This task will prompt you to investigate a specific aspect of a literary work from the colonial era and its relationship to a particular topic in history. to complete this task, you must complete the following steps: select a particular topic that is relevant to the colonial era and the age of reason, and form a thesis that explores an aspect of that topic. research your topic and identify relevant information that supports your position. draft your historical investigative report and organize your research findings. produce a final draft by proofreading and revising your initial drafts. review the writing process and detailed instructions for this assignment. upload your assignment as a word-processing document to the grade activities panel on the left-hand side of the screen. be sure to submit the assignment for grading.

Read this paragraph from chapter 5 of the prince. there are, for example, the spartans and the romans. the spartans held athens and thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. the romans, in order to hold capua, carthage, and numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. they wished to hold greece as the spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. so to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. and he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. and whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the florentines. what idea is stressed in the passage? the desire for liberty the establishment of an oligarchy the dismantling of an acquired state the tendency toward rebellion