Irredentism is the claim by a nation on territories currently held by another country, claiming historical precedent or the presence of related ethnic groups. It is closely related to the concept of revanchism, the will to recover territory lost in a war or conflict.
As such, it is often a part of Patriotic Fervour. Longing for lost lands is often a part of being a Vestigial Empire, and any Resurgent Empire worth its salt often includes as part of its former glory its lost territories. Trying to enforce irredentist claims may be part of a Diversionary Foreign Policy. A group Fighting for a Homeland might choose to retake its ancestral lands.
The Trope Namer is the concept of Italia irredenta ("unredeemed Italy") describing Trentino and Trieste, which were under Austrian Hungarian rule yet mostly populated by Italians. Other Italian nationalists also claimed Gorizia, Istria, Fiume, and Dalmatia, today part of Croatia and Slovenia. Irredentism, to no one's surprise, played a big role in Italian fascism, and also in other fascist movements.
It is the Super-Trope of Mexico Called; They Want Texas Back, Russia Called; They Want Alaska Back and Post-Soviet Reunion. Also compare Occupiers Out of Our Country and Still Fighting the Civil War.
As irredentism is a touchy subject and not only the cause of Flame Wars but also of actual wars, No Real Life Examples, Please!
Examples:
- One Piece: Three hundred years prior to the events of the story, the Vinsmoke Family managed to conquer the entire North Blue before being deposed sixty-six days later. In the present story, the current patriarch of the Vinsmoke Family, Judge, has grand ambitions of reconquering the territories his ancestors once held.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe: "Threat from the Infinite" (set in the same continuity as Paperinik New Adventures) has the T'Zook, a seemingly alien race that comes to Earth to conquer it. They turn out to be Ultraterrestrials originally from Earth, who left during the Permian-Triassic extinction event and now want their world back — regardless of who lives on it now. Unlike most examples of this trope, they actually follow this ideology to the letter, giving up once they realize that they're on the wrong Earth.
- Monica's Gang: The Aliens from the Planet Tomb are another group of Ultraterrestrials who believe they have a right to conquer Planet Earth because they lived here long before mankind evolved, hence why the Monica Teen story that features them is titled Inheritors of the Earth.
- Inter Nos: When Gen. Shizuru Fujino routes the Mentulean forces laying seige to Argentum, led by Prince Artaxi, Emperor Obsidian arrives with a much larger force to continue the assault. He claims Argentum is Mentulean land that they are reclaiming. Shizuru engages in verbal sparring with him, all the while keeping her sense of humor. At one point he makes a remark about returning to his lands. Shizuru points out the logical fallacy immediately, saying that if Argentum is Mentulean land, he'd already be in his lands. She then warns him that while his forces are numerically superior to hers, if he kills her, a general and senator of Hime, especially during a protected parlay, then the whole of Hime's forces, which easily outnumber his own, will be turned against his empire. He is forced to retreat to his lands.
- My Hero Playthrough: "Lesson 27" and "Lesson 27 and a half" references a Korean Reunification Conflict, where South Korea fought North Korea, won, and reunified Koreans into a single country.
- Saruman of Many Devices: Saruman investigates the centuries-old conflict between the Dunlendings and the Rohirrim, and finds that a big part of it is Gondor choosing to give away a large portion of Dunlending land to one of their vassals — though it arguably wasn't really Gondor's land to give. There has been friction and skirmishing and grudges in both directions ever since. He proposes to give the Dunlendings another piece of land, the Enedwaith, which really is almost deserted and available, though the Dunlendings are dubious because it's not their original home. Saruman's offer to protect them from the Rohirrim there, if raiding stops, is very appealing to them, though.
Dunlender: It's not the ancestral holdings.
Saruman: I'll be impressed if we can find somewhere for everyone at all. - A Thing of Vikings: When the Pechenegs start conquering other peoples, a lot of said conquests are groups who are Turkic like them. In one meeting where the chiefs of the conquered groups are allowed to attend, the Pecheneg leaders state that while they come in force, it will result in the scattered Turks becoming a unified Turkic nation, which, interestingly, the conquered Turkic chiefs view favourably.
- With This Ring: The nations of Bialya and Qurac don't get along, but after the (mind-controlling supervillain) queen of Bialya declares that the two countries used to be one, the president of Qurac mysteriously agrees with her, and announces that they will soon unify under her sole leadership. Paul checks historical records and finds that the claim is, unsurprisingly, baseless. The team is then sent in to check whether President Harjavti is sincere or being controlled, and if it's the latter, to stop it.
Ring..? Ah. No reliably authenticated document shows the two countries unified in a way that excluded other territories. Sometimes conquerors got the whole area, sometimes the border lines went all over the place. The last time the whole of both countries were unified under a single ruler was in the fourteenth century under Timur the Lame. Even Queen Bee doesn't try and claim succession from him.
- Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers: Voices in the Kingdom of Klyrode advocate reconquering territories that the humans lost to the demons. However, they ignore that such things go both ways and that a lot of human territories used to be the ancestral homelands of different demon races before the human races kicked them out.
- The Fallen World:
- The Elkis Republic claims ownership to the Red Sands Desert, having lost the land just North of it to the Asarian Kingdom just two generations before, though they never did anything with it before the start of the story. A war breaks out to control it when Allya buys a title of nobility from the Kingdom and builds the city of Rebirth in the middle of it. It's pretty clear that the Senate would send their army North to capture Darthar if they take Rebirth too quickly.
- The Saphire Kingdom claims ownership of the whole of the Arkan continent, which they controlled until 1,000 years ago when the Ararian duchy started the Wars of Shattering. Attempts to claim the continent caused four duchies to merge into the Ararian Kingdom.
- How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: The royal family of Amidonia has nursed an irredentist grudge against Elfrieden ever since the predecessor of King Albert and Queen Elisha conquered half of it about forty years ago, up to and including renaming themselves from a kingdom to a principality to denote the loss of status that must be avenged. They attempt to get it back in volume 2 by fomenting a Civil War in Elfrieden, but are quickly defeated by King Souma, who occupies the northern half of Amidonia around the capital Van, and then withdraws in exchange for reparations. Souma tuned these reparations such that Prince Julius would either have to give up on irredentism and the military spending that goes with it, bankrupt himself, or break the treaty and give him an excuse to annex Van; either way, Amidonia is out of his hair for good. Instead, Julius's younger sister Roroa orchestrates a Military Coup against him and then demands that Souma annex the whole country, marrying him to unite the crowns.
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes: The Free Planets Alliance was founded by citizens of the Galactic Empire who fled beyond the borders of settled space to find new planets to settle and create a new, non-feudal system to live under. The position of the Galactic Empire in the Forever War between the two is that said citizens never stopped being citizens of the Galactic Empire (since there were no other nations at the time, there was no recognized method to renounce one's citizenship in it), and thus any worlds they claimed are automatically part of the Galactic Empire, and by refusing to acknowledge this, they are in rebellion.
- The Riftwar Cycle: The Western Realm of the Kingdom of the Isles used to be the Keshian province of Bosania, but was conquered by Duke Borric's grandfather close to a century before the series started. There are multiple arcs (starting in the days when Borric's grandchildren are grown men) where ambitious Keshian generals try to take the province back, despite the fact that beyond a few wizards with magically prolonged lives, there aren't any living humans left whose grandparents could remember when the Western Realm was Keshian.
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in its opening line, succinctly summaries — and satirizes — how Chinese history endlessly cycles between Balkanize Me and irredentism.
The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus has it ever been.
- Timeline-191: Paralleling multiple cases in real life, many countries do this:
- The USA wants to regain the Southern states that seceded to form the CSA, based on their being previously part of the Union. They also apply this to northern Maine after Canada takes it in the Second Mexican War.
- After the Central Powers' victory in the Great War, the Confederacy rankles at the USA's control over Kentucky, Sequoyah (Oklahoma), and parts of Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, and Sonora. They do get back Kentucky and Houston (West Texas) in plebiscites shortly before the Second Great War.
- Having lost not only Alsace-Lorraine but losing influence over Belgium and the Netherlands as well, France enters the Second Great War eager to recapture these territories from Germany.
- Likewise, Russia wants to regain control of Poland and Ukraine, which it lost in the Great War when it signed an armistice with Germany to deal with its revolution.
- The Witcher: Humans arrived on the Continent through some kind of interdimensional transit several centuries ago, and have long since displaced the elder races (elves, dwarves, dryads, etc.) from their traditional homelands. While some have largely assimilated into human society (where they're frequently treated as second-class citizens), others continually fight to reclaim their ancestral lands:
- The Last Wish: In The Edge of the World, Geralt arrives in the Valley of Flowers, which is now dominated by human farmers but was once Dol Blathanna, the elvish heartland. While investigating reports of a "devil" harassing local villagers, he's taken prisoner by a band of elves who have been reduced to banditry but are still trying to retake the valley.
- Sword of Destiny: In the self-titled story, Geralt arrives in the Enchanted Forest of Brokilon, which is defended to the death by its native dryads against surrounding human fiefdoms. Geralt at one point criticizes the dryads' queen, Eithne, for raiding villages outside of Brokilon, to which she retorts that she still considers those lands, which humans cleared of trees, to be part of Brokilon, making the humans living there trespassers.
- Blood of Elves introduces the Scoia'tael ("Squirrels" in Elder Speech), a guerrilla/terrorist movement of nonhumans who begin raiding human settlements with the aim of retaking their old lands, ultimately allying with the Nilfgaardians to achieve this. They're only partially successful; the elves succeed in retaking Dol Blathanna by Baptism of Fire and make it an independent nonhuman-ruled state, but its queen Enid an Gleanna declares the Squirrels outlaws to keep the peace after the ceasefire. In The Lady of the Lake, Nilfgaard loses the next war, and Enid is forced to become a vassal of King Demavend of Aedirn and grant equal rights to humans.
- Worldwar: After being forced to accept Race control of Poland at the Peace of Cairo, Nazi Germany declares war against the aliens in 1965 to regain it, which goes disastrously for Germany.
- Babylon 5: A major plot arc throughout the series involves the conflict between the Centauri and the Narn — the Centauri conquered the Narn and brutally ruled them for a long time before being overthrown by a liberation movement. Nevertheless, many Centauri dream of reconquering the Narn worlds.
- The Expanse: In the United Nations, there’s a large faction of irredentist extremists who want to escalate the Space Cold War with the Martian Congressional Republic into a hot war so that they can "re-unite humanity".
- Horrible Histories: In one sketch called "The Crusades Report", the show simplifies the motivation for starting the Crusades as "reclaiming" the holy land for Christianity, with the show also noting that the Christians ignored that it is also Islam's holy land and they have the same claim to it.
- In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Broken Link", Chancellor Gowron demands that the Federation leave the Archanis sector, an area of space that the Klingons gave to the Federation a hundred years ago. Sisko immediately sees it for what it is: an excuse to ramp up the war.
Sisko: I don't think Gowron gives a damn about Archanis. He's just looking for an excuse to rattle his sabre.
- BattleTech:
- This is practically the defining trait of the Capellan Confederation. It claims that any planet with some sort of tie to the Confederation that it can imagine, no matter how tenuous or distant in time, is a lost part of its territory. This extends even to worlds such as Chesterton which was absorbed into the Federated Suns before the Confederation itself was founded.
- Over half of the Confederation was lost to the neighboring Federated Suns during the 4th Succession War, or broke away as the St. Ives Compact. The next Capellan Chancellor, Sun-Tzu Liao, made it his life's work to reclaim all of the lost territory, even though the Compact and many of the Suns-held worlds had no desire to return to Capellan rule. He largely succeeded through a mix of guile and luck. In the 32nd century his son Daoshen completed his father's work and then some, reclaiming every Capellan world lost a century prior plus Chesterton and other systems which had been conquered in earlier wars.
- Practically every Successor State engages in this at some point in its history. Not only do borders constantly shift but every major realm has or once had a burning need to reclaim a major world or region.
- This trope is also the basis for the Clans' claim on Terra and the whole Inner Sphere as part of a new Clan-founded Star League, based on the fact that they're the descendants of the members of the Star League Defense Force that fled the Inner Sphere with General Aleksandr Kerensky centuries earlier. Nevermind the fact that the Clans were culturally about as far from the first Star League as it was possible to get.
- This is practically the defining trait of the Capellan Confederation. It claims that any planet with some sort of tie to the Confederation that it can imagine, no matter how tenuous or distant in time, is a lost part of its territory. This extends even to worlds such as Chesterton which was absorbed into the Federated Suns before the Confederation itself was founded.
- This is one of the factors that leads to The Brothers' War in Magic: The Gathering. The country of Yotia and the Fallaji both have a claim to a piece of land, called the Sword Marches by the Yotians and the Suwwardi Marches by the Fallaji. The eponymous brothers Urza and Mishra find themselves on opposite sides of this conflict, which through the years keeps spiraling further and further out of control as the brothers ascend through the ranks - until the place is completely devastated and uninhabitable, by which point it has become irrelevant to the warring parties.
- Pathfinder: The present-day nation of Taldor is the rump state of an empire that ruled almost the entire Inner Sea Region for four millennia, before the entire western half seceded under the Chelish king Aspex the Even-Tongued in 4081 AR. To this day, Taldan nobles still often refer to those former territories, now the nations of Cheliax, Andoran, Galt, Molthune, Nirmathas, and Isger, as "the Colonies", and some dream of reconquering them. This plays a role in the Succession Crisis in the War for the Crown Adventure Path, as the irredentists gravitate towards Arch-Strategos Maxillar Pythareus as their preferred candidate to succeed Grand Prince Stavian III.
- Crusader Kings:
- Crusader Kings II: Irredentism is simulated by some mechanics: a ruler who loses territory or titles in a war will gain a claim on them, and the holder of a title ranked Duke or above gains access to the de jure casus belli, whereby they can freely attempt to reconquer lower titles designated by the game as part of their jurisdiction. The ruler's Chancellor also has a mission to fabricate a claim on a county, uncovering "obscure documents" that conveniently reveal that the territory is "actually" yours by right. There's also a risk of rebellions to liberate counties whose majority religion or culture differs from that of their liege.
- Crusader Kings III: In addition to gaining claims on lost titles or territory, rulers can order their council's realm priest to outright fabricate a claim on a duchy, uncovering "obscure documents" that conveniently reveal that the territory is "actually" theirs by right. This gives the ruler an un-pressed claim on the region that can be used as a Pretext for War against whoever currently owns it.
- Dragon Age: The Tevinter Imperium once controlled virtually the entire continent of Thedas. Although its glory days are long since past, parts of the conservative mage aristocracy dream of re-conquering the continent; while it's only an idle fantasy for most, there are some extremists who actively plan for it. These factions become the Venatori in Dragon Age: Inquisition, which continues to be a threat in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
- Europa Universalis: A "core", or core province is a claim on another country's territory, with the exact implementation based on the installment. In general, another country having a core allows declaring war with casus belli and allows conquering the province with reduced diplomatic cost. Core provinces also give better benefit, and may also mitigate overextension (the ratio of non-core provinces to core provinces). Cores are obtained by holding onto a territory long enough or through events, but may also be lost if there hasn't been an attempt to reclaim them.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- The Garlean Empire laid claim to the island of Corvos years prior to the story and renamed it Locus Amoenus. Garlemald justifies this conquest on the basis that it was once the ancestral homeland of the Garlean people before they were driven to the north by their enemies. However, this account is disputed by in-universe historians, as the region of Ilsabard has always been culturally and racially diverse.
- Decades ago, the Yok Huy controlled much of Yok Tural through bloody conquest in hopes of securing their continued happiness and prosperity. But their empire came to an end when the Yok Huy were ravaged by diseases from Xak Tural that they had no immunity to. In the present, some of these Yok Huy, particularly the clan known as the Chirwagur, still dream of restoring their rule over Tural years after Gulool Ja Ja united it into a peaceful nation.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses: It's a common belief in Adrestia, who once controlled the entirety of Fodlan following the War of Heroes, that the Holy Kingdom of Fearghus and the Leicester Alliance are little more than breakaway provinces that should one day be reincorporated back into the Empire, by force if need be. Come the end of Part One, Edelgard decides to put this belief into action as one of the main objectives of the war she launches, the other being the destruction of the Church of Seiros.
- Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg: The German Empire's victory in the Great War and syndicalist revolutions in the United Kingdom and France forced the British and French governments to go into exile in Canada and northwest Africa, respectively. These governments and their remaining dominions form the Entente, a faction dedicated to reclaiming their homelands and colonies from both the syndicalists and the Reichspakt.
- The New Order: Last Days of Europe: The Alternate-History Nazi Victory has put much of the world under the control of one Axis power or another, leading to many exiled governments and resistance movements trying to get their land back from the fascist jackboot.
- Free France has been reduced to a holdout in Côte d'Ivoire surrounded by numerous post-colonial warlord states. While they plan to reclaim the Metropole from the French State, they first have to contend with their former colonial subjects, including the rising socialist Cameroonian African State.
- The Soviet Union's defeat resulted in Russia splitting into numerous warlord states, each with their own ideologies. The ultimate goal of most Russian warlords is to reunite the country and liberate European Russia from the Nazi administration in Reichskommisariat Moskowien. Meanwhile, the Siberian Black League in Omsk wants to go even further by completely destroying Germany in the Great Trial, just like the Nazis attempted to do to Russia.
- The loss of Hawaii and "treaty ports" on the West Coast to Imperial Japan is a major point of contention in American politics.
- Star Trek Online: The stated casus belli for the renewed war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire at the start of the game is that Klingon Chancellor J'mpok wanted to recover several systems on the border, which the Klingons historically claimed, but the Federation currently controls. J'mpok sent an ultimatum to President Okeg demanding the Federation withdraw from these systems within three months, and Okeg replied, "Bring It."
- Suzerain:
- The Kingdom of Rumburg wants to reannex Narbel and Estord from the Republic of Sordland after the Fifteen-Day War half a century ago, and most of Sordland's campaign has Rumburg attempting to justify an invasion of Sordland not only to reclaim lost Rummish lands, but capitulate Sordland altogether.
- Su Omina advocates for the Kingdom of Rizia to get its lost territory of Pales and Zille back. The city of Pales had been occupied by the Valgos Empire in the late 17th century and the rest of the region in 1810 while while the territory of Zille was leased to Wehlen in 1927 for 25 years to reward them for crushing a republican uprising. Additionally, Rizia itself tried to claim the Grand Duchy of Pales in a disastrous war 25 years before the game's start date.
- In the Trails Series, this is the defining conflict for Crossbell. Throughout its history, it has been its own independent nation-state, and has also been occupied at different points in time by both Erebonia and Calvard, the two nations that border it. Erebonia and Calvard are the largest countries in the continent, and have historically not had good relations with each other. By the time the series starts, Crossbell has been independent for around seventy years, but Erebonia and Calvard still argue over ownership rights to Crossbell, and actively do everything they can to undermine Crossbell's authority. One such example is how Crossbell's politicians are split between three factions: those who support joining Erebonia, those who support joining Calvard, and those who wish for independence.
- Victoria II: Revanchism
is gained because of unowned core territory and lost war, and raise the militancy of the POPs. High levels of revanchism led POPs to support jingoism and even Fascism. The only way to lose revanchism is by retaking cored territory presently owned by foreign states.
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: The conflict between Aedirn and Kaedwen that dominates the second act is the result of a dispute over the stretch of land along the Pontar River, that both sides held at one point, Kaedwen referring to the territory as Lomark, and Aedirn knowing it as Upper Aedirn. Additionally, the locals of this territory seek independence from both kingdoms.
- Drowtales: In Chapter 42, the remnants of the Dutan'vir clan attack Kyorl'solenurn clan's holdings in an attempt to reclaim their lost home.
- The Legend of Korra: In season 4, the Great Unifier Kuvira turns the Earth Kingdom into the Earth Empire and wants to get back every territory formerly held by the Kingdom, including the lands now part of the United Republic of Nations, which had been founded on the site of former colonies of the Fire Nation in the conquered parts of the Earth Kingdom (and the irredentism of the Earth Empire was foreshadowed by Earth Queen Hou-Ting's ongoing bitterness toward the Avatar and Fire Lord Zuko regarding the cession of historic Earth Kingdom territory to a sovereign United Republic of Nations in the previous season).
- Teen Titans (2003): In the episode "Revolution", Mad Mod attacks Jump City on the Fourth of July, justifying it as reclaiming a piece of America for England.
