History Main / PretextForWar

* The ancient Romans believed their gods looked unfavourably at wars of aggression. Somehow, over the centuries, they were provoked by hostile neighbours into conquering their way from a single city to an empire spanning over several continents.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', King Gangrel of Plegia abducts a Ylissean noblewoman and uses the deaths of his own soldiers in the rescue attempt as a loose justification for a war of aggression.

** In ''Literature/SmallGods'', Omnia declared war on Ephebe in retaliation for the murder of Omnian missionary... well, the mocking and humiliation of Omnian missionary who was later mysteriously murdered on his way home, but the ''fundamental'' truth is that the Ephebians murdered the missionary by not embracing his preachings. While this led to a CurbStompBattle that sunk the Omnian fleet, Exquisitor Vorbis made the most of the situation, [[spoiler:by sneaking an Omnian army - that had begun crossing the desert ''before'' the missionary even entered Ephebe - into the enemy capital [[ISurrenderSuckers during peace talks]]. "You had to have a mind like Vorbis' to plan your retaliation before your attack."]]

One interesting and {{iron|y}}ic variant is when hardline elements from both sides will collaborate to stage a high profile assassination or other incident to kickstart a war, proving [[NotSoDifferent just how well they work together to achieve their goals despite hating each other's guts]]. This one is especially common when one or both nations have a ReasonableAuthorityFigure as a head of state, since it can force their hand to war, or if they're the assassination target, get them out of the picture ''and'' make them an unwitting martyr. FalseFlagOperation is one of the classical moves too, and almost a Twentieth Century theme song.

* ''ComicBook/FuryMAX'': An ex-Hydra agent named Gagarin meets up with Fury and suggests that they start a war somewhere to give each other something to do (what with the Soviet Union gone, SHIELD has suffered major budget cuts and is now led by an ObstructiveBureaucrat. Gagarin proceeds to start a war in a island BananaRepublic and does everything he can to escalate the conflict, with Fury barely preventing a full world war, killing the man himself but losing his squad. And to his horror, Gagarin's last words ring true in his mind: [[NotSoDifferent That if Gagarin hadn't done it, Fury would have.]]

** In ''Literature/SmallGods'', Vorbis [[spoiler: arranges for one of his own church's missionaries to be murdered on his way back from Ephebe, then blames the Ephebians for killing the man and "counterattacks" with an army he'd sent out to cross the desert before the missionary had even visited their city.]]

* In the political satire ''Wrong Is Right'' (1982), two suitcase nukes acquired by a Middle Eastern dictator are found on top of the World Trade Center. After being successfully disarmed, they're used to justify invading that country and seizing its oil. The last thing we see of the dictator as he's being bombed is him complaining that the whole thing was a set-up, as he still has the nukes in his possession. The movie became HarsherInHindsight after the events of 9/11.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' has many thanks to the machinations of [[PresidentEvil Chancellor]] [[MagnificentBastard Palpatine]]. In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', he directs the [[MegaCorp Trade Federation]] to invade [[PerfectPacifistPeople Naboo]] over a trivial dispute, and in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' he deploys the clone army secretly created by his apprentice Count Dooku to Geonosis, sparking the Clone Wars.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'', [[MeaningfulName Dagur the Deranged]] visits Berk, having heard a rumor that they have taken to training dragons. It is heavily implied that Dagur wants to use that fact as an excuse for the Berserker tribe to wage war on Berk.

* A heroic example occurs in ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'', with [[spoiler:LDS]] (Group A) taking advantage of the team from [[spoiler:Academia]] (Group B) going to [[spoiler: Miami City]] (part of A's territory) on a mission to kidnap two LivingMacGuffin characters. Group A gets footage of B's soldiers using hyper-advanced {{Magitek}} weapons to [[spoiler: seal the souls of]] ([[GettingCrapPastTheRadar metaphor]] [[NeverSayDie for murder]]) bystanders that get caught in the crossfire. The propaganda created from the footage convinces the people of A's home that B is invading, and that they must militarize and fight back. The reason why it's a heroic example is because B already has invaded a different [[spoiler:dimension]] and committed genocide upon it's inhabitants; [[FramingTheGuiltyParty it just hasn't moved onto A's home]] ''[[FramingTheGuiltyParty yet]]'', and the people running A want to ensure that their home is capable of defending itself when the need arises.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' DarkFantasy universe, Gelebor II, a High Elven King, got into a disagreement with Gotrek Starbreaker, the High King of the Dwarves, over attacks on Dwarven trading caravans at the borders of Ulthuan, the High Elven homeland, that were actually carried out by Dark Elves seeking to inflame tensions between them to the point of war. When Gelebor denied all involvement in the attacks and refused to investigate, Forek Grimbok, one of the Dwarven ambassadors sent to Ulthuan, threatened to hold the entire court of the High Elves responsible if they could not find who among them was responsible, Gelebor got angry and, seeking to preserve his reputation, ordered Grimbok's beard shaved off before throwing him out of Ulthuan. This act was a grave insult to not only Grimbok, but the High King and the entire Dwarven race by extension. The resulting war, which devastated both sides of the conflict, was called the "War of Vengeance" by the Dwarves, but was called the "War of the Beard" by the Elves. It's not advisable to [[BerserkButton call it by the latter name]] within dwarven earshot.

* ''VideoGame/KisekiSeries'':

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' DarkFantasy universe, Gelebor II, a High Elven King, got into a disagreement with Gotrek Starbreaker, the High King of the Dwarves, over attacks on Dwarven trading caravans at the borders of Ulthuan, the High Elven homeland, that were actually carried out by Dark Elves seeking to inflame tensions between them to the point of war. When Gelebor denied all involvement in the attacks and refused to investigate, Forek Grimbok, one of the Dwarven ambassadors sent to Ulthuan, threatened to hold the entire court of the High Elves responsible if they could not find who among them was responsible, Gelebor got angry and, seeking to preserve his reputation, ordered Grimbok's beard shaved off before throwing him out of Ulthuan. This act was a grave insult to not only Grimbok, but the High King and the entire Dwarven race by extension. The resulting war, which devastated both sides of the conflict, was called the War of Vengeance by the Dwarves, but was called the "War of the Beard" by the Elves. It's not advisable to [[BerserkButton call it by the latter name]] within dwarven earshot.

* In perhaps one of the most poorly thought out attacks in history, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II was intended to scare the US into remaining neutral rather than joining the Allies. Of course, the US had been aiding the Allies with supplies for years at that point and had been desperately searching for a reason to justify entering into the war in a military capacity. This was less about justifying it internationally -- the other Allied forces were happy to have the US join the fight and would not have complained regardless of the pretext -- and more about justifying it domestically, since public opinion within the US was fairly split about whether they should enter the war. Then the Japanese attacked and any resistance to joining the war evaporated as now it would look worse NOT to retaliate.

* The finale of ''Anime/StarshipOperators'', [[spoiler: the Earth Alliance invades the Henrietta Sector on the pretext of defending the Kiba government-in-exile onboard the ''Amaterasu'' from the Kingdom. However the ''Amaterasu'' crew decide they'd rather not be used like that.]]

** ''[[Recap/TintinTheBrokenEar The Broken Ear]]'': A CorruptCorporateExecutive encourages Tintin (then working as the aide to a BananaRepublic's dictator) to declare war on a neighbouring country. Tintin point-blank refuses, so the executive frames him and he's forced to flee the country in a staff car. The car is fired upon by the [[BorderCrossing border guards]] and the incident itself is then used as an excuse for war.

* This is discussed several times in the mini-series ''Series/{{Attila}}'' (2001). Flavius Aetius presents the young Attila's chief with one of his men who has been tortured as a pretext for taking on a rival tribe. Attila accuses Flavius of having inflicted the torture marks himself as they've been done post-mortem. Later after the chief dies, Flavius warns Attila that he needs a pretext before returning home to take on a rival, so Attila accuses him of murdering the previous ruler. After Attila creates the Hunnic Empire, he uses an earlier offer of marriage by the sister of the Roman Emperor (and half their empire as dowry) to invade their territory.

Since [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_aggression wars of aggression]] have technically been banned, you'll find that these are a lot more common today than they were previously, since both sides are at pains to show that the other side started it. As a result, the history of many a 20th-century war reads like a really, really dark [[IdiotPlot Idiot]] FawltyTowersPlot. Mind you, "civilized" countries have more or less always deemed it improper to declare war on your neighbors "because we want your stuff" or "because we feel like it"[[note]]With the exception of Sparta, which freely admitted that it would go to war "[[BloodKnight because we have nobody else to fight right now]]."[[/note]]; even an aggressive war would have to have some kind of triggering incursion, insult, or violation behind it. (Look up how each of the three UsefulNotes/PunicWars got started — the pretexts are hilariously flimsy.)

* When Guy de Lusignan becomes King of Jerusalem in ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'', he releases Reynald in order for him to do something to start a war with Saladin. In an earlier scene Saladin's adviser had remarked that Guy becoming king meant Saladin didn't have to find one himself since the man was stupid enough to start a war he couldn't win.