# Chapter I — How Many Are the Kinds of Principalities and in What Modes They Are Acquired6

All states,7 all dominions that have held and do hold empire over men have been and are either republics or principalities. The principalities are either hereditary, in which the bloodline8 of their lord has been their prince for a long time, or they are new. The new ones are either altogether new, as was Milan to Francesco Sforza,9 or they are like members added to the hereditary state of the prince who acquires them, as is the kingdom of Naples to the king of Spain.10 Dominions so acquired are either accustomed to living under a prince or used to being free; and they are acquired either with the arms of others or with one’s own, either by fortune or by virtue.11