Machiavelli and the Ideology of the Offensive: Gunpowder Weapons in The Art of War

@article{Cassidy2003MachiavelliAT,
  title={Machiavelli and the Ideology of the Offensive: Gunpowder Weapons in The Art of War},
  author={Ben Cassidy},
  journal={The Journal of Military History},
  year={2003},
  volume={67},
  pages={381 - 404}
}
  • Ben Cassidy
  • Published 11 April 2003
  • Psychology, History, Political Science
  • The Journal of Military History
Historians have often claimed that Niccolò Machiavelli shunned the use of gunpowder weapons, both field artillery and hand-held weapons, because of their absence in the ancient world which the Italian loved so dearly. Machiavelli, however, did not reject the use of gunpowder weapons, but gave them a secondary role in his military scheme. The reason for this was that, in Machiavelli's time, reliance on gunpowder weapons necessitated defensive tactics in battle, while Machiavelli believed that an… 
View via Publisher
3 Citations

3 Citations

The Prince and His Art of War: Machiavelli’s Military Populism
In chapter XIV of The Prince, Machiavelli warns present and prospective princes not to neglect the art of war and to be a “professore di questa arte.” By exhorting the prince to be an expert in the…
A new reassessment of the importance of gunpowdeweapons on the battlefields of the Wars of the Roses
TLDR
The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access, and users may access full items free of charge.
Sites of Military Science and Technology

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 30 REFERENCES
The art of warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages: From the eighth century to 1340
Part 1 Historiographical problems: weaknesses of modern military historians in discussing medieval warfare the strength of medieval armies the combat limitations of the clerical sources secular and…
The History of Italy
In 1537 Francesco Guicciardini, adviser and confidant to three popes, governor of several central Italian states, ambassador, administrator, military captain--and persona non grata with the ruling…
The Origins of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to Clausewitz
Introduction: Machiavelli and the classical notion of the lessons of history in the study of war. Part 1 The military school of the Enlightenment: Montecuccoli - the impact of proto-science on…
A History of Warfare.
He examines every branch of warfare in its history, psychology, metallurgy, genetics, logistics, archaeology, tactics and strategy...He is as much at home in the Empire of Babylon as he is on the…
The Habsburg–Valois wars
God Almighty raised up these two great princes sworn enemies to one another, and emulous of one another’s greatness; an emulation that has cost the lives of two hundred thousand persons, and brought…
Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars 1638-1651
1. The Actualities of War 2. The Drum's Discordant Sound 3. A sight - the saddest that eyes can see 4. Naming the Parts 5. A Soldier's Life is Terrible Hard 6. The Epitome of War 7.The Miserable…
Going to the wars
In his autobiography, Max Hastings records his experiences reporting from the battlefields of Northern Ireland, Biafra, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Middle East, Rhodesia and other trouble spots. It is…
The Art of War in Italy 1494-1529: STRATEGY
This authoritative essay on the strategy, tactics, and military literature of the wars that represent the transition from medieval to modern warfare provides an ideal companion volume to Sir Charles…
Machiavelli and Guicciardini. Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence
In Felix Gilbert's skilled analysis, the figures of Niccolo Machiavelli, whose writing changed the way people think about politics, and Francesco Guicciardini, whose History of Italy is one of the…
The civil wars : a military history of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638-1660
Preface. J. P. Kenyon: A Personal Appreciation by Geoffrey Parker. List of Contributors. List of Maps. Introduction. 1: The Background to the Civil Wars. 2: Civil War in Scotland. 3: Civil War in…
...
...