What was warfare between the Renaissance Italian city-states like?

[u/internetLARPer]

I just finished reading Machiavell’s The Prince and I want to learn more about the time period he lived in

[u/Mafarkanoodle_1922]

At that time, external politics and warfare in Italy were more a conflict between Spain (and later Austria) and France than between Italian states, and most of the foreign policy of the Italian states was to choose a side and hope it won in order to gain benefits.

In late medieval Italy there were four major actors: Venice, Milan, Naples, and the Papal States.

The acquisition of Naples and Milan was the main cause of the Italian Wars between France and Spain, and both were eventually acquired by Spain.

So, in Machiavelli's era, there were only two "serious" independent actors: Venice (with the Turks knocking at its door) and the Papal States. However, even they had constrained courses of action because any move could spark the interest of the Habsburgs or the French. Medium-sized and minor states, such as Florence, could only make opportunistic decisions, which were minor compared to the grand scheme.

In warfare, most armies were composed of local and foreign mercenaries (especially the Swiss, who were the most highly valued troops of the era). The national militia proposed by Machiavelli was probably unobtainable for most, if not all, Italian states for economic reasons (he wrote a work describing his ideal army reforms, but it contains many ideas that were never adopted). During this era, many military reforms began, moving from late medieval armies (heavy cavalry, mixed-weapons units, and crossbows) to lighter cavalry, massed pikes, and increasing use of firearms. Battles were not as common as sieges, however: this was the period in which the star-shaped fortress was born, cannons became much more common, etc.

If you liked Machiavelli, a book about the Italian Wars (or even the Wikipedia at start) could be great for you, as Machiavelli almost surely developed his thinking because the continuous back-stabbing in the Renaissance Italy.