I doing a research paper with this prompt: How did Machiavelli’s political philosophy reflect the political weakness of Renaissance Italy? How did Machiavelli purpose to resolve those weaknesses?
Any information is much appreciated but I need sources to use the info in my paper!
Thanks Historians
No specific to machiavelli but ome of the largrst weaknesses of the italian states like florence,genoa,etc was that they relied on what were effectively mercenaries in times of war and generally lacked effective standing armies this became very clear with the invasion of charles of france because the condotierri units besides not being particularly trustworthy lacked the infrastrucutre and support availible to nation states to build and maintain artillery something which was coming to dominate renassaince warfare
Because of this italian states lacked the capability to effectively fight toe to toe against the the nation states of europe