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Government in Exile

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"The Rada of Belarusan Democratic Republic (BNR) is the supreme institution and the sole legitimate representation of the sovereign rights of the Belarusan people, expressed by the Legislative Act of the 25th of March, 1918, which was recorded in the Third Constitutional Charter of the BNR. The BNR Rada performs the functions of a National Legislature and of a Government-in-Exile."

Their homeland has been invaded. They fought valiantly, but they were ultimately overwhelmed. But they refuse to admit defeat quite yet. They know that they have allies abroad, and it's only a matter of time before they can muster the support to fight back. So for today, the leadership of the nation and whatever citizenry they can bring along make a hasty retreat, taking refuge in a nearby allied nation. While much of their citizens are left behind, possibly forming La Résistance and waging a war from within, they work to muster up support and mount a counterattack from outside to reclaim their homeland from the enemy, Les Collaborateurs and The Quisling.

Frequent any time a princess meets La Résistance in the same series. The princess in question will probably be a deposed Crown Princess trying to get her crown back.

If the monarch refused to leave In Its Hour of Need, this may be led by a successor. If only the armed forces are still fighting on, with their government having capitulated or otherwise done away with, then it is The Remnant. If both the military and the government has ceased to exist but supporters press on, that's Still Fighting the Civil War. If a citizen expresses their love for the country while in exile, it's a Patriot in Exile.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In My-Otome, Garderobe is invaded midway through the series. Although it's the training ground for Otome, the elite warriors of the world, they don't have enough gathered at first, and then their abilities are cut off. The Headmistress, Natsuki, is one of only a handful to escape. She spends the next series of episodes taking refuge in nearby Aries and forming an alliance to mount a counterstrike.
  • Amaterasu crew's justification to fight against Henrietta alliance in Starship Operators.
  • In Code Geass one of the ministers of the former Japanese government claimed this. Of course, he was also a Chinese puppet...
  • Sailor Moon: Although her kingdom consists of about 9 girls and a couple of cats, Sailor Moon is still their princess and they still treat her like one.
  • The Legadonian government tries this in The Saga of Tanya the Evil as they are overwhelmed by the Empire by sending their Minister for Cultural Affairs on an Albish sub to establish offices in Londinium under the condition Albion doesn't get dragged into the war. Unfortunately, the sub is caught and damaged by Empire forces. Fearing that the Minister's presence will give the Imperial forces an excuse to antagonize Albion, the crew execute him, destroying all hope for a resurgence of the original Legadonia. Later on, General De Lugo establishes a Government in Exile for the Francois in Africa after Operation Revolving Door, causing the war to continue just as Germania was about to win.

    Fan Works 
  • This trope is evident in some fashion in Equestria: A History Revealed, in which Princess Celestia left the country for a couple of years, while the government she left behind was purged and forcibly made loyal to Nightmare Moon. Upon Celestia's return, she had to gain supporters and fight to reclaim her old nation in the Equestrian Civil War.
  • In With Strings Attached, many Raleka fled Ketafa after the Idris started massacring them. They set up towns on the Rust Coast of Baravada, and some of them subsequently made the long pilgrimage to the Shining Coast in order to learn magic and combat skills with which to defeat the Idris back in Ketafa.
  • Worldwar: War of Equals: After Kuwait City is overrun, the Royal Family flees to Saudi Arabia.
  • The epilogue of The War of the Worlds: Gravity Falls Edition establishes that with most of the United States devastated by the Martians, a provisional government has been set up in Honolulu, officially recognized and supported by the United Nations.
  • Summer Crowns has the royal court which Rhaegar Targaryen and his loyalists set up after escaping to Essos.
  • Earth's Alien History:
    • After Marshal Daena T'Drak's Military Coup and the formation of the Asari Empire, the Republics' representative to the Citadel Council sets up a government-in-exile on the Citadel, a move copied by the Turian and Volus representatives after the Empire annexes the remnants of their space (which were devastated to the point of collapse by the Reapers). Given T'Drak's popularity and genuinely good leadership, almost no one in the galaxy takes these new governments seriously.
    • In response to General Rahm Tak's Military Coup, which she escapes by sheer luck, Votanis Collective Vice-Chancellor Silora Voske takes asylum in the TeTO colony on New Votanis and establishes a government-in-exile with herself at the head.
    • The Fringe Colonies see themselves as this. They were established by President Lex Luthor as a means of increasing the United States' autonomy from the rest of TeTO, and following his administration's downfall no one knew what to do with the colonies legally, so they were effectively cut loose, allowing them to consider themselves the only legitimate continuation of Luthor's government. By the time America tries to talk them back into the fold, they've grown to enjoy their autonomy so much that they formalize the split by joining the Shield Alliance instead of TeTO.
    • As per Worldwar canon, the Free French forces in Polynesia are this in opposition to the Nazis' Vichy Puppet State, and later to the Race's similarly authoritarian Fourth Republic puppet. By the time the latter is overthrown and replaced by a constitutional monarchy, it's clear that the two states have diverged enough that reunification isn't feasible, so Free France restyles itself as the French Polynesian Republic, officially abandoning any claim to the mainland.
  • A Diplomatic Visit: The sequel, Diplomat at Large, reveals that since Queen Skydancer of the hippogriffs died in the Storm King's attack, her brother and heir is General Seaspray, who - with his people - now lives in Queen Novo's kingdom of Seaquestria as a seapony, representing his people on her council of nobles.
  • Chasing Dragons:
    • After surviving Robert's Rebellion, Rhaegar leads the remaining Targaryen loyalists into exile in Myr. When the Sunset Company hunts them down and drives them out of the city, what's left of this court now led by Viserys following Rhaegar's death flees further to Volantis, where they become a sellsword company that eventually worms its way into the city's government.
    • The fall of Myr to the Sunset Company also results in what survives of the city's aristocracy setting up a court in exile in Tyrosh. When Tyrosh falls as well, the remaining "True Myrish" flee to Volantis and swear themselves to the Targaryens, while the Tyroshi set up exile communities in Lys and Oldtown.
    • After reactionaries seize power in Norvos from the pragmatic abolitionists, one of the leading members of the latter flees the city and is granted asylum in a Braavosi military fort, where he establishes a government in exile.

    Literature 
  • In the novel SS-GB, England is conquered by Nazi Germany. King George VI is held prisoner. By the end of the novel, George is killed and his daughter in Canada, Elizabeth II, became Queen. One of the reasons why British La Résistance members arrange his death is so Elizabeth can be a legitimate Government in Exile.
  • The last book in the Westmark trilogy has the protagonists form a Government in Exile while still in the country. The text even says it isn't a government-in-exile, it's a government-in-pawnshop.
  • In the Yashim Series, the hero's best friend is a Polish diplomat who is harbored by the Ottoman government as a Take That! to Russia. The Polish diplomat is a one-man Government in Exile.
  • In the later Honor Harrington books, the People's Navy in Exile make allusions to this, but they never fool anybody but themselves. And then they don't even fool themselves anymore once they realize that they have crossed the Moral Event Horizon by cutting a deal with the Mesans to act as hired guns in return for support.
  • It happens twice in The Chronicles of Narnia: the title character of Prince Caspian, and King Tirian in The Last Battle.
  • In It Can't Happen Here, Windrip places Trowbridge under house arrest after winning the presidential election and turning America into a fascist state. Trowbridge escapes to Canada, where he leads a resistance movement to oust the Windrip regime from power.
  • Oswin, the White Prince and rightful heir in Terra Mirum Chronicles, is on the run after the Nightmare murders his mother and brainwashes his father.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • The Targaryens (Viserys, Daenarys, and Aegon... maybe) think of themselves as this. They are under the impression that the common folk pray desperately for their return, and that the current king is seen as an evil usurper. While they technically have a point about Robert Baratheon usurping their father's throne, they are both too young to remember that their father was a raving nutter that everyone hated. (Robert, for all his flaws, was sane, and maintained peace for seventeen years.) Although there are still isolated pockets of Targaryen loyalists, by and large they vastly overestimate how much the common people care about the succession.
    • Also Jalabhar Xho, an exiled prince of the Summer Isles. He hangs out in King's Landing fighting in tournaments and occasionally asking for an army to conquer his homeland in his name.
  • In 1784: Liberty The American Revolution ends with a British victory and George Washington is captured and executed. The surviving members of the Continental Congress and a few of the units of the Continental Army escape west and settle in what today would be Illinois. They have to decide whether they will continue the Revolution from this new location or instead form a new nation.
  • In the Alternate History novel Fox On The Rhine, the July 20th conspiracy to kill Hitler (as documented in the film Valkyrie) succeeds, although the conspirators fail to take out Hitler's successors. Many prominent members of the conspiracy who were executed in the original timeline manage to escape to neutral countries and set up a German government-in-exile. The Allies ignore them until Erwin Rommel and a large part of his army defect to the Allies at the end of the book, making the German government-in-exile a useful and notable Allied power, as detailed in the sequel novel Fox at the Front.
  • The Star Wars Expanded Universe, specifically the pre-Disney Legends brand, has the Empire become this following the fall of Coruscant. Until the Legacy comics come about again the Empire is ruled from Bastion. When the Galactic Alliance is defeated, it returns to its roots as the Rebellion, though in both cases the factions are called the "*Insert name here* Remnant" rather than a government-in-exile. Of course, the Alliance itself was essentially the Republic's government in exile, especially given high-level Senators like Bail and Leia Organa and Mon Mothma making up the leadership.
    • About midway through the New Jedi Order series, the Yuuzhan Vong capture Coruscant, shattering the New Republic. The remnants of the Republic's military and political leadership is scattered for a while, but eventually reorganize on Mon Calamari, which they use as their capital until retaking Coruscant at the end of the war (and even then, it takes years of undoing the Vong's Hostile Terraforming before the planet can be officially reinstated as the capital).
  • In Harry Turtledove's Colonization series, France has been under the Reich's boot for two decades now. While the nation of France officially exists, it's ruled by a government-in-exile from the French islands in the Pacific and isn't really important to world politics. Later, the Race forces the Reich to relinquish control over France.
  • This Immortal: Although it's partly a self-imposed exile, the Earth government actually resides on Taler and is voted upon mostly by the resident human population while Earth is pretty much left to its own devices. Though Radpol had a hand in making it rather unappealing for Earthgov to be on site.
  • Victoria features the Imperial Prussian government in exile, complete with a small armed forces. It has its seat in Koenigsberg, the historical capital of the Teutonic Knights, now situated in the Russian Kaliningrad exclave.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Babylon 5: the station harbored G'kar after Narn was retaken by the Centauri, in spite of demands he be turned over to the Centauri Republic.
  • Battlestar Galactica (2003): The Colonial Government can be seen as this. They even keep the trappings of their government for quite some time.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • The Targaryens see themselves as this. They were the ruling house of the Seven Kingdoms for three centuries, before they were deposed during Robert's Rebellion and House Baratheon replaced them as the new royal house. The few surviving Targaryens fled into exile. Currently based in Essos, House Targaryen seeks to retake the Seven Kingdoms from House Lannister, who formally replaced House Baratheon as the royal House following the destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor.
    • Stannis later sees himself as this as well. Following Robert's death and the revelation that Robert's heir, Joffrey is actually Queen Cersei's bastard son with her twin brother Jaime, Stannis declares himself the rightful king and begins a campaign to take the Iron Throne from the Lannisters. After amassing an army, Stannis attacks King's Landing and almost breaches the city, but is defeated by combined Lannister-Tyrell reinforcements and forced to retreat to Dragonstone. While planning his next move following the deaths of Joffrey and Robb Stark, Stannis travels North to the Wall to aid the Night's Watch against a wildling invasion and meets Jon Snow, attempting to acquire his help in retaking the North from House Bolton, who previously betrayed House Stark and murdered Robb.
  • House of the Dragon: The Blacks see themselves as this, supporting Rhaenyra Targaryen's claim to the Iron Throne per her deceased father's wish after The Coup of the Greens to crown The Usurper Aegon after King Viserys' death. Their home base is the isle of Dragonstone, while the Greens occupy King's Landing and pretty much all of the royal symbols of Westeros, Iron Throne included.
  • Merlin: This is essentially the case in the season 3 finale, when Morgana took over and Arthur, Gaius, Merlin and the knights escaped into hiding. Uther remained imprisoned, though, until the good guys returned to retake the castle and free him.
  • Mission: Impossible: One Mission of the Week involved the jailbreak of a political prisoner from an apartheid regime in order to set up a Government in Exile with him in charge.
  • Revolution: The first season finale reveals that the last US President has been running one out of Guantanamo Bay since the Blackout.
    • In season 2 Monroe is hiding out in Texas and is quite insistent that sooner or later he will return and lead his nation once again. Ironically, to do so he allies himself with Miles and Rachel, the people who brought down his government in the first place.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Ties of Blood and Water", follows the Gul Dukat enlisting the Dominion to overthrow a democratic Cardassian government and set himself up as military dictator. The exiled Cardassian Legate Tekeny Ghemor from "Second Skin" escapes to the station (where he's granted asylum) and Kira encourages him to use his freedom and popularity on the Cardassian homeworld to become the focal point for a government in exile. Ghemor admits that he likes the idea, but says its impossible to pull off because he's been diagnosed with a terminal illness and will be dead in a matter of weeks if not days.
  • The Handmaid's Tale: The US federal government has been forced to relocate from Washington DC after a coup into Anchorage, Alaska.
    Serena: So you're from the embassy?
    Mark: No, but I am a representative from the American government.
    Serena: Which American government is that?
    Mark: We're still a nation. Smaller than before, but we still yield some power.

    Video Games 
  • Suikoden V: The royal palace is captured in an attack by the Godwin faction of nobles, with the King and Queen dead and Princess Lymsleia installed as a puppet Queen. The Prince and a handful of his bodyguards manage to escape, taking refuge at first in the territory of the Barrows faction, who's rivaled with the Godwins. They eventually carve out their own section of territory under their control, recruiting cities and neighboring countries to their side one at a time until they can retake the capital.
  • In Suikoden IV, this happens to the kingdom of Obel. When Kooluk's forces invade, Lino En Kuldes escapes on the rebellion's future headquarters and promotes your hero to head of the rebellion, and you set out to free the other islands.
  • Medieval: Total War had something like this as a gameplay mechanic. Even after defeating a nation, it was a common occurrence for "loyalists" to rise up and try fighting back.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Pretty much half the plot of the original Fire Emblem for the NES (as well as the remake, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for the DS). Altea is betrayed by their ally, Gra and have the shit kicked out of them - the only member of the royal family not killed or captured is Prince Marth, who, along with a remnant military force (Jagen, Cain, Abel, etc.) and ministers (Madelleus) escape and take refuge in Talys, one of the few countries which is truly an ally of Altea.
    • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the Grado Empire misteriously invades the kingdom of Renais, with which it had a friendly relationship. While Renais's king is killed in his castle, his daughter Eirika escapes to the allied nation of Frelia, where she gathers resources for her new journey into enemy territory.
    • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, King Ashnard of Daein invades the good kingdom of Crimea. The royal family is mostly slaughtered, but Princess Elincia manages to escape and hires the Greil Mercenaries. She seeks help in the allied kingdom of Gallia, and later the Begnion Empire. With the Kingdom of Phoenicis also supporting her, she forms the Crimean Liberation Army to return home and defeat Ashnard.
  • Warcraft II begins with Stormwind, having been conquered by the Orcs and its king slain, founding a government in exile in Lordaeron under Anduin Lothar as Regent.
    • In World of Warcraft, Gilnas is this after being invaded by the Forsaken. The Night Elves help as many people as possible escape the small nation and offer them a home on Teldrasil (Which considering the Night Elves' well known Xenophobia is a big deal). Their king however only stays for a brief period of time before going to Stormwind, where he stands next to its king.
  • A major gameplay mechanic in Hearts of Iron 3. Any country which is conquered can opt to form a Government in Exile rather than capitulate; the homeland surrenders and is occupied but the GIE gets to keep any overseas colonies and their garrisons, and gets some free unit production capability to represent the forces which fled even if it has no colonies. The For the Motherland expansion added the ability to funnel that production into equipping and supporting an Underground network, with the goal of amassing enough forces to launch a nation-wide uprising.
  • This briefly occurs in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, with President Dugan and his administration seeking refuge in Canada after most of the country is taken by the Soviets. In the Soviet campaign, this is apparently a ruse, as a later mission shows that Dugan has actually gone undercover in Texas to rally U.S. resistance.
  • The Entente in Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg starts out with this as a major element — of its major members, Canada is under strong influence from the British exiles (Britain proper is under the control of the Syndicalist Union of Britain) and National France is an Algiers-centred colonial regime (with France proper under the control of the syndicalist Commune of France). Events during the course of the game can have other exile governments appear — Portugal can end up in the Azores, Angola or Mozambique, the German Empire can end up as a good chunk of Africa, the Dutch government can evacuate to the East Indies...
  • Enigma: Rising Tide takes place in an Alternate History, where the RMS Lusitania was never sunk, the US never entered World War I, and, as a result, the Allies lost the war, resulting in Imperial Germany controlling most of Europe. With the British Isles occupied, some members of the British government have fled to Hong Kong, where they formed a government-in-exile and joined Imperial Japan as the League of Free Nations, a third world power in counterbalance to Germany and the US. Prime Minister Winston Churchill heads the government-in-exile with the singular goal of retaking the British Isles no matter the cost. This includes pitting Germany and the US against one another in a mutually-destructive war by sinking the convoy ship SS Samuel Wren, while masquerading as a German U-boat. The epilogue reveals that the effort succeeded, with the US dealing a devastating blow to the German fleet at Scapa Flow, in a manner eerily similar to the Real Life attack on Pearl Harbor.

    Web Comics 
  • The Order of the Stick — the surviving residents and leaders of Azure City escaped on ships out to sea after Xykon's forces took over their homeland. Post-Time Skip finds them still trying to find a place to re-settle since the other Southern nations can't take in all the refugees. It finally takes a wizard to get them all to a suitably-inhabitable island to colonize. Meanwhile, the Azure City residents that were left behind form different factions of La Résistance and bicker amongst themselves.
  • In Drowtales, the clans of Chel'el'sussoloth started out as this and believed in the Queen Sharess' promise to bring them back to the surface after war forced them underground, but by the time the main story begins it's persisted for a millennium and almost all of the original dark elves have been replaced by their children the drow, and the fact that they haven't adapted since then causes problems that become more and more evident as the series goes on and the office of the Val'Sharess, who supposedly speaks for Sharess, is shown to be either indifferent or powerless plus the real Val'Sharess has actually been dead for close to 30 years in the present time of the story after being removed in a coup pulled by her own daughters, with various Body Doubles and other trickery (somewhat) keeping up the illusion that she's alive.

    Web Original 
  • The Witches of Dathomir in The Gungan Council claims to be one of these. Yet, being composed of only Nightsisters and their allies, such a claim is contested by the rest of the galaxy.
  • In The Ruins of an American Party System, the government of the Kingdom of Italy is forced to flee to Sardinia after the mainland is overrun and conquered by the Soviets.
    • For a given definition of "government", the event above also forces the Catholic Church to relocate its headquarters to Portugal.
  • New Deal Coalition Retained:
    • A Portuguese government-in-exile is set up in Angola after a communist revolution topples the Estado Novo government.
    • When the African Socialist Alliance overruns Chad and Ubangi-Shari at the start of the Central African War, their governments flee to safety in France and Zaire, respectfully.
    • After the Warsaw Pact manages to overrun mainland Greece during World War III, the Greek government evacuates to Crete.
    • When the Entebbe Pact overrun northern Rhodesia during the Great Southern War, including taking the capital of Salisbury, the Rhodesian government flees to Bulawayo.
    • After China occupies Thailand and turns it into a Puppet State, the Prince Regent flees to Japan and establishes a government in exile in Fukushima.
  • An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government has a few examples:
    • Edward Butler still considers himself the legitimate government of the United States, even after being driven off the mainland and into being holed-up in a fortified Guantanamo.
    • One timeline sees a more successful Soviet space program put several space stations in orbit, operated by hardline Communists. When the Soviet Union collapses as per OTL, they refuse to recognize it, and declare themselves the true authority of Russia, awaiting the time that communism retakes control. Only North Korea recognizes them as legitimate.
    • The American Overseas Republic is a collective of oversea embassies, diplomatic missions, and military bases that refuse to recognize the authority of a United States that is now ruled by a rogue right-wing government.
    • The Second Polish Republic is based out of Greenpoint, Queens, but due to various arrangements with the US government and the governments of various other countries with large Polish populations, it manages its own infrastructure and standing army, stationed in land holdings all over the world.
    • The hereditary heads of the French Outremer Company are officially also the French kings-in-exile, having taken over direct control of the company and its territories after being overthrown and forced to flee France itself after losing a war with Germany and Lusitania.
    • In one timeline, the military forces in France's African colonies refused to accept the legitimacy of the Vichy regime, allowing for a new government to be set up based in Algiers, which persists to the present after the Axis and Allies negotiated a ceasefire that left the former in control of Europe. This government isn't an outright junta but is still heavily influenced by the military, which aims to one day retake France proper from German control.
    • When the People's Republic of Bangladesh failed to gain East Pakistan independence from the West, their makeshift government and armed forces managed to maintain themselves in the enclaves of Pakistanis scattered around the ill-defined India/East Pakistan border region. Despite only covering a total of 50 non-contiguous kilometers, they still have a fully functional government supported by India, which funds an ongoing guerrilla insurrection against West Pakistan's control of East Pakistan.
    • In one timeline, the Great Depression occurring in 1922 creates societal unrest that leads to a rebellion by an alliance of communists and Southern blacks. This "Revolutionary Front" eventually drives the federal government out of the continental US, leading to them ending up settled in Honolulu, from where they still run Hawaii, Alaska, and the overseas territories.
  • In A More Personal Union, the Golden Roman Empire effectively serves as this for the Spanish Hapsburgs after their defeat in the Great War forces them and their loyalists to flee their homeland for their New World colonies.
  • World War II: These are formed from numerous Allied and neutral nations as they are invaded and occupied by the belligerent powers of the war. The Polish cooperate with their British allies, offering them operational control over the remaining Polish navy. French general Charles de Gaulle declares one of these from Britain, broadcasting as the Voice of the Resistance while Phillipe Petain's government moved to armistice with Germany.
  • Magic, Metahumans, Martians and Mushroom Clouds: An Alternate Cold War:
    • After General Naguib is ousted from power by Ramses XI, he takes refuge in Syria, which backs his attempts to retake control. Meanwhile, Ramses also eventually forces out all communist forces in Egypt, which set up an "Egyptian Democratic Republic"-in-exile in Libya.
    • When Subhas Bose's revolution takes over India, Prime Minister Nehru flees to China, where he's granted sanctuary and still recognized as the legitimate leader of India.
  • The Death of Russia: When Boris Yeltsin's government is overthrown in the 1993 coup by the National Salvation Front, his Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar flees to Kaliningrad and bribes local government and military officials into acknowledging him as Yeltsin's official successor instead of handing him over to the NSF. He then proceeds to sit out the Civil War on the mainland as the only Russian government officially recognized by the West, though there's some diplomatic friction with them due to the increasingly authoritarian measures Gaidar takes to maintain power in light of Kaliningrad being overwhelmed by countless refugees from the mainland. Eventually, he's convinced by a non-violent protest movement led by Alexander Solzhenitsyn to let go of his Emergency Authority in favor of a free election which selects Boris Nemtsov as the new President, a role he holds for the remainder of the war. After the Fascists and Communists are both defeated, the Kaliningrad government is officially reinstalled as the legitimate authority of the Russian Federation... which doesn't mean much, as everything east of the Urals has gone independent, and European Russia is now an irradiated wasteland administrated by a UN mandate.
  • The Fire Never Dies: There is a very brief attempt after the Red victory in the Second American Revolution to establish an American government in exile in Europe. However, since no one in the Whites' line of succession managed to escape the country, a power struggle emerges between US Ambassador to France William Sharp and Congressman Nicolas Longworth over who should be the acting President; between this and the nations of Europe recognizing the Reds as legitimate, the whole thing ends up dissolving.

    Western Animation 
  • In The Legend of Korra, Prince Wu is technically the Earth King, but he's stuck in Republic City. Kuvira’s Earth Empire is a military junta that is not recognized as legitimate. Being unambitious, and not eager to meet his predecessor's fate, he spends his time living the life of the Idle Rich. In the Grand Finale, he decides to dissolve the monarchy entirely and let the various city-states govern themselves. Then subsequent comics have him decide he needs to think of a better plan, and if it requires him to remain on the throne, so be it. But, he will make sure the people know they’re in charge first and foremost.

    Real Life 
  • Details from Wikipedia
  • World War I forced the Serbian government and military to exile on the Greek island of Corfu. After repelling the initial two offensives launched by Austria-Hungary in 1914, Serbia found itself facing three enemies in 1915: Austria-Hungary, the German Reich and Bulgaria. The Serbian military was forced to retreat to Greece through the mountains of Albania. Despite suffering huge losses due to famine and typhus, they reached their destination. Serbia established a government in exile in Corfu, and, with allied help, managed to resupply and reorganize its troops and launch a succesful counter-offensive in 1918.
  • The birth of the Soviet Union after the bloody Russian Civil War caused several countries that had just acquired independence in 1917-1918 (due to the end of Tsarist Russia with Red October) and got re-annexed by the victorious Bolsheviks to have governments-in-exile.
    • The longest government-in-exile, the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, is still going strong in Canada since its inception in 1919 to the present day. Unlike Ukraine, it was unwilling to recognize Lukashenko's government after he seized power by decree. Interestingly, this Rada was never even meant to be a permanent government, much less one to last almost a century; it was a provisional parliament intended only to set the foundation for a constitutional convention.
    • The longest government-in-exile in modern times to have been disbanded, however, was that of Ukraine (1920-1991), which was established after the Soviet takeover.
  • Several nations that were invaded by Nazi Germany in World War II had governments-in-exile, often headquartered in London or in Canada.
    • While the majority of French people had to live either under German occupation or under the Vichy state, the Free French Forces were formed in London by Charles de Gaulle. As he had the support of Winston Churchill and continued to organize more exiled forces under his command (and even began to gain control of French colonies previously under the control of Vichy France), he gradually became the de facto leader of the French Government in Exile. Of note, the USA stopped recognizing the Vichy government as the legitimate one for France in 1943 only (by which point all of France was German-occupied).
    • Poland's government-in-exile continued for 51 years until the fall of communism in 1990, when it disbanded after recognizing the legitimacy of the post-communist government led by Lech Walesa.
    • Queen Wilhelmina and the rest of the royal family fled The Netherlands as a symbol of resistance; they were welcomed back with uproarious joy at the Liberation (King Leopold III, in neighboring Belgium, had stayed and dealt with the invaders and was consequently forced to abdicate). Her daughter Juliana went further afield, to Ottawa (where her daughter Margriet was born; the Canadian government temporarily declared the maternity ward of the hospital in which Juliana gave birth extraterritorial so she would gain citizenship from her mother alone). It also helped that Juliana's husband Bernhard, although a German, had wanted to stay and join La Résistance, and remained in London with his mother-in-law for much of the war, flying missions for the RAF and later taking command of the Dutch armed forces in the last days of the war.
    • One contingency plan in the unlikely success of a German invasion would have had the Royal Family (or at least Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret - who, famously, would not leave without their mother, who would not leave without the King, who would never leave), along with some senior British politicians, setting up a government-in-exile in Canada. Presumably members of the governments-in-exile already in London would have likewise fled to Canada or the United States.
  • Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Crown Prince of Iran does not recognize the Islamic Republic (who overthrew his father and drove his family into exile in 1979) but he does not consider himself this, instead calling for a Regime Change followed by a referendum where the people choose what form of government they want. He is, however, a chief advisor of the Farashgard (aka Iran Revival) Organization, a Pro-Democracy Anti-Clerical and explicitly Non-Communist movement that falls somewhere between Government in Exile and La Résistance.
  • It was once common practice for monarchs to harbor pretenders to a rival throne. The most famous of these to English speakers were the Jacobites.
    • To the point that, years later, it was common for loyalists to the Stuarts to hold their wineglasses above their water glasses when toasting "To the King" - 'the King over the water' i.e. the exiled King across the Channel in France.
  • The Tibetan government in exile, residing currently in India.
  • The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile, which claims to be the legitimate government of Xinjiang.
  • Though China would have you believe differently, Taiwan counts as this for them since they call themselves the Republic of China, directly descended from the Nationalist side of the civil war back in the 30s and 40s. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of viewnote , since they're just an island facing off against one of the world's largest countries there's very little chance that they'll actually be able to become the recognized government again. They differ from a true government in exile in that still they hold land and reside in Chinese territory.
    • With over seventy years having passed since the Chinese Civil War, the status of both sides has evolved into a peculiar institution. Though Taiwan is a de facto independent (or breakaway) country apart from China, legally it refers to itself as the Republic of China, the same entity as the pre-Civil War nation and the legitimate government for all Chinese territories (including those lost after the fall of the Qing Dynasty such as Mongolia, which the ROC government still doesn't formally recognize as an independent country).note . Likewise, the People's Republic claims to be the legitimate government for all Chinese territories, including the island of Taiwan, under the theory that the ROC ceased to exist at the end of the Civil War and therefore the PRC is the successor to all of its territories . Strangely, this has kept the peace, as both sides see the other as unruly family members under the same roof. If Taiwan were to declare independence (or more accurately, to renounce their claims to mainland territories), it would mean an end to the "One China" legal fiction both sides have held to, and the PRC would most likely be obliged to invade and take the province now in open rebellion.
  • Ecclesiatical equivalent: in partibus bishops are Roman Catholic bishops whose dioceses were unavailable because of schismatics, heretics or non-Christians taking over the places, in partibus is the shorter form of in partibus infidelium, meaning "in the lands of the unbelievers."
    • One exemple of such seat was the diocese of Bethlehem, whose bishop fled the Saladin on 1187 to the Hospital of Panthenor in the town of Clamecy in Burgundy and who remained there considerated and treated as a normal bishop until the revolution.
    • The Greek Orthodox Church occasionally awards to bishops sees in modern Turkey whose Greek population was expelled in 1923.
  • Following the fall of Richmond, the Confederate States of America formed a short "Government in Exile" by moving departments into a train of box cars. A few of the leadership did make it to Brazil and set up an exile government community (exile's descendants still live in the area but as citizens of Brazil). Given the ad hoc nature of the Confederate Government, many of it's cabinet leadership felt it was this from the get go. One such member went so far as to declare that his entire department existed in his hat.
  • South Korea considers itself to be government in exile to the North, and considers that government illegitimate and illegal. The government in Seoul still appoints governors for Northern provinces, although their offices are obviously just symbolic. The government in Pyongyang holds a similar opinion of the South. As with Taiwan, they both still reside on the Korean peninsula.
    • Both sides' claim as governments in exile are more artificial than most examples. Korea had been occupied by Japan prior to World War I, with the monarchy and government of the day overthrown. Following World War II, Japan's occupation was expelled, but the peninsula was divided between U.S. and Soviet zones of influence, with the intention of holding elections for a new unity government somewhere down the line. In practice, though, neither side would accept the other, and so both hosted elections which promoted their own government, both of which claimed sovereignty over the whole peninsula, which would lead directly to the Korean War.
  • A Cyclic Trope for the states ruled by House Savoy:
    • The first time happened when the Duchy of Savoy was invaded by the French in 1536 when the political manouvering of duke Charles II (or III), aimed at trying to keep the state alive in the struggle between France and Spain, gave them an excuse to invade, overrunning most of the country and staying there (in spite of a treaty that obligated them to leave) until in 1559 a new treaty, following a devastating defeat against Spain (whose army was led by the new duke, Emmanuel Philibert), forced them to let the country go. In the meantime, the Duchy's court resided in Vercelli.
    • The second time was during The Napoleonic Wars, when France reacted to Charles Emmanuel IV's neutrality in the War of the Third Coalition by invading and turning most of their mainland territory in the Piedmontese Republic (Savoy proper and Nice having already been occupied during Napoleon's first Italian campaign). As the House of Savoy in the meantime had gained the Kingdom of Sardinia, Charles Emmanuel IV and his successor Victor Emmanuel I retreated to Cagliari until Napoleon's final defeat-at which point they would, in time, take advantage of the heightened sense of Italian national identity caused by the French to unify the country.
    • The third time happened during World War II, when the Italian surrender to the Allies resulted in the Germans occupying most of the country, with Vittorio Emanuele III ruling from Brindisi until the Allies and the remnants of the Italian army took back Rome. This government is most notable for being set up to end with the deposition of its ruler, as Vittorio Emanuele's role in Mussolini's control over the country had turned everyone against him, making his abdication the last hope to preserve the monarchy (it failed in no small part due him making his son Humbert II a regent and postponing the actual abdication until a month before the referendum to choose between monarchy and republic and reminding everyone just why they were having one at the worst possible moment).
      • At the same time of Vittorio Emanuele's exile in Brindisi, the Germans formed a puppet state in the occupied territories, with Mussolini proclaiming Rome as the capital... But due the city being too close to the front lines he had to set shop in various cities in the North (most notably Salò, hence its popular nickname as "Republic of Salò").
    • The fourth was set up by Victor Emmanuel, son of Humbert II, on the justification that his father had effectively abdicated when he accepted the results of the monarchy-republic referendum and went into exile. This is most notable for the reason: his father opposed his wedding, and thus could not marry his fiancee and keep his place as dynastic heir unless he proclaimed Humbert II deposed from head of the House. For obvious reasons, most monarchists either abandoned the cause or recognized the Duke of Aosta as the new head of the House, and anyway the government ceased its (scarce) operations by 2002 so that Victor Emmanuel and his son could return to Italy.
  • The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was founded during the fall of the Soviet Union, but it wasn't recognized despite being one of the first republics to gain independence. They succeeded after the First Chechen War where they gained de facto independence, while remaining de jure part of Russia. However, political instability and terrorism inside the republic began to spill out of control and provoked a second Chechen War, and the formal governmental body was declared illegitimate with the Russians installing a pro-Kremlin Chechen government in power. The Prime-Minister Akhmad Zakayev gained asylum in the West due to his status as a secular Muslim unlike the Islamist terrorists and continued to speake out in behalf of an independent Chechnya. With the conflict's end and Chechnya being an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation rather than a sovereign nation, the Ichkeria Republic practically doesn't exist anymore since it has been absorbed by terrorist forces who denounced Zakayev for "promoting democracy instead of Sharia law" and was dismissed for trying to recognize Russian control on the Chechen Republic. The other surviving pro-Ichkerian politician is Ilyas Akhmadov, who's currently living in the US as a refugee. The others have been assassinated, killed while in Russian custody or have been turned to work for the pro-Kadryrov government.
  • A few months after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, numerous Afghan officials and diplomats who refused to return formed a government in exile, which was announced by through the Afghan Embassy in Switzerland. They support the efforts of the NRF against the Taliban. There are rumors within anti-Taliban groups that some of the exiled officials who are known to be pro-Ghani are trying to sideline those who are pro-Massoud.
  • Brazil's path to independence began by serving as a capital in exile to the Portuguese monarchy: Napoléon Bonaparte invaded Portugal over its refusal to blockade Great Britain. The Portuguese court fled to Brazil, with Rio becoming a temporary imperial capital. When Napoleon was defeated and Portugal became a constitutional monarchy, members of the Portuguese royal family stayed in Brazil and declared it a sovereign empire after members of Portugal's new assembly tried to downgrade Brazil's status back to the colony.
  • The National Unity Government of Myanmar was formed by various parties of the country's suspended parliament after the 2021 Military Coup, declaring themselves the legitimate government while leading an insurgency against the new ruling junta. Most nations have recognized the NUG's claims and provide political support during the ongoing civil war.

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