"All the states, all the dominions, under whose authority men have lived in the past
             and live now have been and are either republics or principalities." In Machiavelli's, The
             Prince, timeless keys to a successful principality are examined. The keys are understanding
             human nature, respecting that nature, and reaffirming that successful leadership can exist
             in the same fashion yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
             Machiavelli's perspective of human nature is founded on the principle that people
             in general don't want their culture changed by an outside influence. Machiavelli
             demonstrates in the book that the nature of people is to defend who they are. When "the
             prince" attempts to change their culture in any way the subjects will do any number of
             things to crush this attempt or even change the leadership. If a prince uses force to try to
             change people this will lead to hostility, because as Machiavellis says, "they remain,
             defeated, in their own homes." This underlying fact will lead to a rebellion of some sort.
             One way this rebellion can happen is when a powerful foreigner invades the principality.
             The now "defeated" people will join this powerful foreigner, in hopes that their culture
             will now be respected, to dethrone the prince. When the prince tries to use force to
             control the people it only creates enemies. Machiavelli explains this aspect of human
             nature when he writes, "he harms the whole state by billeting his army in different parts of
             the country, everyone suffers from this annoyance, and everybody is turned into an
             enemy." On the contrast if a prince allows the people to keep their customs Machiavelli
             states that the people will remain content when he writes, "For the rest, so long as their
             old ways of life are undisturbed and there is no divergence in customs, men live quietly."
             Another natural tendency o...