THE KINDS OF PRINCIPALITIES AND THE MEANS BY WHICH THEY ARE ACQUIRED
All states and all dominions that hold and have held power over men have been and are either republics or principalities. Principalities are either hereditary, in which case the family of the ruler has long been in power, or they are new. The new ones are either entirely new, as Milan was to Francesco Sforza, or they are, so to speak, members added to the hereditary possession of the prince who acquires them, as the Kingdom of Naples is to the King of Spain. The dominions thus acquired have been accustomed either to live under a prince or to be free; and they are acquired either by fortune or by ability.
-Machiavelli
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