History Main / PretextForWar

* That pig thing, in the trope description? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War_(1859) It was real.]] It wasn't much of a war though: "The pig was the only casualty of the war, making the conflict otherwise bloodless." from Website/TheOtherWiki. The situation was diffused largely because the commanders of both sides flatly refused to fight over something so stupid.

** Belgian King Leopold III tried to avoid giving Germany a reason to invade by refusing to allow British and French forces to take positions inside neutral Belgium during the "Phony War". It didn't work -- Hitler invaded Belgium and the other Low Countries anyway in 1940 in order to clear the way to invade France by using the Ardennes Forest and the French/Belgian border to bypass the Maginot Line all along the French/German border.

** Belgian King Leopold III tried to avoid giving Germany a reason to invade by refusing to allow British and French forces to take positions inside neutral Belgium during the "Phony War". It didn't work -- Hitler invaded Belgium and the other Low Countries anyway in 1940 in order to clear the way to invade France in 1941 by using the Ardennes Forest and the French/Belgian border to bypass the Maginot Line all along the French/German border.

** Belgian King Leopold III tried to avoid giving Germany a reason to invade by refusing to allow British and French forces to take positions inside neutral Belgium during the "Phony War". It didn't work -- Hitler invaded Belgium and the other Low Countries anyway in 1940 in order to clear the way to invade France in 1941.

** Belgian King Leopold III tries to avoid giving Germany a reason to invade by refusing to allow British and French forces to take positions inside neutral Belgium during the "Phoney War".
** The Soviet-Finnish Winter War begins on the pretext of an artillery attack by Finns against the Russian village of Mainila despite Finland having withdrawn its artillery from the border to prevent such an incident.

** ''Civilization VI'' introduced ''casus belli'' as an actual mechanic. Invoking one when declaring a war reduces the diplomatic penalties received for being a warmonger in the eyes of other civs. The reduction ranges from minor (being honest about commencing a hostile land-grab) to complete negation (reclaiming a declared ally's territory or liberating your own cities carries no warmonger penalty, even if you "technically" declared a new war to recover what you lost in the last one).

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by "Serbian terrorists" (actually a group including Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, but authorities painted the plot as entirely Serb-run) sponsored by the head of Serbian military intelligence to further the goal of Serbian dominance of the Balkans was used as an excuse to take down Serbia's racist military Junta and replace it with a government which ''didn't'' sponsor terrorists (even during the war there was no question of annexing Serbia, as doing so would only have added to Austria-Hungary's domestic political problems). Which sounds a bit unreasonable until you realise that the very existence of Serbia (an independent nation-state of ethnic Serbs whose sole foreign policy goal was to unite all the lands inhabited by Southern Slavs into Yugoslavia, which they envisioned as as a Greater Serbia) terrified the German/Hungarian elites that ruled the mindbogglingly multi-ethnic Austria-Hungary. Right from the start they thought that, with Germany backing them all the way, Russia would back down rather than risk war with them ''and'' Germany at the same time, just like six years earlier over the formal annexation of (Habsburg-occupied, technically Ottoman) Bosnia.
** For reference, the main ethnic groups in Austria-Hungary were, roughly by population: Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Croats, Slovaks, Serbs, Slovenes, and Italians. Plus a lot of Jews, most of whom spoke German/Yiddish or Hungarian.

*** Or to make a long story short, a bunch of people wanted some stuff and threatened to go to war if they didn't get it, but mostly wanted a war. Some other people didn't want to give it to them but kind of wanted a war too. One thing led to another and there was a war, which everyone thought would be over in about three months (with their side victorious, of course). And then it snowballed into a really, really big war. Then about six months later, they all thought to themselves, "Why the hell did we do that?" But by then, they were committed.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelling_of_Mainila Mainila incident]], which the Soviet Union used as a pretext for invading Finland during the Winter War. It has been established that there is no way the Finns could have been responsible, as none of their artillery was in range at the time. See FalseFlagOperation.
** A few months later, the Soviets started claiming that the Baltic states captured and are torturing some of their soldiers. Remembering Finland, all three countries agreed to join the USSR. No attempt to find the captive soldiers followed.

** It's a little more complicated. There were actually two "Gulf of Tonkin" incidents, separated by around 48 hours. The first incident took in disputed waters, claimed by North Vietnam as its territorial waters but by the US as international waters, conveniently not too far from an area where a South Vietnamese covert operation against the North was taking place. (North Vietnam claimed that US warships were supporting it, while US has denied it.) During this incident, which was very real, North Vietnamese patrol boats took the worst of it, while US warships suffered nothing more than a few dents. The second incident took place in the middle of night, roughly 40 hours later, in undisputed international waters. Sailors onboard US warships (which were involved in the first incident) thought that they were under attack by North Vietnamese and spent most of the night shooting at something...or nothing. Military intelligence officials who received the report thought the whole thing was a mistake by confused sailors and no actual attack took place--which has been confirmed by every investigation thereafter by military, government, academics, etc. But Johnson administration decided to ignore the intelligence report and assert that the second attack was real to justify escalating conflict.
* To make a trifecta, the sinking of the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_%28ACR-1%29 USS Maine]]'' in Havana Harbor provided America with the perfect excuse to start the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar and take over Cuba and Spain's Pacific possessions. Investigations since then seem to be split on whether it was a deliberate act of war by the Spanish, a FalseFlagOperation by Cuban rebels, or a genuine accident caused by a fire in a coal bunker.
** It didn't help that the American press was actively encouraging war with Spain by citing (false) Spanish atrocities. Why? [[IfItBleedsItLeads To increase their sales figures]].
** Not that there weren't perfectly real atrocities being committed by Spain in its attempt to suppress a Cuban Revolution - including the first documented use of what the Spanish called "Campos de Concentración". Unlike the later (euphemistic) use of the term by the Nazis, those were ''supposed to be'' "only" internment camps to hold the civilian population in order to deprive the guerillas of support. They were however guarded by armed Spanish soldiers, had barbed wire and were (due to military corruption) insufficiently provisioned and disease-riddled leading to horrific death tolls - even if the claim that it was due to incompetence or carelessness rather than a deliberate policy of murder is somewhat more credible than in later cases. Only a few years later the same American public who had been outraged at that treatment of the Cuban civilian population didn't care in the slightest about the ''very similar'' methods the US used to suppress the uprising of the Filipino population (the Phillippines having been acquired from Spain as a result of the war).

** Another escalation of the Japanese war in China start with a Japanese soldier peeing in the woods. Seriously - he missed role call after training while taking a leak, and his commanding officer challenged a nearby Chinese patrol, thinking the man might have been abducted or attacked by the Chinese. Tempers flared and somebody (from which side is not known) opened fire. Things were nearly smoothed over by the local commanders, but the Japanese Army high command refused to de-escalate as they had been looking for any old pretext to expand into more of China anyway.

* The ancient Romans believed their gods looked unfavourably at wars of aggression. Somehow, over the centuries, they were provoked by hostile neighbours - or aiding their beleaguered allies - into conquering their way from a single city to an empire spanning over several continents.
** The UsefulNotes/PunicWars are a good show at what Rome would lower itself to have a pretext:
*** The First was caused when the Mamertines, mercenaries that had been previously worked for Syracuse, occupied the city of Messana (modern day Messina) and requested help from both Carthage and Rome. Carthage acted first, pressing Syracuse into letting the Mamertines go and garrisoning Messana, at which point the Roman Senate, that had been aiming to expand in Sicily for a while, decided to ''not'' go at war as Carthage was an ally and the request was already sketchy to begin with due the Mamertines having stolen the city from its rightful owners to begin with... Then warmongers in the Senate put the decision in front of the Centuriate Assembly, the one organ that, as the popular assembly, had ''more'' power than the Senate and held out the prospect of plentiful booty, at which point the merchants that would benefit from said booty decided to accept the request, much to Carthage's rightful indignation.
*** After Rome won the First War, Carthage's influence zone in the Iberian Peninsula was limited to the area south of the Ebrus river... And ''then'' Rome made an alliance treaty with Saguntum, a prosperous and well fortified city right in the Carthaginian influence zone. A few years later Hannibal, knowing that Saguntum would be an enormous threat, conquered it, and Rome declared war.
*** After losing the Second Punic War, Carthage was banned from declaring war on anyone without the permission of Rome, a ban that the Romans considered eternal unless a new treaty said otherwise but the Carthaginians considered bound to expire as soon as they had paid the enormous war indemnity. Thus Carthage did not react to Numidian aggression for ''fifty years'', begging Rome for redress or at least permission to counterattack the whole time and only raising an army after they paid the indemnity and thus considered the treaty expired. The Numidians crushed the Carthaginian army at Oroscopa, and the Carthaginians, realizing the Romand did ''not'' consider the treaty expired, executed their general as penance and sent embassies to effectively beg for forgiveness, but Rome, who didn't want the commercial competition and had factions that used Carthage as a political boogeyman, eventually declared war. When the Romans arrived at their African allied harbor of Utica Carthage sent a last embassy, to whom the consul Censorinus demanded they handed over all weapons. Carthage brought to Utica all their weapons ''and'' their military fleet just to stay on the safe side... At which point Censorinus demanded the Carthaginians relocated 16 km away from the sea. The Carthaginians recalled their ambassadors and started rebuilding their weapons and ships, and the Romans attacked.

** FalseFlagOperation aside, there is compelling evidence to suggest that 9/11 was used to justify a first-strike in Iraq for reasons varying from personal (such as removing Saddam Huessein from power) to financial (such as [[CorruptCorporateExecutive taking all of Iraq's oil and getting filthy rich]]).

* ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' featured [[spoiler:a combined conspiracy by both Starfleet officers and Klingon military leaders]] to try to veer both nations onto the path to war by [[spoiler:having each side's ReasonableAuthorityFigure assassinated by agents from the other side]]. Given how the Federation was definitely in the stronger economic and military position at the time, many fans have since hypothesized that the respective [[spoiler:Klingons]] were goaded into "dying on their feet rather than living on their knees" by [[RetCon Section 31 machinations]].

* ''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: [[NotSoDifferentRemark That if Gagarin hadn't done it, Fury would have]].

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident Gleiwitz Incident]] was used as a pretext for Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. An SS commando in Polish uniforms attacked a radio station near the Polish border and broadcast anti-German propaganda. They even dressed a prisoner in Polish uniform and shot him to add authenticity. Even before that, during the summer of 1939, the Nazis staged attacks on ethnic Germans in Poland, claiming this was the work of Polish terrorists. Nobody outside Germany bought it, with France and the United Kingdom declaring war on them within a few days.

* In ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it says that the history of warfare is divided into three phases: retribution, anticipation, and diplomacy.

The leaders of Viridia and Tyria want to go to war. Not for a {{silly reason|ForWar}}, but due to anything from good old fashioned jingoism, greed, political/economic/religious differences, or a simple historical grudge. However, they can't just out and out declare war, [[SarcasmMode that would be uncivilized!]] And more importantly, it would make them look bad to the international community, which isn't good politics. So instead they will wait for or manufacture a Pretext for War out of whatever should come their way.

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 [[TeethClenchedTeamwork 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.

* The finale of ''Literature/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.]]

* ''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: [[NotSoDifferentRemark That if Gagarin hadn't done it, Fury would have.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Monstress}}'': The series starts with [[AntiHero Maika]], in a personal action to find out more about her deceased mother's secret projects, [[BatmanGambit allowing herself to be captured as a slave, then to be hijacked at auction by the Cumaea, and brought to their local fortress]]. Maika then breaks loose and sparks off a prison break to cover for her while she goes hunting for the Cumaea witch Yvette (an old associate of her mother's) for answers. After the riot, the [[EliteMooks Inquisitrix]] (the Cumaea's enforcers) arrive in force and kill the surviving Cumaea and army grunts, stating in their official report in very [[FantasticRacism racist]] and ideologically-charged terms that the Arcanics deliberately left no survivors; they then recapture the Arcanic fugitives and execute them to [[LeaveNoWitnesses make sure that there were no loose ends]]. This all gives the main Cumaea enough material to [[FalseFlagOperation justify that the Federation go back to war]]. The only survivors of the massacre are the Cumaea Sophia, Atena, and Yvette (the latter being resurrected after Maika killed her), [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou because they were still useful to the Cumaea's schemes]].

** The final reason for Arendelle and Weselton to go to war is scout shooting incident, which is a result of tensions building up to the point that two armies are less than a mile from each other. Schemers on both sides set the entire situation up (sending armies, choosing GeneralRipper to be one of the commanders) so it would end that way.
** Hans' plan to keep Westerguard is to start war between Isles and Arendelle by killing Anna and making it look as if it's Islanders' fault.
* At one point in ''Fanfic/EarthsAlienHistory'', the [[TheAlliance Terran Treaty Organization]] colonizes the Rama star cluster, which the [[Manga/OutlawStar Invincible Ctarl-Ctarl Empire]] claims to have already put a stake in (despite never colonizing or occupying). To try and rectify this, Ctarl-Ctarl [[AssInAmbassador ambassador]] Aisha Clanclan conspires with a high-ranked friend in the military to place a fleet on a "training exercise" on the border, in the hopes that they'll be fired upon by [=TeTO=], enabling them to start a war that will result in the Ctarl-Ctarl taking the cluster for themselves. [[spoiler: Except the resulting border skirmish never escalates into a full-scale war, and [=TeTO=] puts more effort into it, so the Ctarl-Ctarl get their asses kicked.]]
* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria'': "[[RememberTheAlamo The Littlehorn Massacre]]" was the primary reason for the war between the zebras and Equestria, especially with the return of [[DarkIsNotEvil Princess Luna]]. The zebras were highly superstitious and terrified of Luna, due to her close association with the stars and night, which the zebras believed were evil. Celestia, Luna's sister and ruler of Equestria, built her sister a school at the edge of Equestria to help her get out of the GildedCage that Celestia had unintentionally created. This location was close to zebra land, and things were already strained due to trade talks and arguments over resources. When a zebra refugee convoy passed too close to the school one night, the school faculty panicked and activated their defenses, wiping out the convoy. One of the survivors was a zebra commando, who slipped into the school grounds and unleashed a chemical weapon that killed everyone, faculty and students alike. The "Littlehorn Massacre" destroyed any possibility of peace between the two countries. Celestia [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone felt so much guilt over having built Luna's school at Littlehorn in the first place]] that she [[AbdicateTheThrone stepped down as ruler of Equestria and gave the throne to Luna]]. And, once again, because the zebras viewed Luna as basically the AntiChrist, this made everything even worse.

* The plot of ''Film/TheEmperorAndTheAssassin'' is about this--Ying Zheng seeks to conquer all of China, and needs a pretext to attack the state of Yan. So he sends the Lady Zhao to convince the King of Yan to send an assassin to kill him, to stop this invasion from taking place.

** ''{{Literature/Jingo}}'' is built around one - unsurprisingly, given the name. The excuse for war is a worthless island that's risen from the bottom of the sea after a volcanic event, almost exactly between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch. The two nations have been at peace for decades, but since the island would be such a useful launching point for an invasion if they ''did'' go to war, tensions immediately escalate over who gets to claim it - or as Vimes puts it, "we're supposed to go to war over some rock that's only useful if we have to go to war?" A more politically acceptable excuse to go to war and seize the island (the attempted assassination of a diplomat) had to be manufactured as a result. Fortunately, Sam Vimes wasn't fooled for a minute and set out to put a stop to it before things got out of hand. [[spoiler:Carrot ended up [[RefugeInAudacity arresting two entire armies for, among other things, Conspiracy to Commit a Breach of the Peace]] and buying enough time for Vetinari to swing a large number of trade concessions in return for ceding the island to the other side... about half an hour before it sinks again.]]

* Mocked in ''Literature/TheElenium'', when a discussion on whether to go to war with Otha and his Zemochs could be justified. It’s brought up that there was never an armistice or even a declared ceasefire, just the fact that both sides bludgeoned each other to exhaustion that led an end to the overt hostilities. One of the Church Knights jokes that the Eosian continent was just resting, for 500 years, and that they felt sufficiently rested to resume the fight.
* ''Literature/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom'':
** A multilayered one in volumes 2-4. Main character Souma Kazuya, the [[TrappedInAnotherWorld summoned hero]]-turned-King of Elfrieden, baits the antagonistic neighboring country of Amidonia into aiding the other side in an uprising against his rule by corrupt nobles. Amidonia is itself using the CivilWar as cover to retake some of the territory they lost to Elfrieden in a war two generations earlier. Souma defeats them and occupies their capital, and deliberately makes himself look good to the citizens compared to the ultra-militaristic Amidonian royals by investing in their arts and culture, the goal being to make them long for him to come back after he withdraws and give him an excuse to occupy that part of the country permanently. [[spoiler:He miscalculates slightly: Princess Roroa of Amidonia orchestrates a nationwide uprising that forces her brother Julius to flee the country, and then betrothes herself to Souma to unite them into the United Kingdom of Friedonia.]]
** {{Subverted}} in volume 13. Souma gets into a conflict with the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union over fishing rights, and spends several months with foreign propagandists trumpeting to the fiercely independent islanders about how he's coming to attack them, with the fishing dispute as the pretext for invasion. [[spoiler:The war itself was the actually the pretext for a GenghisGambit he arranged ahead of time with the Nine-Headed Dragon King, Shana, who used it as an excuse to get the islands' fleets to marshal in one place [[WeAreStrugglingTogether after their terminally fractious chiefs couldn't agree on a plan to deal with the root cause of the problem]]--a {{kaiju}} named Ooyamizuchi--as well as give Souma's heavier naval vessels an excuse to be there to help.]]

** Retribution: “I’m going to kill you because you killed my brother.”
** Anticipation: “I’m going to kill you because I killed your brother.”
** Diplomacy: “I’m going to kill my brother and then kill you on the pretext that your brother did it.”

** However, going with the game's FailureHero theme, it didn't actually work. The rebellion didn't really spread beyond Kirkwall until [[spoiler: a mad Lord Seeker tried to purge the Val Royeaux circle after a mage murdered a Templar, breaking away from the Chantry which had specifically ordered him not to in the process,]] in ''{{Literature/Asunder}}''.

* ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'': As a small kingdom to the south with a pitifully small army and an abundance of [[GreenRocks Septium]] ore, Liberl made an easy target for the Erebonian Empire. Unfortunately for said empire, civil unrest among the Reformist and noble factions left the government in a politically sensitive position. To tip the scales in their favor, a small village on the border named [[spoiler:Hamel]] was mercilessly butchered down to the last man, woman, and child. The official story [[spoiler:pinned it on Liberlian soldiers, but in fact were Jaegers in disguise]]. This is why several characters in the overall Trails series have [[DarkAndTroubledPast plenty of trauma to go around]] as a handful of survivors managed to escape. A deciding factor that ended the war was [[spoiler:the condition that no one on either side was to reveal the truth about Hamel]] as an act of truce. The climax of the ''Second Chapter'' reveals that [[spoiler:the main villain Weissman whispered the name to select people to suggest the idea in the first place, which would give him the opportunity to mold whoever survived into the perfect slave for him to control.]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'': Despite the games taking place in Erebonia, the nation responsible for the burning of [[spoiler:Hamel]], the truth of the incident isn't discussed until the third game, which gives more insight into why the incident happened. Commoners were rising up in rank in the Imperial Army, and nobles in the army weren't okay with that. These nobles are the ones [[spoiler:Weissman]] convinces to attack [[spoiler:Hamel]] as a pretext for the Hundred Days War, which they could brag about as an achievement. Gilliath Osborne, a leader in the Imperial Army and one of the commoners despised by those nobles, warns them to not attack [[spoiler:Hamel]]. In response, they hire jaegers to attack his home, leading to the death of his wife and his son [[spoiler:Rean]] being mortally wounded. The only reason [[spoiler:Rean]] doesn't die is because [[spoiler:Osborne makes a DealWithTheDevil to save his son's life]]. Osborne is the one who negotiated with the queen of Liberl and managed to stop the war under the condition that [[spoiler:everyone who knows about Hamel keep quiet about the truth]]. The way Osborne managed to deal with the Hundred Days War won him the trust of Emperor Eugent III, who responds by making him the first commoner-born chancellor in Erebonia's history. This serves as the StartOfDarkness for Osborne, who would go on to become the EvilChancellor and BigBad of the Cold Steel games.
** In the third ''Cold Steel'' game, [[spoiler:Emperor Eugent]] is shot by [[spoiler:a survivor of Hamel]]. Osborne uses the fact that the ''gun'' was from Calvard as a pretext to declare war against them, something anyone with half a brain knew he'd been prepping for for at least a year.

** On the American side, this is also an example of [[spoiler:the "hard-line elements from both sides co-operate with each other" example above, since General Shepherd, commander of the US Army Rangers and Allen's superior, was collaborating with Makarov to start a Russo-American war and planted Allen in Makarov's cell for the sole purpose of BEING the catalyst. All part of his plan to reinvigorate America's military might after the nuclear explosion that killed 30,000 Marines in the first ''Modern Warfare'' pacified it. Naturally, once the war actually kicks into gear Shepherd wastes no time [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness turning on Makarov]], while simultaneously trying to cover up that he was ever involved with him in the first place.]]
* Creator/ParadoxInteractive's grand strategy games usually require you to come up with a ''casus belli'' before you can declare war on someone:
** In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' you can have your Spymaster fabricate claims on a neighboring county to justify your expansion, while in ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'' you can similarly find "obscure documents." At other times in ''EU'' or ''VideoGame/VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'', you might see border incidents like the pig one occur.
** In ''Crusader Kings II'' this is largely religion-dependent: Christians, Jews, and [[UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}} Mazdans]] need claims on titles (which can be faked) or [[ChurchMilitant holy war]] justifications to conquer territory (2.8 adds the "border dispute" ''casus belli'', which costs resources to use and incurs an [[RelationshipValues opinion penalty]] from other rulers). Muslims and pagans are free to declare wars for single counties without much consequence (especially [[HornyVikings Germanic pagans]], who can target any coastal county).
** ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has a range of ''casus belli'' based on a star nation's ethics and government type. Normal nations can declare wars of conquest only after spending Influence to stake claims to other empires' systems, while Pacifistic empires can only "liberate" worlds, creating a new nation with identical ethics to their own. You can also declare war to specifically humiliate a nation you've declared your rival, force someone to become your vassal, or impose your ideology upon them. [[AbsoluteXenophobe Fanatical Purifiers]], [[TheAssimilator Driven Assimlators]], [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Devouring Swarms]] and those who [[GodhoodSeeker Become the]] [[ApocalypseCult Crisis]], on the other hand, don't really need a ''casus belli'' to attack a neighbor, and likewise other nations can use the "Contain Threat" justification against them. And just owning a [[PlanetDestroyer Colossus]] is enough to justify another power waging total war against you, or vice versa.

* ''VideoGame/{{Humankind}}'' has a more abstract form of this in its War Support. Grievances against other empires aren't themselves a valid pretext, but if demands for reparations go unmet, it builds public support for war. Notably, this also works the other way. When war support hits zero during a conflict, that side is forced to capitulate, and gets no say in the terms.

* In ''VideoGame/WarPips,'' you, the general of the Piponian invasion force, are tasked with "liberating" the Oiyelistan people from their petroleum reserves and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking their unholy custom of putting water on their cornflakes instead of milk.]]

* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria'': "[[RememberTheAlamo The Littlehorn Massacre]]" was the primary reason for the war between the zebras and Equestria, especially with the return of [[DarkIsNotEvil Princess Luna]]. The zebras were highly superstitious and terrified of Luna, due to her close association with the stars and night, which the zebras believed were evil. Celestia, Luna's sister and ruler of Equestria, built her sister a school at the edge of Equestria to help her get out of the GildedCage that Celestia had unintentionally created. This location was close to zebra land, and things were already strained due to trade talks and arguments over resources. When a zebra refugee convoy passed too close to the school one night, the school faculty panicked and activated their defenses, wiping out the convoy. One of the survivors was a zebra commando, who slipped into the school grounds and unleashed a chemical weapon that killed everyone, faculty and students alike. The "Littlehorn Massacre" destroyed any possibility of peace between the two countries. Celestia [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone felt so much guilt over having built Luna's school at Littlehorn in the first place]], that she [[AbdicateTheThrone stepped down as ruler of Equestria and gave the throne to Luna]]. And, once again, because the zebras viewed Luna as basically the AntiChrist, this made everything even worse.

''We have '''Casus Belli'''!''[[note]]''Casus Belli!'' '''Casus Belli!''' ''Casus Belli!'' '''Casus Belli!''' ''Casus belli!'' '''Casus Belli!'''[[/note]]

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 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]] or even "because we're afraid of you"; 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.)

* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria'': "[[RememberTheAlamo The Littlehorn Massacre]]" was as big of a reason for the Zebras and Equestria to declare war on one-another due to rising tensions that were forming between the two groups; especially in-light of the return of [[DarkIsNotEvil Princess Luna]]. The Zebras were highly superstitious and believed that anything relating to the Stars and Night is inherently evil due to an ancient Zebra Civilization that once prayed to the Stars [[ColonyDrop being wiped out by an asteroid impact]]. And due to Luna having become Nightmare Moon long ago and being banished by Celestia only to return a millennia later; the Zebras immediately distrusted Princess Luna and didn't want her anywhere near a position of power. At the same time; the only reason why Luna became Nightmare Moon in the first place [[DudeWheresMyRespect was due to her being singled out and ignored by her own people that she and Celestia were supposed to rule over together]], and even after all these centuries later; she feels like she isn't as appreciated and is only living inside of a GildedCage that Celestia unintentionally-designed Equestria as. Luna's School For Gifted Unicorns was Celestias' attempt to rectify this, by creating a School to study Magic underneath the tutelage of [[TheSacredDarkness The Princess of The Night]], only to make the misstep of having it built in Littlehorn Valley; an open plain located near Equestrias' boarder with the Zebra Lands[[note]] There were actually two other suitable locations to build the school at, however Celestia noted a chance to play a joke on her younger sister by telling her that her Students will be "Sent To The Moon" when it was revealed that Littlehorn Valley had a canyon that was shaped like a Crescent Moon[[/note]]. The Massacre proper happened when a Zebra Convoy escorting Refugees had passed through Littlehorn Valley close to Luna's School one night, and due to rising tensions from both sides due to Trade restrictions caused by the Zebras in-protest over Princess Luna; the School Faculty thinking that the Zebra Refugees were actually invading forces at the time had activated the schools defenses to wipe out the Convoy. In-retaliation, a Zebra Commando that was with the Refugees at the time snuck their way into the school grounds and unleashed a Chemical Weapon that killed not only the Faculty but also the young Unicorn students that were all at the school as well. "The Littlehorn Massacre" as the event would be called saw the dissolving of any chance at peace being formed between Ponies and Zebrakind; made all the worse when Celestia; [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone feeling guilt over having built Luna's School at Littlehorn in the first place]], [[AbdicateTheThrone stepped down as ruler of Equestria to have her younger sister Luna take control.]]

** {{Discussed}} in ''The Literature/HandOfThrawn''. A number of New Republic member states who are involved in the developing CivilWar over the Bothans' role in the Imperial genocide of the Caamasi[[note]]The DrivingQuestion being, in the event the specific collaborators cannot be identified, is it justifiable to hold the entire Bothan state/species responsible?[[/note]] only actually care about it because it gives them an excuse to pick a fight with historical enemies (the [[StrawVulcan Diamalans]] and [[HotBlooded Ishori]] are one such example, and are introduced in the first book arguing about something else entirely).

** Not that there weren't perfectly real atrocities being committed by Spain in its attempt to suppress a Cuban Revolution - including the first documented use of what the Spanish called "Campos de Concentración".[[note]]Unlike the later (euphemistic) use of the term by the Nazis, those were ''supposed to be'' "only" internment camps to hold the civilian population in order to deprive the guerillas of support. They were however guarded by armed Spanish soldiers, had barbed wire and were (due to military corruption) insufficiently provisioned and disease-riddled leading to horrific death tolls - even if the claim that it was due to incompetence or carelessness rather than a deliberate policy of murder is somewhat more credible than in later cases[[/note]] Only a few years later the same American public who had been outraged at that treatment of the Cuban civilian population didn't care in the slightest about the ''very similar'' methods the US used to suppress the uprising of the Filipino population (the Phillippines having been acquired from Spain as a result of the war).

* UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar started thanks to a dispute between Catholic and Orthodox clergymen in Bethlehem (present-day Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire), over the keys to the Church of the Nativity. This led to the awkward situation of Catholic France, Anglican Britain and the Catholic but anti-Pope Kingdom of Sardinia[[note]]They had the very open goal of unifying Italy. That would necessarily include annexing Rome ([[SeriousBusiness as no Italian would accept another city as capital except as a temporary measure]]), and since the reigning Pope was opposed to a federation that meant Sardinia would eventually go at war with the Pope[[/note]] siding with Muslim Turkey against Orthodox Russia over a religious argument.
* In the runup to the Six Days War, Nasser was either intentionally provoking Israel or blustering to look tough. First he called for an end to the UN mission acting as "buffer" between Egypt and Israel in the Sinai, then he started mobilizing troops, ostensibly in preparation for war - all while saying stuff like "We'll destroy Israel" on the radio - and ultimately, he closed the Straits of Tiran,[[note]]Israel's only access to the Red Sea and of crucial importance for Israeli trade with Asia[[/note]] which Israel had ''repeatedly'' said would be [[ThisMeansWar grounds for war]]. Guess what happened?

* When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, they claimed it was to stop NATO eastward expansion...except Ukraine was not in the process of joining NATO, only sending in an application after Russia annexed four occupied oblasts[[note]]On top of that, NATO had never made any official binding agreement not to expand eastward, despite repeat claims by Russian propaganda that they had[[/note]]. Then they claimed it was to denazify Ukraine...except Ukraine's president is Jewish and far-right parties have minimal support, and neo-Nazis were seen among the Russian invaders[[note]]though non-Russians are far more likely to call bullshit; Russia's PropagandaMachine [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/06/how-victory-day-became-central-to-putin-idea-of-russian-identity heavily downplays the Nazis' antisemitism]], instead defining the Nazis purely by the fact they invaded the Soviet Union and by extension Russia, and apparently extending that to mean ''all'' opponents of the Russian Federation are Nazis[[/note]]. Then they claimed it was to stop Ukraine from gaining nuclear weapons...which they weren't. Later, they claimed it was to "desatanize" Ukraine...except '''87.3%''' of Ukrainians identify as Christian, largely Orthodox. Needless to say, Russia has yet to provide a halfway convincing reason for invading. Ironically, both Sweden and Finland quickly announced their intention to join NATO shortly after the war began.

* ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'': The United Mankind attacks an Abh ship through a previously unknown hyperspace lane, then declares that they were attacked first and destroyed the ship in self-defense. They use this incident to begin stirring up their allies and begin to build an excuse to go to war with the Abh. The Abh Empress doesn't believe for an instant that the Abh ship is to blame, realizes what the United Mankind is up to, and decides to just cut to the chase and declare war ''immediately'', which catches the United Mankind and their allies off-guard.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Overlord|2012}}'', when the Sorcerer Kingdom's TooDumbToLive UnwittingPawn attacks and pillages a convoy they had sent with humanitarian aid for the Roble Holy Kingdom, [[IndyPloy Ainz ditches his original plan]] of destabilizing the Re-Estize Kingdom before vassalizing them and [[CuttingTheKnot uses the incident as an excuse]] to [[ThisMeansWar declare war against them]] instead.
* The finale of ''LightNovel/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.]]

* ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'' has a complex one. First is the destruction of the ''Gosroth'' with United Mankind insisting on setting up a joint investigation committee, with the suggestion that tensions are running high after the Abh annex the Hyde System. Ultimately subverted in that it is revealed that UM has been planning the whole thing for decades and on the Abh side Empress Ramaj sees right through it and refuses to play their games. She basically says "If you want a war then I will give you a war."

** ''[[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing: Isard's Revenge]]'' : The New Republic is picking a fight with the neutral (if admittedly pro-Imperial) Ciutric Hegemony. Prince-Admiral Krennel is obviously not a nice man, but the best pretext the New Republic can come up with for starting the war is Krennel's execution of Sate Pestage several years previously when the latter tried to defect to the Rebellion, which at worst is a case of PayEvilUntoEvil (Pestage was an AssholeVictim), along with Krennel's family (over a hundred people died in that purge alone) and a number of other purges he committed to keep himself in power. Myn Donos notes that one of his former squamates came from Toprawa, a planet deep within Imperial territory that's being repressed much more harshly than the worlds in the Hegemony due to its people's role in the theft of the Death Star plans, while even the generally saintly Admiral Ackbar more or less confesses that going after Krennel is as much about New Republic sabre-rattling to frighten bigger warlords like Teradoc as it about "liberating" the people under his rule (it takes place in the immediate aftermath of [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn's invasion of the New Republic]] and the Republic brass doesn't want the remaining warlords getting ideas). And then things get muddled further when the New Republic stumbles upon a hidden lab that they claim proves that Krennel is trying to build another planet-killing superweapon, while Krennel claims that he never knew about the lab and it's obvious a New Republic trick to justify their actions. [[spoiler:He's half-right: the lab is bait for the Republic by a clone of Ysanne Isard who is playing them and Krennel off against each other, and the superweapon indeed doesn't exist.]]

** ''[[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 [[NiceJobBreakingItHero incident itself is then used as an excuse for war]].

*** After Rome won the First War, Carthage's influence zone in the Iberian Peninsula was limited to the area south of the Ebrus river... And ''then'' made an alliance treaty with Saguntum, a prosperous and well fortified city right in the Carthaginian influence zone. A few years later Hannibal, knowing that Saguntum would be an enormous threat, conquered it, and Rome declared war.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian terrorists sponsored by the head of Serbian military intelligence to further the goal of Serbian dominance of the Balkans was used as an excuse to take down Serbia's racist military Junta and replace it with a government which ''didn't'' sponsor terrorists (even during the war there was no question of annexing Serbia, as doing so would only have added to Austria-Hungary's domestic political problems). Which sounds a bit unreasonable until you realise that the very existence of Serbia (an independent nation-state of ethnic Serbs whose sole foreign policy goal was to unite all the lands inhabited by Southern Slavs into Yugoslavia, which they envisioned as as a Greater Serbia) terrified the German/Hungarian elites that ruled the mindbogglingly multi-ethnic Austria-Hungary. Right from the start they thought that, with Germany backing them all the way, Russia would back down rather than risk war with them ''and'' Germany at the same time, just like six years earlier over the formal annexation of (Habsburg-occupied, technically Ottoman) Bosnia.

* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria'': "[[RememberTheAlamo The Littlehorn Massacre]]" was as big of a reason for the Zebras and Equestria to declare war on one-another due to rising tensions that were forming between the two groups; especially in-light of the return of [[DarkIsNotEvil Princess Luna]]. The Zebras were highly superstitious and believed that anything relating to the Stars and Night is inherently evil due to an ancient Zebra Civilization that once prayed to the Stars [[ColonyDrop being wiped out by an asteroid impact]]. And due to Luna having become Nightmare Moon long ago and being banished by Celestia only to return a millennia later; the Zebras immediately distrusted Princess Luna and didn't want her anywhere near a position of power. At the same time; the only reason why Luna became Nightmare Moon in the first place [[DudeWheresMyRespect was due to her being singled out and ignored by her own people that she and Celestia were supposed to rule over together]], and even after all these centuries later; she feels like she isn't as appreciated and is only living inside of a GildedCage that Celestia unintentionally-designed Equestria as. Luna's School For Gifted Unicorns was Celestias' attempt to rectify this, by creating a School to study Magic underneath the tutelage of [[TheSacredDarkness The Princess of The Night]], only to make the misstep of having it built in Littlehorn Valley; an open plain located near Equestrias' boarder with the Zebra Lands[[Note]]There were actually two other suitable locations to build the school at, however Celestia noted a chance to play a joke on her younger sister by telling her that her Students will be "Sent To The Moon" when it was revealed that Littlehorn Valley had a canyon that was shaped like a Crescent Moon[[/Note]]. The Massacre proper happened when a Zebra Convoy escorting Refugees had passed through Littlehorn Valley close to Luna's School one night, and due to rising tensions from both sides due to Trade restrictions caused by the Zebras in-protest over Princess Luna; the School Faculty thinking that the Zebra Refugees were actually invading forces at the time had activated the schools defenses to wipe out the Convoy. In-retaliation, a Zebra Commando that was with the Refugees at the time snuck their way into the school grounds and unleashed a Chemical Weapon that killed not only the Faculty but also the young Unicorn students that were all at the school as well. "The Littlehorn Massacre" as the event would be called saw the dissolving of any chance at peace being formed between Ponies and Zebrakind; made all the worse when Celestia; [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone feeling guilt over having built Luna's School at Littlehorn in the first place]], [[AbdicateTheThrone stepped down as ruler of Equestria to have her younger sister Luna take control.]]

** ''[[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing: Isard's Revenge]]'' : The New Republic is picking a fight with the neutral (if admittedly pro-Imperial) Ciutric Hegemony. Prince-Admiral Krennel is obviously not a nice man, but the best pretext the New Republic can come up with for starting the war is Krennel's execution of Sate Pestage several years previously when the latter tried to defect to the Rebellion, which at worst is a case of KickTheSonOfABitch (Pestage was an AssholeVictim), along with Krennel's family (over a hundred people died in that purge alone) and a number of other purges he committed to keep himself in power. Myn Donos notes that one of his former squamates came from Toprawa, a planet deep within Imperial territory that's being repressed much more harshly than the worlds in the Hegemony due to its people's role in the theft of the Death Star plans, while even the generally saintly Admiral Ackbar more or less confesses that going after Krennel is as much about New Republic sabre-rattling to frighten bigger warlords like Teradoc as it about "liberating" the people under his rule (it takes place in the immediate aftermath of [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn's invasion of the New Republic]] and the Republic brass doesn't want the remaining warlords getting ideas). And then things get muddled further when the New Republic stumbles upon a hidden lab that they claim proves that Krennel is trying to build another planet-killing superweapon, while Krennel claims that he never knew about the lab and it's obvious a New Republic trick to justify their actions. [[spoiler:He's half-right: the lab is bait for the Republic by a clone of Ysanne Isard who is playing them and Krennel off against each other, and the superweapon indeed doesn't exist.]]

* In ''VideoGame/WarPips,'' you, the general of the Piponian invasion force, are tasked with "liberating" the Oiyelistan people from their petroleum reserves and their unholy custom of putting water on their cornflakes instead of milk.

* In ''VideoGame/Warpips,'' you, the general of the Piponian invasion force, are tasked with "liberating" the Oiyelistan people from their petroleum reserves and their unholy custom of putting water on their cornflakes instead of milk.