History Main / FightingForAHomeLand

* This is the main motivation for [[spoiler:the vampires]] in ''Manga/{{Shiki}}'', which aids in making them sympathetic to some degree (and creating a GreyAndGreyMorality in the series).

!!Examples:

[[folder:Literature]]
* OlderThanFeudalism This is the plot of Xenophon's ''Literature/{{Anabasis}}''. And it's TruthInTelevision, since Xenophon's March ''actually happened''.
* The Golden Company in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. Made up of exiles, their one true dream is to be able to return to Westeros, the country of their ancestor's origin, and make a home for themselves. They're portrayed as fairly honorable for mercenaries, having never [[spoiler: until recent events]] broken a contract.
* A general theme in Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series is that soldiers and mercenaries aren't in the life for glory; they just have no other way to earn enough money for some land and a house of their own.
** The Tedral "companies" are the remnants of a people whose homeland was conquered. They became mercenaries to get the land back, but over the years, the goal went from ''the'' land to ''any'' land... and any means. Karse hired them to fight Valdemar, thinking they had nothing to lose, but they were routed and proceeded to pillage their way back though their employer's country.
** Valdemar itself was founded by a group of political refugees from [[TheEmpire the Eastern Empire]].
** The Kaled'a'in also briefly play this role in ''Mage Wars'' after the destruction of their homeland by the Cataclysm. Split into three groups, one by distance and the other two by irreconcilable differences over the role of magic in their lives, they each go in search of a new homeland. Each does eventually find what they seek, and it's revealed in increments over ''Mage Winds'' and ''Mage Storms'' that all of this was deliberately engineered by the gods in an attempt to set up the conditions to avert the return of the Cataclysm three thousand years later.
* ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' by Creator/DavidDrake. When Hammer first formed the Slammers he did so on the understanding that the mercenaries would be granted citizenship on the planet they were hired to defend. Their employers reneged on the promise so he took the unit off planet and turned it into one of the top mercenary units in the galaxy. However, they always remembered the broken promise and waited patiently for a chance to finally get a homeland for themselves.
** In one short story Colonel Hammer comes home and takes over as a military dictator.
* The sci-fi novel ''Literature/WhiteWing'' by Gordon Kendall has humanity joining a ColorCodedForYourConvenience [[TheFederation Federation]] fighting an evil alien race responsible for the destruction of Earth. All the good colors were already taken, so the homeworld-less Terrans got stuck with the non-color of White, hence the title. Terrans in the novel are all warriors sworn to avenge the destruction of their homeworld and mercenaries earning money to terraform 'Wing Moon' into a New Earth.
* In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novels, Gaunt rescued the regiment from Tanith shortly before it was destroyed. Gaunt explains that he was promised the first planet that he conquered in the crusade and offers to let them all muster out there. (Alas, it looks like FailureIsTheOnlyOption; the new bosses will never let Gaunt conquer a planet, or admit it if he did.)
* Jerry Pournelle's ''Literature/FalkenbergsLegion'' story ''Sword and Scepter''. After securing the freedom of the planet New Washington, the title legion receives a land grant from the government to settle down.
* TheReveal of the Creator/FrederickForsyth novel ''Literature/TheDogsOfWar'' is that the titular mercenaries conquered [[BananaRepublic Zangaro]] to give the dispossessed tribe they fought for in the prologue a home rather than deliver it to the CorruptCorporateExecutive who hired them.
* The dwarves in ''Literature/TheHobbit'' are on a quest to reclaim their ancestral kigndom, taken centuries ago, from the dragon Smaug.
* The arrival of the Edain in the west and their [[TheAlliance alliance]] with the elves in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''. They are escaping what is implied to be the servants of Morgoth in their old lands.
* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series, first there's [[spoiler:[=SkyClan=]]], after they are exiled from the other Clans when their territory is destroyed by humans. Then it's [[spoiler:all the other Clans, many, many years later, when the ''rest'' of the forest starts to be torn down. At least the other Clans had a general idea of where to go based on a sign from their deceased ancestors; [=SkyClan=] had no clue.]]
* ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' has the Lunar ex-cons and their descendants fighting their jailers and the entire Earth for recognition as an independent entity. The revolutionary cabal starts the whole thing for ecological reasons and pushing the patriotism button is a key part of the plan. However, most Loonies just think of Luna as "the rock", a prison, not something to be loved. It takes pretty harsh treatment by the Authority to get the Loonies revved up enough to fight and die, but by the end, even Prof is teary-eyed and dreaming of Lunar flags blowing in the breeze...
* ''[[Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy Dabog]]'' has the [[TheEmpire Earth Alliance]] soldiers treat their upcoming surprise invasion of the LostColony Dabog in this manner, their opinion of the Dabogan colonists being something along the lines of "Who cares what they want? They owe us!" Each soldier and SpaceNavy officer participating in the attack is promised resettlement to Dabog. The unannounced invasion starts with the nuking of two major Dabogan cities. [[spoiler:When the Dabogans manage to successfully rout the invading forces, the Earth Alliance fleet admiral order the planet thoroughly nuked as a lesson to the other colonies, sparking a decades-long [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression Galactic War]]]].
* The Imperial Prussian remnants in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' are struggling to restore the pre-1918 German Empire, so they can finally return home and return the rightful Kaiser to the throne.
* In the ''Literature/{{Sandokan}}'' series, Sandokan and the survivors of the Tigers of Mompracem in ''Quest for a Throne'', ''Sandokan Fights Back'' and ''Return to Mompracem'': after being chased out of Mompracem in ''The King of the Sea'', the Tigers search for a place to call home. Subverted in the end: while they conquered Assam in ''Quest for a Throne'' (it happened that Yanez's wife had a claim to that throne) and took back Sandokan's ancestral homeland in ''Sandokan Fights Back'', they can't find a place to call home, and as soon as the British gives away Mompracem they reconquer it from the Sultan of Brunei.
* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Gelila Wongel, a new student at an evil WizardingSchool, says that she only joined the school so she could gain the power needed to rebuild the Ethiopian Empire so she can live there and rule it as her ancestor Seble Wongel did.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* The German and Italian antifascists fighting for the Republic in ''VideoGame/COD2SpanishCivilWarMod''. [[spoiler: Mario and a few other Italian soldiers become this after deserting from the Volunteer Corps and joining the Republican forces.]]
* This is what drives Ulysses in ''Videogame/FalloutNewVegas''. The problem is, he doesn't think any of the current major powers are worth following. Inspired by the way the Courier singlehandedly [[spoiler:brought about the Divide's destruction]], Ulysses wants to forge his own nation [[spoiler:with nuclear fire.]] A Courier with a high enough Speech skill can talk down Ulysses from this destructive course of action. Ulysses then regards the Courier as someone with the "shadow of a nation, the hope of the people."
** A more benign example would be the Minutemen of the Commonwealth wasteland in ''Videogame/Fallout4''. They already have their homeland, but this place being a part of the Fallout world, there's quite a few monsters, mutants, raiders and larger factions messing with poor people only trying to make a living. The Minutemen was a militia protecting the settlements in and around Boston, but due to [[WeAREStrugglingTogether internal strife]], the Minutemen you find in [=FO4=] are reduced to a small group. Joining the Minutemen during the main quest allows you to retake the Commonwealth for the people, reestablish trade routes and stop the rest of the larger factions from messing with the people.
* The New Conglomerate rebels in ''Videogame/PlanetSide'', who are fighting for freedom and a home on an alien planet [[LostColony after the colony was cut off from Earth]]. The [[TheEmpire Terran Republic]] [[TheRemnant remnant]] on the other hand, simply want to bring everyone back into the fold and reestablish contact with Earth, while the [[MachineCult Vanu Sovereignty]] wants humanity to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence whether [[TranshumanTreachery they want to or not]]
* The Zortroa Kinship of ''VideoGame/WildARMsXF'' is portrayed as a ProudWarriorRace whose homeland was torn from them by a larger nation. They've been working as mercenaries ever since. They work against the party because the antagonists have promised to return their holy land to them.
* Outer Heaven of ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' was (at least originally) this, a nation built for soldiers to ensure that they always had new battles to fight and never lost their purpose in life.
* This is why some quarians seek a war with the geth in ''Franchise/MassEffect'', due to the geth occupying the quarian homeworld. Others (perhaps rightly) believe this would just make the quarians go from endangered to extinct. An added complication is that the geth only took the homeworld in self-defense-- they were created as a labor force, and when they began to show self-awareness the quarians panicked and tried to wipe them out. Naturally, all that accomplished was the kind of uprising they had hoped to prevent. [[spoiler:The sad thing is, the quarians never needed to fight for it. The geth never wanted to wipe out the quarians and would be all too happy to share their homeworld with them. The third game reveals that the original war wasn't even one of self-defense. The geth were fighting to protect ''other quarians'', those who supported the geth, from the quarians who wanted the geth shut down.]]
* The Dalish [[OurElvesAreDifferent elves]] in the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' universe are trying to reclaim their past, after their homeland was destroyed by humans (twice). ''Inquisition'' reveals that [[spoiler:the Elves destroyed their first homeland themselves in a civil war]]. A sidequest reveals that the second time they lost their homeland [[spoiler:was sparked by a horrible misunderstanding in which both elves and humans were at fault.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}''. Your race's planet is burned while you are out testing your brand new colony fleet. You then set off towards your original and long forgotten homeworld, fighting all that oppose you and making use of whatever resources and allies you can find on the way.
** The [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] reveals that this is the original reason for the Hiigarans' exile. Back when they were TheEmpire, the Hiigarans used one of the Great Hyperspace Cores to devastate the Taiidani homeworld. After they lost their Core, along with most of their fleet, the Taiidani retaliated and took Hiigara for themselves, since they were now short a homeworld.
* The Advent from ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'', who were exiled from their homeworld 10000 years ago by the Trade Order for 'deviant' behavior, basically not conforming with the Trade Order worlds' culture and practicing what they considered to be taboo. Now, they've returned with a vengeance, with advanced technology and honed psychic abilities, to try and reclaim their desert homeworld and destroy their past tormentors.
* ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' is filled with this. The Tasen just want a planet to call their own to seek refuge from the Komoto, so they go to what turns out to be their homeworld, [[EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Earth]], [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up the surface]], and then are surprised when one of the few remaining humans decides to [[GenocideBackfire fight them]] for her homeworld in turn. Then the Komoto show up and they all have to defend the planet against them.
* The ''Resistance'' ExpansionPack of the original ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'', featuring the titular resistance fighters of the Soviet-occupied country of Nogova.
* According to the translated lyrics of the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' [[OminousLatinChanting theme song]], this is what [[spoiler: Tabuu]] is doing.
* The crew of the titular ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}'' spend two games fighting to take their home planet Cera back, after PACT effortlessly conquers it at the start of the first game.
* After dealing some damage that [[spoiler:[[Manga/LinebarrelsOfIron Deus Ex Machina]]]] didn't ask for in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsUX'', [[Anime/AuraBattlerDunbine Shou Zama]] gets pumped and he says that while the [[spoiler:Tokyo he once knew is gone]], he isn't going to let the world that's become his home now end up being memorialized in such a dystopian fashion.
* The Charr of ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' wage war on Ascalon because it was originally their territory before humanity drove them north. After the Searing, the surviving Ascalonians also fall into this category as they're trying to reclaim a destroyed land. The [[LaResistance humans of Ebonhawke]] continued to fight to restore Ascalon for centuries after the Charr resettled it, but by ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' only a rebel faction continues due to a peace treaty.
* The Exiles of ''VideoGame/WildStar'' have all been driven off their homeworlds, and seek to make the legendary planet of Nexus their new home. Understaffed, with equipment that is literally falling apart, and the largest, most dangerous empire in the Galaxy after their collective head, there are no lines they are unwilling to cross.
* ''VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable: The Gears of Destiny'' reveal that what [[spoiler:[[NobleDemon Lord Dearche]]]] truly wants [[spoiler:for herself and her minions]] is a place that they could live in where they could finally be free. In the end, [[spoiler:they find a planet they could call home in Eltria]].
* The ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}'' in ''Lemmings Chronicles'' were trying to colonize a new island chain and get rid of all the monsters there after their own homeland was destroyed in the previous game.
* The [[{{Samurai}} Chosen]] in ''VideoGame/ForHonor'' have this as their primary motivation in the ForeverWar between them, the [[HornyVikings Warborn]], and the [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy Legions]].
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', this is the case for the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orcs]]. Unlike the other playable races, the Orcs do not have their own recognized homeland. Several times throughout history, they've attempted to establish the city-state of Orsinium as such, but each time, they've been forced by their hostile neighbors (the Bretons of High Rock and the Redguards of Hammerfell) to abandon it, in part because of [[TheBerserker the threat the Orcs pose]] and in part due to plain old fashioned FantasticRacism. As of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' in the 4th Era, Orsinium has again been abandoned with the Orcs forced to assimilate into High Rock as slaves in all but name. Only a few Orc tribes still live independently in destitute, scattered "strongholds", scorned by all.
* The premise of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX''. After being displaced following Earth's destruction and crashing on Mira, the humans of New Los Angeles intend to make Mira their new home while dealing with hostile Indigens and other enemies whom are all too eager to wipe them out.
* The backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'' and fully elaborated on in ''VideoGame/DarksidersII'' reveals this was the driving goal of the {{Nephilim}}, specifically their leader Absalom. Angered by the fact that their kind was denied a homeworld of their own, they [[DisproportionateRetribution decided to start a massive slaughter across Creation]], destroying countless worlds and races before finally deciding they would take Eden from the newly-created mankind and wipe them out too. The Four Horsemen, having grown disillusioned with the slaughter and deciding that wanting a homeland wasn't a cause worth so much death for, betrayed their own and sided against them, slaughtering the Nephilim to the last per order of The Charred Council with Death killing Absalom himself. [[spoiler:Absalom was so pissed at this he ended up becoming TheCorruption and [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum decided to completely wipe out all of existence in vengeance]] countless years later.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': Separatist factions seek to break away from your empire and establish a new star nation with a government based on their values. The best way to appease them is to find out what's causing their unhappiness and try to address it, but you can also resort to bribery, propaganda, or simply giving in to their demands.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:RealLife]]
* The fight of the Zionists for a Jewish homeland, though they weren't actually mercenaries so much as a nation-building movement. A very large number of them fought for UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire (which may have issued the Balfour Declaration[[note]]A statement indicating Britain's official support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine[[/note]] with the intent of [[InvokedTrope Invoking]] the trope[[note]]A Jewish homeland indebted to Britain would have helped secure Britain's interests in Egypt, as well as ensuring any oil that might have been there--none worth extracting as it turned out, but they didn't know that at the time. Also unknown to the British was that all of this would come back to bite them in the arse big-time, buying them as it did thirty years of dealing with Arabs and Jews fighting each other off and on that was probably orders of magnitude more costly than they imagined. Worse, they made competing assurances to the Arabs that ''they'' would have an independent Arab state including Palestine (also including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq; the former two were given to the French and the latter the Brits kept) if they helped Britain defeat the Ottoman Empire. So both sides were screwed over, and none too happy with them[[/note]]), and so many Jewish soldiers signed up for British service that there were five battalions (known collectively as the Jewish Legion) of the Royal Fusiliers composed entirely of Jewish soldiers from across Europe.
** On the flip side, the various Palestinian groups opposed to Israel.
* The Flight of the Wild Geese. After the wars of the 17th century Irish soldiers emigrated in their thousands to work as mercenaries for their fellow Catholics in Spain, France, and Austria, rather than live under the unbearable political and religious oppression at home. As late as 1792 the Kings of France maintained several Irish regiments and during UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars an Irish Legion was part of the French Army, while the Spanish army also contained many Irishmen or Irish-descended Spaniards. Descendants of the Geese included Patrice de Mac-Mahon (Marshal of France and first president of the French Third Republic) and Bernardo O'Higgins (another general and one of the founders of independent Chile).
* UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars saw a number of such units.
** The armies of the French Republic included many partisans of the failed popular uprisings in the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands ("Holland") and the Austrian Netherlands (the "Belgian Rebellion") of the 1780s. When the French started to win the war, they annexed, among other things, what is now Belgium and formed the new-style Batavian Republic from the former United Provinces. This was later transformed into a kingdom for Napoleon's brother Louis and in 1810 annexed by France.
** On the Allied side, there was a number of regiments formed by and from emigrés, royalists who had left France during the Revolution. Lacking success in their endeavours, the remaining emigrés eventually were for the most part absorbed into the armies of various European states and later returned to France either after an amnesty was declared or after the fall of Napoleon.
** The Polish Legions of the French Army were formed after the Polish state was divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1795, and the page quote is from a song originally written for one of the Legions, which later became the anthem of Polish patriots and then the restored Polish state. Their aim of restoring their homeland, which came to a transitory fruition of a sort with the founding of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, which in 1815 became a new Kingdom of Poland ruled by Czar Alexander I, auguring a new era of national struggle. But even after 1807 many Poles continued to serve in the Imperial French Army in the four infantry regiments of the Legion of the Vistula and a number of regiments of lancers. A squadron of Lancers of the Guard even accompanied Napoleon to exile on Elba. Ironically, in the course of their service the Polish Legions often fought against other people fighting for ''their'' homeland, e. g. in Napoleon's attempt to reimpose slavery in UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} (1803)[[note]]During which the bulk of the Poles who survived the tropical diseases switched sides and started fighting for the Haitians. After realizing that (1) the French were trying to reenslave the Haitians and (2) their expedition was almost entirely cut off from resupply from France, the Poles had both the motive and opportunity to join the side that was actually fighting for freedom. For this, the Poles were specifically granted citizenship and declared honorarily Black after Haiti declared independence and embarked on an anti-French, Black/Colored supremacist policy. A community of Polish-descended Haitians continues to exist in a few towns in Haiti.[[/note]] and against Spanish soldiers, guerrillas, etc. on the Iberian Peninsula.
** When France and Great Britain resumed hostilities after the brief Peace of Amiens in 1803, the French army invaded and occupied the Electorate of Hanover (ruled by George III) without a fight. However, many Hanoverian officers and soldiers then left the country for England, where they formed the King's German Legion, a small army in exile consisting of all arms (infantry, cavalry, artillery etc.). The men of the Legion established themselves as one of the best fighting units of the British Army. After Waterloo, they were reintegrated into the army of Hanover.
** During the early stages of the 1812 campaign, when the Grande Armée occupied Russian Lithuania, Napoleon raised a number of military units there (most of them officially part of the army of the duchy of Warsaw), offering recruits the motivation of fighting for the restoration of the autonomous duchy of Lithuania. Most of these soldiers perished during the retreat from Moscow, but a few continued to serve under Napoleon until 1814, including the tiny remnant of the squadron of Lithuanian Tatars of the Guard.
* The Vandals fearing attacks from the Huns invaded the Roman Empire searching for a new homeland. They traveled through modern-day France and Spain, being attacked and driven out along the way before crossing into North Africa, taking the Roman lands (including Carthage without a fight) and setting up their own Empire. They then went on to sack Rome.
** This also applies to the various other Germanic tribes that traveled West into Roman and Celtic lands during and after UsefulNotes/TheMigrationPeriod, such as the Goths, Franks, Angles, Saxons and Normans.
** Also there were the Slavic peoples who came during the Middle Ages.
* The [[ChewToy numerous]] Polish armies in exile. Basically, every time there was fighting in the vicinity of (or over) what was Poland, each side would attempt to recruit (or conscript) the Polish to fight for them. The reward the Poles asked for was always the same: Poland.
** From this experience, Poland got one of its three unofficial mottos: ''Za wolność naszą i waszą'' ("For freedom, ours and yours").
** Poles did it a LOT throughout their recent history. Polish volunteers fought in the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, Napoleonic armies, in the Liberal Wars of Portugal, the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, all with the goal of eventually restoring Poland. They also signed on as Polish Legions (again) specifically against Russia on behalf of Austria-Hungary, on the condition that Austrians should support Polish independence after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, despite their country being under German occupation, Poland was actually one of the larger allies in terms of troops under arms in the European Theatre. At the war's end more than 20,000 ethnic Poles served under British command and more than 200,000 were under Soviet command as combat troops for the (Communist) Polish Republic, and up to 200,000 Poles served as logistics troops for the British. This is highly significant given the presence of just 100,000 ethnically 'British' combat troops (and 250,000 Anglo-Canadian-Polish combat troops under British command), 350,000 US combat troops, and 3.5 million Soviet combat troops in the European theatre in April 1945.
* The Indian National Army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was, depending on your perspective, either this or TheQuisling, as they signed on to fight for an independent India against the British with the support of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
* Much the same thing with various volunteer units that the Nazi Germany raised from many Eastern European peoples, from the Baltics to the Caucasus. Many of them joined the Nazis to help "liberate" their homelands from Russian/Communist rule.
* The Sforza dynasty was started by the leader of a band of PrivateMilitaryContractors that used his men to take over an Italian city-state. They decided on Milan; Sforza ended up hiring Creator/LeonardoDaVinci when the latter ended up being too prissy for the Medicis' tastes.
* Some of the Internationals fighting for the Republic during the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar were German and Italian exiles who had given up hope of returning home and instead fought to prevent fascist rule in Spain so that they might live there.
** Defeated Spanish Republicans wound up fighting for the armies of various Allied countries after the Spanish Civil War. Some, like Enrique Lister, wound up fighting alongside UsefulNotes/FidelCastro (or at least supporting his movement) in Cuba after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
** White Russian émigrés, most of them veterans of the Russian Revolution, formed a small unit fighting with Franco's troops against the Republic, the latter being directly supported by the Soviet government which had forced them to go into exile. Apparently, they believed that this would be the first step in liberating their country from Soviet regime.
* The first Czech Legion, after World War One. Their country was then merely a province of Austria-Hungary, who started the war and teamed up with the Germans. The Czechs had very little reason to fight for them, and surrendered to the opposing Russians whenever they could. Through a lot of political scheming, the Russians were convinced to raise a Czech legion of 60,000 men to fight against the Austrians. Then the Revolution broke out, and with the peace treaty between Russia and Austria, and the vicious warfare and politicking in Russia, they would not get their goal, an independent Czechia, so they turned to the western Entente. They could not leave the country through the western side, so the Entente chose to rendezvous with them in the port of Vladivostok, ''on the other side of Russia''. They crossed the country in three years, using the railways that they hijacked, joined with the Russian White Army (a coalition of anti-Communists) and the Entente, stole the Tsar’s gold, traded it for free passage to Vladivostok with the advancing Reds when they lost, [[EarnYourHappyEnding and safely sailed home, to the newly-founded country of Czechoslovakia, a social democracy.]]
** ... [[DownerEnding Then not even twenty years later, their country was sold out to Nazi Germany by France and Britain, annexed as the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia and her population used as slave labor for German war industries for six years. After that, they lived under a repressive Stalinist Communist dictatorship for forty-five years]]. But ''then'' their CCCP overlords gave up on Communism and let them do their own thing, [[EarnYourHappyEnding and they became a social democracy again.]]
* In an internal conflict, often both sides can invoke this trope. Thus during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, both Patriots and Loyalists were fighting for their homes and country, and in the end the losing side had to emigrate to Canada. The situation for Republicans and Loyalists during the Troubles in Northern Ireland was also like this.
* Many nationalist and anti-colonialist movements do this, especially if they also are fighting against social and legal discrimination. For instance the black former slaves and the mulattoes of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (who had very different legal status under the ''Code Noir'', with mulattoes having a few privileges compared to blacks) eventually decided to fight for independence, seeing that the French central government was making moves to reimpose slavery, leading to the foundation of Haiti. It took a while for a general Haitian identity to develop, though. For a time the country was split into two states, one for mulattoes and one for blacks.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}: Separatist factions seek to break away from your empire and establish a new star nation with a government based on their values. The best way to appease them is to find out what's causing their unhappiness and try to address it, but you can also resort to bribery, propaganda, or simply giving in to their demands.

* At the time of the PointOfDivergence for ''WebOriginal/TheDeathOfRussia'', only Chechnya was fighting the Russian government for their freedom. Following Yetlsin's death in the 1993 coup and subsequent the rise of the [[CommieNazis National Salvation Front]], the NSF's racist policies and [[RapePillageAndBurn actions in Chechnya]] sees many more natives of Russia take up arms once the civil war kicks off.

* Redcloak in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' sees claiming a goblinoid homeland as [[DragonWithAnAgenda a secondary goal to his service of Xykon]]. [[spoiler:Or so he says. In fact, he's merely using Xykon to take control of the Snarl, at which point he intends to use said EldritchAbomination to blackmail the gods themselves into recognising Goblins as a sapient race.]] Once [[spoiler:Azure City is taken]], he founds the nation of Gobbotopia and appoints one of his lieutenants as its leader.

Usually, when someone fights, it's for a reason. Sometimes it's for patriotism or to fulfill an ideal. Sometimes it's to protect something or someone. And sometimes it's for some sort of compensation.

** From this experience, Poland got one of its three unofficial mottos: ''Za nasza i wasza wolność'' ("For our and your freedom").

Not to be confused with [[MyCountryRightOrWrong fighting for your homeland]]. [[WarComesHome Nor your homeland getting attacked in a war.]]

Not to be confused with [[MyCountryRightOrWrong fighting for your homeland]].

* Outer Heaven of ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' was (at least originally) this.

** ... [[DownerEnding Then not even twenty years later, their country was sold out to Nazi Germany by France and Britain, annexed as the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia and her population used as slave labor for German war industries for six years. After that, they lived under a repressive Stalinist Communist dictatorship for forty-five years]]. But ''then'' [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp their CCCP overlords gave up on Communism and let them do their own thing]], [[EarnYourHappyEnding and they became a social democracy again.]]

* ''Fanfic/SeventhEndmostVision'' stars a post-successful version with the Wutai. Many years before the story starts, their home was destroyed in the meltdown of the very first mako reactor, creating the [[PollutedWasteland Wutai Wasteland]], but Shinra evacuated most of the populace. They not only helped build the Plate, but during the later War with the Western Alliance, [[AdaptationalVillainy fought on Shinra's side]]. With the help of [[WorldsStrongestMan 1st Class SOLDIER Aerith]], the Wutai were able to successfully conquer Costa del Sol during the War. They have since renamed it New Wutai, and the people of Costa del Sol are now nomadic wanderers without a home.

** The Polish Legions of the French Army were formed after the Polish state was divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1795, and the page quote is from a song originally written for one of the Legions, which later became the anthem of Polish patriots and then the restored Polish state. Their aim of restoring their homeland, which came to a transitory fruition of a sort with the founding of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, which in 1815 became a new Kingdom of Poland ruled by Czar Alexander I, auguring a new era of national struggle. But even after 1807 many Poles continued to serve in the Imperial French Army in the four infantry regiments of the Legion of the Vistula and a number of regiments of lancers. A squadron of Lancers of the Guard even accompanied Napoleon to exile on Elba. Ironically, in the course of their service the Polish Legions often fought against other people fighting for ''their'' homeland, e. g. in Napoleon's attempt to reimpose slavery in UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} (1803)[[note]]During which the bulk of the Poles who survived the tropical diseases switched sides and started fighting for the Haitian. After realizing that (1) the French were trying to reenslave the Haitians and (2) their expedition was almost entirely cut off from resupply from France, the Poles had both the motive and opportunity to join the side that was actually fighting for freedom. For this, the Poles were specifically granted citizenship and declared honorarily Black after Haiti declared independence and embarked on an anti-French, Black/Colored supremacist policy. A community of Polish-descended Haitians continues to exist in a few towns in Haiti.[[/note]] and against Spanish soldiers, guerrillas, etc. on the Iberian Peninsula.

** The Polish Legions of the French Army were formed after the Polish state was divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1795, and the page quote is from a song originally written for one of the Legions, which later became the anthem of Polish patriots and then the restored Polish state. Their aim of restoring their homeland, which came to a transitory fruition of a sort with the founding of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, which in 1815 became a new Kingdom of Poland ruled by Czar Alexander I, auguring a new era of national struggle. But even after 1807 many Poles continued to serve in the Imperial French Army in the four infantry regiments of the Legion of the Vistula and a number of regiments of lancers. A squadron of Lancers of the Guard even accompanied Napoleon to exile on Elba. Ironically, in the course of their service the Polish Legions often fought against other people fighting for ''their'' homeland, e. g. in Napoleon's attempt to reimpose slavery in UsefuNotes/{{Haiti}} (1803)[[note]]During which the bulk of the Poles who survived the tropical diseases [[HeelFaceTurn switched sides]] and started fighting for the Haitians. For this, the Poles were specifically granted citizenship and declared honorarily Black after Haiti declared independence and embarked on an anti-French, Black/Colored supremacist policy. A community of Polish-descended Haitians continues to exist in a few towns in Haiti.[[/note]] and against Spanish soldiers, guerrillas, etc. on the Iberian Peninsula.

** The Polish Legions of the French Army were formed after the Polish state was divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1795, and the page quote is from a song originally written for one of the Legions, which later became the anthem of Polish patriots and then the restored Polish state. Their aim of restoring their homeland, which came to a transitory fruition of a sort with the founding of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, which in 1815 became a new Kingdom of Poland ruled by Czar Alexander I, auguring a new era of national struggle. But even after 1807 many Poles continued to serve in the Imperial French Army in the four infantry regiments of the Legion of the Vistula and a number of regiments of lancers. A squadron of Lancers of the Guard even accompanied Napoleon to exile on Elba. Ironically, in the course of their service the Polish Legions often fought against other people fighting for ''their'' homeland, e. g. in Napoleon's attempt to reimpose slavery in Haiti (1803) and against Spanish soldiers, guerrillas, etc. on the Iberian Peninsula.

-->'''Sheriff Bart''': And all they ask in return is a little plot of land they can call their own to homestead.

** This also applies to the various other Germanic tribes that traveled West into Roman and Celtic lands during and after Useful Notes/TheMigrationPeriod, such as the Goths, Franks, Angles, Saxons and Normans.

** This also applies to the various other Germanic tribes that traveled West into Roman and Celtic lands during and after the Great Migration period, such as the Goths, Franks, Angles, Saxons and Normans.