Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May 3rd in 1469. He was born in Florence, Italy. Machiavelli was the author of The Prince, a book about how to become a successful leader. He wrote in dedication to the ruling family of Florence the Medici family, the book explained their goals not his. Machiavelli later tried running for office once the Medici family was kicked out of Florence but because The Prince gave him a bad reputation and he lost the election. The book The Prince was written in 1513, it challenged the generic rules that leaders follow to maintain power.

Machiavelli states in his book "Before all else, be armed." This quote is saying that if you focus on military than you will stay in power because everyone will fear you. This is similar to what President Bush followed during his presidency. He spent around 3 trillion dollars on the war in the Middle East when there were and still are many more problems within the U.S. such as education and health care.That shows that most of his focus was on the military therefore he was able to stay in power for quite a while. 

A quote from The Prince that I believe is bad advice for today's leaders is "hatred is gained as much by good works in by evil." This excerpt means that even if you do good things people will still hate and disagree with you so you mine as well just do bad things and get the same response. This is not fair to the followers at all, if all leaders did bag things then all environments would be unsafe and if a leader did a good thing people would still not approve. For example, if a leader got rid of all health care in attempt to save more money for education then many citizens would not be able to go to the doctors therefore more people would get sick, causing a unsafe environment and hatred towards that leader.

  A quote that would have been useful to Incas is "He must be the fox to discern toils, and a lion to drive off wolves." this quote means to rule you need to be brave and powerful but smart as well to succeed. The Incas had many more people but they were not as smart as Pizarro. Pizarro came up with a strategic  plan to get the Incas in a contained space for battle and they brought their advanced technology such as guns. These factors resulted in Pizarro conquering the Incas even though the size of their armies were drastically different.

http://www.ctbw.com/lubman.htm
http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/309037?terms=machiavelli++the+prince (ABC-CLIO)

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. He served as their leader from 1994 to 1999. Before he became president in 1962, he was convicted of sabotage and spent 27 years in prison! Mandela who is black, was arrested my the white government and due to racism Mandela was unfairly convicted. After he was let out of prison in 1990 he started to lead his party. Mandela helped South Africa become a multi-racial democracy which was a big step in their history. Nelson Mandela was a good leader because he understood his followers he new the black community and also the white because of his conviction. Back then in South Africa the blacks and the whites were distinctly separated most black people would not have known how to lead the white  successfully. Nelson Mandela was different because of his imprisonment, although he was unfairly convicted he did gain something from being in jail. All of Mandela's life he has tried to decrease violence in Africa and he also focused on the fight against AIDS which devastates a large percentage of the African population every year.