RISKy Business - Week 3 reflection

This week was again very busy and especially exciting as our Diplomatic Risk games were coming to a climax. Taking some severe hits to our territories this week by way of the hegemonic power, my team and I decided to band together with green and yellow to do anything possible to prevent the hegemon from winning. We began to work quickly to develop a strategy that involved us using our secret powers in conjunction and thinking ahead to what the "enemy" 's response would be. In the end, our teamwork and "at all costs" strategy seemed to make a severe dent and we almost defeated brown to cause our allied team to win. Unfortunately, we had to end our time playing, but it was a good experience and has obvious relevance to the class as a whole.

Reading Machiavelli following a fierce Diplomatic Risk battle was pretty interesting and allowed me to reflect a little bit on the concepts in The Prince. I also spent a little bit of my free time this week playing Sid Mier's Civilization V  with a friend. This is a real-time strategy world conquest video game similar to Diplomatic Risk but with methods of victory that include religious conversion, military conquest or economic wealth. This game in some ways made me think about the topics Machiavelli talks about, as the game factors in the idea of taking over new cities and the satisfaction/happiness level of citizens in annexed territory.

Remembering lessons from my high school AP European History class, I enjoyed the historical context of Machiavelli's writing and the discussion of the french kings and catholic popes. It allowed me to go back and review the events contemporary to his writing. I also am currently reading about the events of 1492 and the discovery of the New World for another class, which makes the writing of The Prince in 1513 a fascinating product of the same world. I look forward to discussing Machiavelli's writing and have come up with some theories of my own about his writing that I am looking forward to sharing in class.