History Main / WarForFunAndProfit

* ''ThreeDaysOfTheCondor'': The CIA is involved in provoking a war in the Middle East to ensure plentiful oil supplies to the US. Sound familiar ?
* ''WarInc'' is an embodiment of this trope.

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* ''Theatre/MotherCourageAndHerChildren'': an argument made by most of the characters. Many of them give it as the reason for Sweden going to war, and for them personally going to war (though not actually fighting). Though sometimes they just seem to be repeating it to convince themselves...
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* In one episode of the [[DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney's]] ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' series, the imps stole "the most sacred crock of cheese" from the Odiferians (cheese loving barbarians) and framed Agrabah for the theft. The angry Odiferians declared war on Agrabah and the imps made a fortune selling war machines to both sides until Aladdin and the gang uncovered the whole scheme.

* Others make the claim that the US is profiting from the War on Drugs as well. News items supporting this tend to drop from the news cycle quickly, but often return in fiction.

** The Aztec's took this one step further by encouraging their colonies to revolt so that they would have a reason to come in and make war on them again.

* ''Mother Courage And Her Children'': an argument made by most of the characters. Many of them give it as the reason for Sweden going to war, and for them personally going to war (though not actually fighting). Though sometimes they just seem to be repeating it to convince themselves...

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'', Professor Moriarty is attempting to ignite WorldWarOne after acquiring stock in a great many arms manufacturing companies, as well as cotton and opium companies (bandages and medicine). When Holmes figures out his plot and derails it, he points out that the approaching world war is inevitable, and he'll make a profit regardless. [[spoiler:Then Holmes reveals he snatched the codebook Moriarty uses to keep track of his fortune and Scotland Yard has been gleefully seizing all of his assets, leaving the good professor with a "significantly diminished fortune."]]

* In the ''LupinIII'' movie ''$1 Money Wars'', the villainess, Cynthia, arranges for a third-world military junta to stage attacks on oil-rich areas throughout the world, at the same time buying as much oil as she can. The desired result is perpetual warfare, giving her an eternal market.

* In ''IronStorm'', the ForeverWar has turned into this, with the arms industries and armies being an important part of the stock exchange [[spoiler: and manipulating the USWE and TheEmpire to prolong the war in the name of profit.]]

* In ''SuperRobotWars Original Generations'', the [[SuperRobotWarsAdvance Shadow Mirrors]] were dedicated to creating endless conflict. Why? Their own dimension's [[TheFederation Federation]] had become corrupt after the [[HumanAliens Inspectors]] had been driven off. They believed that with endless conflict that there would not be any corrupt politicians, and that technology would increase rapidly. The leader points out that since the Divine Crusaders war the strength of Earth has increased rapidly.

*** The [[EldritchAbomination Ru]][[SuperRobotWarsDestiny ina]] live on this [[spoiler: Mostly to gain negative energy for Perfectio and use worlds as fields to cultivate negative energies]]

** [[MegaCorp Anaheim Electronics]] had done this for quite a bit, from [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam selling weapons to all sides]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory building a Mobile Suit with nuclear strike capability]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn concealing documents that could have prevented the One Year War so they could make more weapons]]. And that's just the '''First''' Universal Century; in the ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 F91]]'' era, after losing favor to the Federation's in-house think tank SNRI, Anaheim responds by outright stealing SNRI's tech[[hottip:*:''Silhouette Formula 91'']] and helping Zeon remnants try to invade Earth[[hottip:*:''Gundam F90: Formula Wars 0122'' SuperFamicom game]].

* In ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'', the pretext used by Sydney Yus to have her nemesis Robin's "world peace" bill[[hottip:*:No, it doesn't make sense in context either]] repealed is that it's bad for the weapons industry.

** [[BigBad Rau Le Creuset]] of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'' is the darkest take on this trope yet presented in the series--he helps to trigger and escalate a massive, [[FinalSolution genocidal]] war between the [[PunyEarthlings Earth Forces]] and [[GattacaBabies ZAFT]] in the hopes of [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac ending the world]].]]

* In ''CanadianBacon'', facing the prospect of economic recession from closing arms factories and low popularity among working people, the president of the US and a major arms dealer try to restart the ColdWar. Since Russia isn't interested (at this point, anyway) they instead frame up ''Canada'' as the new enemy. Canadians, on the other hand, are either unaware, or just confused about the whole thing.
** There's also the fact that one of the President's advisors is in cahoots with the owner of said arms factories with a personal interest in a new Cold War. Unfortunately for him, now only does he [[spoiler:fall to his death]], but the Canadians actually end up "winning" the war.
* A different take on this trope appears in ''TheInternational'' (2009). The International Bank of Business and Credit finances third world revolution and arms sales, but their goal is not to profit from wars, but from the massive debt racked up by those fighting them.

* The pilot of ''TheLoneGunmen'' theorized that [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the end]] of the ColdWar over might compel [[WhyWereBummedCommunismFell parties unhappy with this]] to [[FalseFlagOperation fake a terrorist attack]] - triggering a "[[TheWarOnTerror new Cold War]]" to keep arms sales up . [[ParanoiaFuel Fast-forward six months]] to [[HarsherInHindsight 9/11]]...

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* The two main {{Mad Scientist}}s of ''[[{{Bioshock1}} Bioshock]]'', Tendenbaum and Suchong, survived WorldWarII by collaborating with the Axis Powers: Tendenbaum rubbed elbows with Nazi scientists who admired her cunning, and thus escaped the gas chambers. Suchong... well:

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* ''TheLivingDaylights'' has a Soviet General buying guns from an arms dealer, who uses the down payment to buy diamonds. He trades the diamonds to the Afghan resistance for opium, which he intended to sell at a 1000% markup, and then use part of that money to get the guns to fill the order from the Soviets. The Soviets would then use the guns to fight the Afghans, who would arm themselves with guns bought with the diamonds. Thus the Russian Army would be funding both sides of the war, with the arms dealer and his friend the General making a massive profit in the process.

* Destro in ''GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'' is an arms dealer who creates a weapon, steals it back, and then attempts to use it to create global fear of terrorism so the entire world will seek unifying leadership from the most powerful man on the planet. [[spoiler:The president of the United States of America, who is really Destro's agent, Zartan]]

* A fascinating subversion: Fritz Thyssen, a German industrialist of the 1920s and 30s, supported ThoseWackyNazis at first. After all, he was a devoutly Catholic and very conservative German nationalist, and the Nazis promised to "reawaken" and more importantly unite Germany (good), get rid of those DirtyCommunists and their Social Democratic fellow-travellers (good), and abolish those pesky unions (''very'' good). Plus, AdolfHitler was from solidly-Catholic Austria and had previously aspired to become a Benedictine monk! WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong? And then the Nazis [[NaziGermany took over]], and the needs of industry were subordinated to the desires of the state and Nazi Pary; those desires were for war. One problem: Thyssen was perfectly happy making goods for peace. As far as he was concerned, peacetime gewgaws were selling wonderfully, and being forced to make guns and tanks for the Nazis was a tremendous, profit-sucking pain in the ass. Thyssen quit the Nazi Council of State and cut all his connections to the Nazi Party in 1938; when [[WorldWarII the war]] started a year later, he sent a letter to Hitler expressing his disapproval of the war and moved himself and his family to Switzerland. After this he went to France to catch a boat to Argentina, but he took a detour to Belgium to visit his mother just as the Wehrmacht was rolling in. The Nazis expressed their displeasure with Thyssen by sending him (with his wife) to Dachau concentration camp (admittedly in better conditions than the rest of the inmates), where he remained for most of the rest of the war (he would be transferred to Tyrol in the last months of the war with a number of more prominent inmates).

* A fascinating subversion: Fritz Thyssen, a German industrialist of the 1920s and 30s, supported ThoseWackyNazis at first. After all, he was a devoutly Catholic and very conservative German nationalist, and the Nazis promised to "reawaken" and more importantly unite Germany (good), get rid of those DirtyCommunists and their Social Democratic fellow-travellers (good), and abolish those pesky unions (''very'' good). Plus, AdolfHitler was from solidly-Catholic Austria and had previously aspired to become a Benedictine monk! WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong? And then the Nazis [[NaziGermany took over]], and the needs of industry were subordinated to the desires of the state and Nazi Pary; those desires were for war. One problem: Thyssen was perfectly happy making goods for peace. As far as he was concerned, peacetime gewgaws were selling wonderfully, and being forced to make guns and tanks for the Nazis was a tremendous, profit-sucking pain in the ass. Thyssen quit the Nazi Council of State and cut all his connections to the Nazi Party in 1938; when [[WorldWarII the war]] started a year later, he sent a letter to Hitler expressing his disapproval of the war and moved himself and his family to Switzerland.

** ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots MGS4]]'', however, takes the trope to the other end of the spectrum. It ultimately became clear that Big Boss initially didn't want an eternal World War III, and simply founded Outer Heaven to give people, especially soldiers, a place where they would be free from the '''La-li-lu-le-lo'''. It wasn't until Zanzibarland that he gave up all hope of soldiers being reintegrated into society. Years later, his ideals were further perverted by his successors, [[ThePowersThatBe The Patriots]], with so many resources are being invested in soldiers and weapons that war ends up replacing oil as ''a commodity'' - a self-destructive commodity. Investing in war doesn't create new resources, so the world is falling ever deeper into a depression where "oil and gasoline are as precious as diamonds", but attempting to stop war would render those investments worthless, triggering [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt a total global economic collapse]]. It's pretty much the {{Aesop}} HideoKojima is trying to convey: war isn't about right and wrong, it just ''is''.