Fidel Castro vs. Machiavelli- Intro to Political Theory

Introduction
      Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy, the third son of attorney Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli, and his wife, Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli. The Machiavelli family was believed to have descended from the old marquesses of Tuscany, and to have produced thirteen Florentine Gonfalonieres of Justice. Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era, which was a time where popes waged war, and the wealthy Italian city-states might anytime fall, piecemeal, to foreign powers such as France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and political-military alliances continually changed, featuring condottieri who changed sides without warning, and weeks-long governments rising and falling.
      Machiavelli was rigorously trained for manhood by his father, which consisted of Machiavelli being taught grammar, rhetoric and Latin. He did not learn Greek, even though Florence was at the time one of the centers of Greek scholarship in Europe. In 1494, he entered Florentine government service as a clerk and as an ambassador; later that year, Florence restored the republic expelling the Medici family, who had ruled Florence for some sixty years. He was in a diplomatic council responsible for negotiation and military affairs, undertaking, between 1499 and 1512, diplomatic missions to the courts of Louis XII in France, Ferdinand II of Aragon, in Spain, and the Papacy in Rome, in Italy proper. Moreover, from 1502 to 1503, he witnessed the effective state-building methods of soldier-churchman Cesare Borgia, who was then enlarging his central Italian territories. Between 1503 and 1506, Machiavelli was responsible for the Florentine militia, including the City’s defense. He distrusted mercenaries, preferring a politically invested citizen-militia, a philosophy that bore fruit. Several years later, Niccolò Machiavelli was deposed from office due to his significant role in the republic's anti-Medici government. By 1513, was accused of conspiracy, and arrested. Some of these events led...