History Main / DivideAndConquer

* [[Characters/BatmanBane Bane]], of ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' fame, is legendary for this. Aware that he couldn't take Batman in a straight fight, he instead released dozens of inmates from Arkham Asylum, leading Batman to run himself ragged for months until Bane showed up in the Batcave and "[[ComicBook/{{Knightfall}} broke the Bat]]."
* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} Asterix and the Roman Agent]]'', this is the natural gift of the titular Tortuous Convolvulus (French: Tullius Détritus), who foments conflicts between the inhabitants of the little Gaulish village that come close to enabling Caesar to take it.
* In ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'', the changelings separate the group with a cave-in and start causing feuds between them through the use of disguises and personal insults. [[spoiler:[[BreakingTheFellowship It works.]]]]
* Occurs in ''[[ComicBook/{{Swordquest}} Swordquest: Waterworld]]'' when TheRival convinces two warring factions to settle their dispute with a CombatByChampion between the two protagonists, who [[ContrivedCoincidence just happen to be on opposite sides and have forgotten who they were before.]]
* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** This is a favored tactic of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the Skrulls]]. They pretend to be someone and use that to sow conflict and discord, banking on either [[LetsYouAndHimFight Marvel's superheroes being fractuous]] or [[UngratefulTownsfolk the sheer gullibility of the Marvel public]] (or both). They nearly broke up the Avengers during ''ComicBook/AvengersTheKreeSkrullWar'' by pretending to be the original Avengers and telling the current team that they'd screwed up. Where the Skrulls tend to fail is getting overconfident and revealing themselves when they think they've got the upper hand, at which point the heroes overcome whatever issues the Skrulls caused in favour of beating the stuffing out of them.
** In one issue of ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules'', Malekith combines this with LetsYouAndHimFight to weaken both Hercules and [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] sufficiently that his secret weapon will be able to defeat them easily. His plan fails ignominiously due to him [[FailedASpotCheck not being aware]] that Zeus was standing right there when he sprang this trap.

** Lelouch uses this strategy to weaken the Pureblood faction within the Britannian military: by threatening one of them, Jeremiah, with revealing the secret of "Orange" (which he made up on the fly and doesn't actually exist) before using his Geass to force him to assist in rescuing Suzaku, he was able to not only cripple the Pureblood's reputation, but also sow distrust among them towards Jeremiah.

* The BigBad of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has the goal of destroying humanity from the shadows. One of her best tools for this goal is to divide mankind with doubt and anger until they turn on each other. Her VillainSong is even titled "Divide". [[spoiler:It's also a vital component of her ultimate plan to summon the gods back to Remnant and put HumanityOnTrial. If humanity is found in harmony, their magic will be restored, but if they are found divided, the gods will wipe them from the face of the planet. Salem has ensured that as long as she lives, humanity will never be in harmony, and her CompleteImmortality has made that goal [[InvincibleVillain hopeless]].]]

## The Durand Line seperated Pakistan and Afghanistan, dividing the Pashtuns and creating the current border of Afghanistan, as well as one of ''many'' problems the country later has down the line, in this case with Pakistan.

## The Durand Line separated Afghanistan and Pakistan, dividing the Pashtuns and creating the current border of Afghanistan, as well as the problems the country later has down the line, such as creating groups like the Taliban.

## The Durand Line separated Afghanistan and Pakistan, dividing the Pashtuns.

* In recent years, divide-and-conquer has been used in CultureWar politics by [[PropagandaMachine spin doctors]] such as Karl Rove and Lynton Crosby, in the form of 'wedge politics' (or dog-whistle politics in Australia). Rove and Crosby often smeared left-leaning politicians as social liberals to make them less appealing to socially conservative voters of blue collar and immigrant backgrounds, thereby discouraging them from otherwise voting for leftist candidates based on their economic policies.

* This is Baron Omatsuri's M.O. [[spoiler:(Carnation Lily, actually)]] in ''Manga/OnePiece''. He disguises his island as a resort for pirate crews, where they would play activities and games that are actually designed to cause infighting among the crews. He's so good at this that he succeeds with the Straw Hats, who have an almost familial bond among each other. When captain Luffy finds out about this, he gets so gravely offended that [[spoiler:though it's [[{{Filler}} not canon]], Carnation Lily is Luffy's first direct kill in the series.]]

* The very first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' is called [[Recap/TeenTitansS1E1DivideAndConquer "Divide And Conquer"]]and deals with the fallout between Robin and Cyborg which allows the VillainOfTheWeek to successfully escape. They catch the villain only at the end of the episode when they finally make up.

* The very first episode of ''TeenTitans2003'' is called [[Recap/TeenTitansS1E1DivideAndConquer "Divide And Conquer"]]and deals with the fallout between Robin and Cyborg which allows the VillainOfTheWeek to successfully escape. They catch the villain only at the end of the episode when they finally make up..

** This is a favored tactic of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the Skrulls]]. They pretend to be someone and use that to sow conflict and discord, banking on either [[LetsYouAndHimFight Marvel's superheroes being fractuous]] or [[UngratefulTownsfolk the sheer gullibility of the Marvel public]] (or both). They nearly broke up the Avengers during ''ComicBook/TheKreeSkrullWar'' by pretending to be the original Avengers and telling the current team that they'd screwed up. Where the Skrulls tend to fail is getting overconfident and revealing themselves when they think they've got the upper hand, at which point the heroes overcome whatever issues the Skrulls caused in favour of beating the stuffing out of them.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'' this is ''the'' M.O. of the Reapers, the big bulletpoint at the top of the plan behind every invasion. Starting by using the Citadel to decapitate galactic governments, followed by shutting down the Mass Relays to isolate systems from one another so they cannot receive help. Nevermind their Indoctrination tricks to further divide those who oppose them long before the Reapers actually appear on the field. It's a ''brutally'' efficient demonstration of the trope. If not for the Protheans deciding to throw a SpannerInTheWorks, who knows how long the cycle could have gone on for?

* In recent years, divide-and-conquer has been used in CultureWar politics by [[PropagandaMachine spin doctors]] such as Karl Rove and Lynton Crosby, in the form of 'wedge politics' (or dog-whistle politics in Australia). Rove and Crosby managed to depress turnout for left-leaning politicians by portraying them as social liberals, which in turn alienated socially conservative working-class and immigrant voters who would've otherwise voted for liberal candidates based on their economic policies.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'': [[spoiler:Jester/Arkham]].

* This is a key element of the plan of "those who slither in the dark" in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. For years, they had been manipulating events between the Adrestian Empire and Kingdom of Faerghus so that the two factions can go to war, in the process destroying the power structure pioneered by the central Church of Seiros and devastating the continent so they can emerge from hiding and reconquer what's left. To do this, they assisted the respective {{Decadent Court}}s of both nations to seize power (in Adrestia) or eliminate their ruler (in Faerghus), motivating the respective heirs of each nation to go to war to achieve their goals (Edelgard to topple the Church and nobility, Dimitri to exact his revenge on those who killed his father).

* In ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'', Class F utilizes this against Class A during a summoner war. They use favors gained from defeating the other classes, or deception in the case of Class C, to have them wear down Class A before the fight. Class F nearly succeeds with it, until the school starts to break down, causing the Class F rep to be distracted momentarily.

## Arguably, the manner in which UsefulNotes/{{Yemen}} was decolonised counts as well, although that's a more complicated story. Why? Well, as it turns out, ''Series/YesMinister'' isn't that far wrong: the Foreign Office, recognising that Britain could no longer hold on to these territories (or in the case of Ireland, most of it), still wanted to maintain some semblance of British influence without being too bothered about the details. So they set things up so they could play powers against each other when they wanted to be engaged, while allowing them to formally "deplore" all the nastiness on the ground (recall that even in Ireland, the formal British military and police were not the major violent players on the Unionist/Loyalist side even at the height of UsefulNotes/TheTroubles).

** The Durand Line separated Afghanistan and Pakistan, dividing the Pashtuns.

** Arguably, the manner in which UsefulNotes/{{Yemen}} was decolonised counts as well, although that's a more complicated story.
** Why? Well, as it turns out, ''Series/YesMinister'' isn't that far wrong: the Foreign Office, recognising that Britain could no longer hold on to these territories (or in the case of Ireland, most of it), still wanted to maintain some semblance of British influence without being too bothered about the details. So they set things up so they could play powers against each other when they wanted to be engaged, while allowing them to formally "deplore" all the nastiness on the ground (recall that even in Ireland, the formal British military and police were not the major violent players on the Unionist/Loyalist side even at the height of UsefulNotes/TheTroubles).