Anti-Machiavel

(noun)

A 1740 essay by Frederick the Great consisting of a chapter-by-chapter rebuttal of The Prince, the 16th-century book by Niccolò Machiavelli, and Machiavellianism in general. Frederick's argument is essentially moral in nature. His own views appear to reflect a largely Enlightenment ideal of rational and benevolent statesmanship: the king, Frederick contends, is charged with maintaining the health and prosperity of his subjects.

Related Terms

Examples of Anti-Machiavel in the following topics:

  • Frederick the Great

    • In 1739, Frederick finished his Anti-Machiavel, an idealistic refutation of Machiavelli but as opposed to promoting more democratic principles of the Enlightenment, Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism.

  • Anti-Qing Sentiment

  • Rise of Anti-Soviet Sentiment

  • The First Stuarts and Catholicism

    • By the 1620s, events on the continent had stirred up anti-Catholic feeling to a new pitch.
    • In November 1621, led by Sir Edward Coke, they framed a petition asking not only for a war with Spain but for Prince Charles to marry a Protestant, and for enforcement of the anti-Catholic laws.
    • The failed attempt to marry Prince Charles with the Catholic Spanish Infanta Maria (known as the Spanish match), which both the Parliament and the public strongly opposed, was followed by even stronger anti-Catholic sentiment in the Commons that was finally echoed in court.
    • When Charles ordered a parliamentary adjournment on March 2, members held the Speaker down in his chair so that the ending of the session could be delayed long enough for various resolutions, including Anti-Catholic and tax regulating laws.  

  • German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship

    • The third secret protocol of the Pact was signed on January 10, 1941 by Friedrich Werner von Schulenberg, and Molotov, whereas Germany renounced its claims to portions of Lithuania, only a few months before their anti-Soviet Operation Barbarossa.
    • Some time later the new Russian revisionists including Russian historians Alexander Dyukov and Nataliya Narotchnitskaya, whose book carried an approving foreword by the Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, described the pact as a necessary measure because of the British and French failure to enter into an anti-fascist pact.

  • The Diplomatic Revolution

    • Prussia, the leading anti-Austrian state in Germany, had been supported by France.
    • Maria Theresa's diplomats, after securing French neutrality, actively began to establish an anti-Prussian coalition.

  • Decline of the Tang Dynasty

    • The rebellion spanned the reigns of three Tang emperors before it was finally quashed, and involved a wide range of regional powers; besides the Tang dynasty loyalists, others involved were anti-Tang families, especially in An Lushan's base area in Hebei, and Arab, Uyghur, and Sogdian forces or influences, among others.
    • Many impoverished farmers, tax-burdened landowners, and merchants, as well as many large salt smuggling operations, formed the base of the anti-government rebellions of this period.

  • Peronism

    • For example, his anti-clericalism did not strike a sympathetic chord with upper class Argentinians.
    • Admirers hold Peron in esteem for his administration’s anti-imperialism, non-alignment, and socially progressive initiatives.

  • Cardinal Mazarin and the Fronde

    • Cardinal Mazarin, for years de facto the ruler of France, continued earlier anti-Habsburg policies, was critical to establishing the Westphalian order of sovereign states, and laid the foundation for Louis XIV's absolutism.
    • Mazarin continued Richelieu's anti-Habsburg policy and laid the foundation for Louis XIV's expansionist policies.

  • Rationalism

    • In the past, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, the term 'rationalist' was often used to refer to free thinkers of an anti-clerical and anti-religious outlook, and for a time the word acquired a distinctly pejorative force (...).