The Prince, a political treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli. It is a short treatise on how to acquire power, create a state, and keep it, The Prince represents Machiavelli’s effort to provide a guide for political action based on the lessons of history and his own experience as a foreign secretary in Florence.The book promotes instrumentality in the creation of states—a philosophy typified by the adage "the ends justify the means." Violence may be needed for the effective establishment of new legal institutions and power stabilisation. Machiavelli referred to his treatise as De Principatibus (“Of Principalities”) while writing it.