History Main / EasilyConqueredWorld

* ''{{Half-Life}} 2'' makes reference to the 7 hour war in which Earth forces surrendered to the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Combine]]. In this case, the implication is less that Earth was easily conquered than the Combine were nigh-unstoppable, though Combine rule does seem to go to pot remarkably quickly once the [[OneManArmy One Free Man starts swinging his crowbar around]].
** To be fair, in-story everybody blames this on the fact that the humans who negotiated the surrender were really just trying to boost their political careers at everyone else's expense. Breen certainly did well for himself.
** Plus the force that conquered earth isn't the same one that Freeman fights in the game, rather being the local militia fighting under their banner. A little less professionalism should be expected.
** Also, the Combine at least have a weak spot by the time Freeman shows up. Blow up the Citadel and it all goes south for the Combine (course you have to get to it first, but still). In the Seven Hour War, humanity didn't even have the capacity to strike at the Combine's own territory (in another dimension, BTW). Sliding really puts a big advantage on the side of the invader. Hell, the G-Man waited decades to plant Freeman at that very moment for a pretty good reason. Possibly because the Combine's central government had begun to consider Earth as "mission accomplished" and began moving their eyes elsewhere, letting the G-Man insert his own ace in the hole to take out that there super-important tower. Thus further evidence that the G-Man is really Tzeentch and a complete {{badass}} {{chessmaster}}.
** The diminished Combine forces on Earth are explicitly trying to re-establish communications with the main Combine empire after the destruction of City 17's Citadel. It took the main empire seven hours to subjugate humanity last time - and that's because there were militaries to subjugate. As Eli points out, Earth wouldn't last seven minutes if they succeeded.

*** That, and any armies and/or bodyguards would be Toads, who are the defintion of useless in any fight, unless one of them is a playable character.

* [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys France.]] I kid, I kid. Although the [[WallBanger Maginot Line was the wrong way around]], it more or less fulfilled its function in preventing a German invasion over their shared border even though it didn't prevent the Germans from plowing through Belgium instead.

** First, Cortés's "army" was in reality an expeditionary force, many historians agree that had the Aztec emperor Moctezuma reacted differently (more swiftly to be precise) to the arrival of the Conquistadors, he could have defeated them easily as shown in the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Noche_Triste Noche Triste Battle]]'' (of course that would not have prevented the Spaniards from returning on full force later), instead [[WhatAnIdiot he mistook them for gods and offered them gifts of gold]] which only piqued Cortés's interest, [[WallBanger then he invited them as guests]] [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy into his castle]].

** For the Spanish would have been impossible and pointless to try maintain the colony. Franco was dying, the shadow of a second civil war was very very present and the UN had called Spain to back off the territory since the 60's...didn't hope either that basically the USA and the URSS were (politically) supporting the independence and decolonization in the entire world. So long story short it would only pissed off the big meanies, possibly triggered a 2nd civil war and all for a bunch of desert which independence movement were actually fighting for freedom years before.

* Basically the entire universe in ''PowerRangers''. Name the most embarrassingly pathetic villain you can think of. Chances are pretty damn good that at some point, he or she has conquered a planet, or even a galaxy. Earth managed to avoid this from 1992 to 2008 (having five to ten protectors each year, several of whom are with the government), but became easily conquered during the TimeSkip between Jungle Fury and RPM, presumably because nobody was watching. ([[WallBanger Especially surprising]] since many older Rangers still had their powers., and Earth was close allies with a number of other planets and organizations (SPD, Triforia, Aquitar, KO-35...) of both more than sufficient military force and sufficiently different computer systems as to be uninfectable).

* In the HERO game ''{{Champions}}'', there is a supplement describing various One AlternateUniverse was labeled Wimp World, where everyone is born a coward. Buildings are only one or two stories because lots of people are afraid of heights. Dangerous jobs are done with robots or not done at all. Wars are rare (when someone gets up the courage to declare one). People marry the person that scares them the least. It also states that if a SuperVillain were to arrive in this world, even a stupid one, they could easily conquer this world by just muscling his way into UnitedNations.

** According to StarTrekDeepSpaceNine, Bajor started out as one of these- a relatively isolated planet of {{Actual Pacifists}}. However, the Cardassians soon found out that [[LaResistance they wouldn't stay that way for long.]]

* Subverted in the ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Errand of Mercy". The Organians are such ActualPacifists that they let the Klingons invade their planet without protest, ignoring Kirk and Spock's attempts to get them to fight back. However, at the end of the episode the Organians reveal that they are [[SuperweaponSurprise actually very powerful]], it's just that they're vehemently opposed to interference. They could have put a stop to the Klingons at any point, but don't until both the Klingons and the Federation basically force their hand.

*** To elaborate a little more: The Ardennes was covered by Fort Eben-Emael, one of the most heavily-fortified military posts in the world at the time which would have taken a conventional army many months and much heavy artillery to reduce. The Germans managed to negate that through the then-novel tactic of [[DeathFromAbove dropping paratroopers on top of the fort]], essentially giving them what amounted to a free pass through the area.

** Recently averted in the ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' books after New Krypton: The United States finally got the hint after being invaded multiple times by hostile aliens (including a recent Kryptonian invasion from the Phantom Zone), and now they have a military project destinated to combat Kryptonians. Specifically, the 100,000 Kryptonians on New Krypton that were recently gotten out of the bottle city of Kandor. Recently, in the end of the 'Codename: Patriot' storyline: [[spoiler:A rogue Kryptonian tried to kill the president of the United States (its a long story) and was gunned down by a Squadron of Anti-Kryptonian elite soldiers and the Human Defense Corps.]]

* Subverted in the ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Errand of Mercy". The Organians are such ActualPacifists that they let the Klingons invade their planet without protest, ignoring Kirk and Spock's attempts to get them to fight back. However, at the end of the episode the Organians reveal that they are actually very powerful, it's just that they're vehemently opposed to interference. They could have put a stop to the Klingons at any point, but don't until both the Klingons and the Federation basically force their hand.

* ''BattlefieldEarth'', the book differs largely:
** The humans use alien tech, not human tech.
** They use nuclear weapons.
** The humans mount a surprise attack on a single, poorly defended, outpost.
*** The outpost only has a handful of guards and the humans outnumber them.
** [[spoiler:The humans manage to destroy the alien homeworld . . . but it was by accident.]]

* In ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'', the human armies are easily defeated by an incredibly more advanced alien race. This does not fit this trope. HOWEVER, generations later the human cavemen manage to destroy incredibly more advanced alien race with centuries-old less advanced human weaponry.
** It's explained slightly better in the book, but still silly.
** '' Oh yeah, and these cavemen use the same tech that LOST to aliens. Spoony spoofed this by claiming Psychlos fart nukes.

** '' Oh yeah, and these cavemen use the same tech that LOST to aliens. NostalgiaCritic spoofs this by claiming Psychlos fart nukes.

** According to StarTrekDeepSpaceNine, Bajor started out as one of these- a relatively isolated planet of {{actual pacifists}}. However, the Cardassians soon found out that [[LaResistance they wouldn't stay that way for long.]]

** According to "StarTrekDeepSpaceNine", Bajor started out as one of these- a relatively isolated planet of {{actual pacifists}}. However, the Cardassians soon found out that {{LaResistance they wouldn't stay that way for long.}}

** '' Oh yeah, and these cavemen use the same tech that LOST to aliens. [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Nostalgia Critic]] spoofs this by claiming Psychlos fart nukes.