History Main / CorporateWarfare

* Although the United States never created an East India Company, its closest equivalent would have to be the United Fruit Company, an American MegaCorp capable of dictating terms to ''entire'' {{Banana Republic}}s in Latin America (and in fact popularized the term "BananaRepublic", as it held a monopoly on the banana trade in the region). At its peak, United Fruit wielded enormous control over port and rail infrastructure in several Central American countries, owned the world's largest private navy (even if it were a merchant fleet), and strong-armed national governments into granting it unlimited access to local land and labour. Most importantly, however, United Fruit controlled the regimes themselves, and installed or deposed political leaders according to its interests—it is strongly implied to have a hand in the 1954 coup d'etat that overthrew President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman of Guatemala and installed a CIA-backed dictator in his place.

* In ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''MassEffect''[=/=]''StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, the corporations who operate on Pandora and elsewhere are perpetually living this trope--an UngovernableGalaxy where only the [[TheSocialDarwinist "strong" survive]]. Some aspects of this include a member of the Jakobs family sleeping with the CEO of another company in order to sabotage them, companies manipulating each other's stock prices, corporate espionage, and of course the mandatory PrivateMilitaryContractor army (though one decided to go for [[CloneArmy clones]] instead).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': In the pilot, Xanatos Industries' headquarters is literally invaded by mercenaries from a rival company [[spoiler:except they were actually his own mercenaries, hired as part of a [[XanatosGambit guess what]].]]

Staple of {{Cyberpunk}} media. Megacorporations typically are depicted as having "Company Security Forces" which are often as powerful as the military of a small nation. Besides the option for open warfare, they also heavily indulge in covert operations against their business rivals, ranging from espionage to sabotage and "wetwork", meaning assassinations of key personnel.

Compare MobWar. Contrast to OneNationUnderCopyright, where the corporations literally are nations. May involve an ArmyOfLawyers or CorporateSamurai. PrivateMilitaryContractors are a common choice for such security forces. May overlap with NGOSuperpower.

* In Mack Reynolds' ''Mercenary'' companies often settle contract disputes by armed conflicts commonly referred to as "frackuses" which are televised like spectator sports and are restricted to 19th century technology.

* ''ComicBook/Thor2014'' makes use of this. The [[MegaCorp Roxxon Corporation]], to take just one example, has a whole team of low-rent Hulks ready to deploy at a moment's notice. Oh, and their CEO, Dario Agger, can turn into a ''Minotaur'' at will.

* One ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' comic story centered around Mr. Burns and the owner of the Shellbyvile nuclear plant almost going to nuclear war with one another because [[ItsALongStory Homer was driving around in Grandpa's tank.]] It ends with the federal government forbidding both companies to handle anything nuclear for at least six months, and the employees having to power their towns using giant hamster wheels.

* A major part of the backstory to ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' is a war between newly risen [[OneNationUnderCopyright Corptowns]] and traditional governments that saw them as a threat. It eventually went nuclear, the only survivors a couple corporate colonies on Mars. It's not yet clear if the {{Mega Corp}}s that rose in the following centuries have ever had open wars with each other, but they do maintain militaries to fight pirates and keep the [[LawEnforcementInc IRPF]] in its place.

* ''Film/{{Congo}}'' by Creator/MichaelCrichton. Although they don't engage in open warfare, the corporations racing to discover the lost city of Zinj engage in constant espionage and sabotage to hinder each other's efforts.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'' features the Great Rail Wars, in which six companies fight to be the first to build a transcontinental railway and thus win lucrative contracts from the Union and Confederate governments for transporting the superfuel known as ghost rock (which is most abundant on the west coast). Each company has its a private army of "rail warriors", and that's before you factor in the [[spoilers:witches, undead, supernatural martial artists and automata with human brains]].

* A big part of {{Marvel 2099}}. When they say "hostile takeover", they ''mean'' "hostile takeover".

-->-- Flavour text of the ''Corporate War'' card, ''[[TabletopGame/NetRunner Android:Netrunner]]''

* In ''Franchise/StarWars Episode I: Film/ThePhantomMenace'', the antagonist faction was the corporate army of the Trade Federation, secretly controlled by [[BigBad Darth Sidious]]. In Episodes [[Film/AttackOfTheClones II]], [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith III]] and ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', the Separatist army was also created as an amalgamation of several corporate armies.
* The East India Trading Company is featured in the second and third ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movies. Not only do they have a private fleet and army with a worldwide reach, they also control the ''Flying Dutchman''. The Company wages war on all pirates, intent to wipe them out. Not TruthInTelevision: the East ''India'' Company did arm their ships defensively, but actually fighting wars was the province of the Royal Navy (though they did admittedly have a lot of pull with the government to get the Royal Navy to go where they wanted.)

* A necessary evil in the world of {{Deus Ex Human Revolution}}, where many augmentation firms need their armies as a reason for corporations to not have a war in the first place, in a form of MutuallyAssuredDestruction.

* In ''NexusTheJupiterIncident'', anything beyond the Lunar orbit is under the control of the {{Mega Corp}}s, after they won the war against the [[OneWorldOrder IASA]]. Each MegaCorp has its own private fleet that is frequently deployed against rival corporations and even IASA ships that stray beyond their space. The PlayerCharacter, Marcus Cromwell, is hired by [=SpaceTech=] to captain one of their corvettes. An early mission involves saving a friend of Marcus's, who is a captain in the IASA from two OSEC ships that ambush his ship.

* {{Gargoyles}}: In the pilot, Xanatos Industries' headquarters is literally invaded by mercenaries from a rival company [[spoiler:except they were actually his own mercenaries, hired as part of a [[XanatosGambit guess what]].]]

* ''FanFic/CoreLine'': A recurrently-appearing HeroesRUs faction within various stories is Stingray Security Services, the corporate security army of Stingray Industries (a MegaCorp owned by an [[AlternateSelf Alternate]] of [[Anime/BubblegumCrisis Sylia Stingray]]). The "[[RedshirtArmy regular]]" corporate army [[BadassArmy is strong enough]] to fight a ''full-blown Pearl Harbor-style surprise assault from [[Franchise/GiJoe COBRA]]'' to a standstill (although not without some heavy casualties), and it has its own CorporateSponsoredSuperhero sub-division (the Superhuman Response Division, a.k.a. "[[UnitNickname The Champions]]").

* In ''JenniferGovernment'', the corporate alliances [[spoiler:come to the brink of all-out warfare, and step slightly over the line a few times before coming to their senses]] due to John Nike's influence.