludes to their strategies when he suggests a leaders should use their local citizens to ensure loyalty to the land and cause of the wars they were fighting instead of relying on paid soldiers who were solely loyal to the money. The purpose of The Prince was to outline Machiavelli’s dream that one day Italy would behave like the Romans and specifically would utilize the loyalty of the citizen armies fighting for a patriotic cause and Italian dignity. The use of mercenaries not only reduced loyalty to the rulers who paid for them but also reduced patriotism and Italian dignity and participation in politics. Machiavelli’s dream had a huge impact on Italian Renaissance society and produced a lasting impact.
Machiavelli not only focused on the use of citizen armies but also detached politics from theology and morals.

He focused on what is done and not what should be done. The writings of Thomas Aquinas and other medieval philosophers assimilated God’s will in the government of man, deeply intertwining morality and theology. Machiavelli worked hard to break the two apart in The Prince, noting how rulers either broke or kept the faith, observed treaties or didn’t. He commented on what successful leaders did, mainly highlighting how they kept authority, alluding to new monarchies that came about in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Machiavelli said a leader must be courageous like a lion but be able to spot trouble and adjust to cunningly like a fox, that a leader would preferably be both feared and loved but if there could only be one it was better to be feared. The Prince provided an outline for how Machiavelli wanted to unify Italy, with a focus on the functioning of new monarchies that were constructed throughout Europe, including the Holy Roman

Empire.
Monarchies like the Habsergs in the Holy Roman Empire, Maximillian and eventually Charles IV, and in Spain with Ferdinand and Isabella as well as Charles I, the Valois in France and the Tudors in England (post War of the Roses). These successful states that Machiavelli saw promised law and order, loyalty to the dynasty through hereditary monarchy. They stressed that hereditary monarchies or divine right monarchies, were a just form of power and that all should accept its rule without resistance. The new monarchies also enlisted the help of the lower classes, something Machiavelli introduced and noted in the text, incorporating all groups of society into the business of their government. The Prince said that effective leaders should act in their best interests, whether they should break the faith or keep it, follow or disregard treaties, be merciful or ruthless, depending on the circumstances they found themselves in. Henry VIII is just one of the applications of The Prince in history, having had six wives and with his sixth requesting a divorce from the pope, one of the leaders who broke the faith after the pope wouldn’t grant his wish to divorce from his last wife.
Through the creation of The Prince, Machiavelli personally laid the foundations for the unification of Italy and aided in the resolution of political weaknesses in Italy through the allusion to other, successful governments of the time. His writings even apply to today, connecting to the controversial use of Blackwater, a private, paid military group, by the United States government in the Iraq war, something Machiavelli warned against, stressing the disloyalty of mercenary armies as opposed to locals (United States citizens). The divisive political systems of Renaissance Italy was aided by the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church which gave rise to The Prince and the humanist movement, changing from a god-oriented society. Without a strong, universal political system to hold the people together, politics were further weakened. Machiavelli wanted to drastically change the political system of Italy and hoped to orient it towards Ancient Rome where Italian dignity, participation in politics, and citizen armies were utilized to form effective government and politics. It was important for Machiavelli to produce his writing in order to reform the political workings of Italy and it’s impact has stood the test of time, unifying Italy in the 16th century and having modern day applications.