History Main / DivideAndConquer

** In the backstory of ''WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls'', [[AlphaBitch Sunset Shimmer]] divided the Human Mane Five by blackmailing them with false emails and text messages.
** In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'', the Dazzlings turn the whole school, including the staff, against each other with their HatePlague-inducing MindControlMusic, with the exception of Sunset, the Humane Six, and Vinyl Scratch. They also manage to [[AppleOfDiscord sabotage the mane characters' plans so that they argue]] and generate further negative emotions for the Dazzlings to feed on.

** In ''WesternAnimation/MyRocks'', the Dazzlings turn the whole school against each other with their HatePlague-inducing MindControlMusic, with the exception of Sunset, the Humane Six, and Vinyl Scratch. They also manage to [[AppleOfDiscord sabotage the mane characters' plans so that they argue]] and generate further negative emotions for the Dazzlings to feed on.

** HenryVII, in order to eventually subjugate the Irish clans, used a ploy called Surrender and Regrant. Any Irish tribal leader who swore loyalty to Henry ("Surrender"), would be given their lands back, plus an English aristocratic title. English titles are inherited by the eldest son (or nearest male relative), where as Irish clan titles were inherited by a successor chosen by a representative body of the clan. This meant that, further down the line, the inheritance would fought over between the claimant under English law and the claimant under Irish clan law, giving the English an opportunity to "intervene".
** This is also the primary reason that tiny expeditions of conquistadors were able to singlehandedly obtain victory over entire American subcontinents, by sowing confusion and playing different native powers against each other. (Smallpox and guns helped, too.)

** This is also the primary reason that tiny expeditions of conquistadors were able to singlehandedly obtain victory over entire American subcontinents, by sowing confusion and playing different native powers against each other.
*** Smallpox and Guns probably had a lot to do with that too, but it was at least a big reason.
**** Smallpox, yes. Guns, not so much. Thrown spears, arrows, and slings were superior to period firearms in terms of rate of fire, accuracy, and ability to produce and repair. The main advantage guns had was the psychological one from the boom, and that was largely canceled out due to the vast numerical superiority of the natives. Pitting the various tribes against each other (by convincing them that the sun would still come up if they didn't let the Aztecs cut out their hearts, for instance) was the key to victory.

* This is the goal of Yugi in ''[[TenchiMuyo Tenchi In Tokyo]]''.

* The strategy [[Anime/CodeGeass Schneizel]] uses twice on Lelouch: [[spoiler:first, to make him believe Suzaku betrayed him by having him arrested during the meeting, and the second time by getting the Black Knights to betray him]].

* Aizen's plan in the Soul Society arc incorporates large amounts of this. He has Ichimaru let Ichigo's crew escape, so the thirteen squads spend their time and energy fighting them. At the same time he manipulates Rukia's execution to cause splits within the thirteen squads, and after faking his own death manipulates Hinamori into attacking Ichimaru, Kira and Hitsugaya. All of these things manage to divert attention from his machinations, and if it wasn't for [[SpannerInTheWorks Ichigo doing a little better than expected]] and Captain Unohana realising something was wrong with his 'dead' body, Aizen's plan would have succeeded, he would have escaped scot free and a significant amount of his enemies would be dead.
* This is Baron Omatsuri's M.O. [[spoiler:(Carnation Lily, actually)]] in ''OnePiece''. He disguises his island as a resort for pirate crews, where they would play activities and games that are actually designed to cause infighting among the crews. He's so good at this that he succeeds with the Straw Hats, who have an almost familial bond among each other. When captain Luffy finds out about this, he gets so gravely offended that [[spoiler:though it's [[{{Filler}} not canon]], Carnation Lily is Luffy's first direct kill in the series.]]

* In one issue of ''IncredibleHercules'' Malekith combines this with LetsYouAndHimFight to weaken both Hercules and Thor sufficiently that his secret weapon will be able to defeat them easily. His plan fails ignominiously due to him not being aware that Zeus was standing right there when he sprang this trap.

* And in ''LuckyNumberSlevin'', which is unfortunately a huge spoiler.

* In ''OutboundFlight'', this is sort of what Commander Thrawn did. Sort of. Due to his BatmanGambit, the entire Vagaari fleet came out of space near where Outbound Flight was trying to decide what to do about him. The Vagaari being probably the most unambiguously evil side Zahn has ever written, they attack Outbound Flight, and the Jedi at its weapons stations sense the [[HumanShield Living Shields]] on the outsides of the ships, so they use the Force to more or less scramble the minds of the Vagaari. Then Thrawn triggers the second programming level in the droids he'd arranged to be on the Vagaari ship so that they slaughter the Vagaari high command, while also cuing the droid starfighters to buzz the Vagaari ships and shoot ''between'' the hostages. Being in such close contact with beings being slaughtered ''en mass'', the Jedi are stunned and can't react in time to prevent Thrawn shooting out all of the weapon stations, killing most of them.

* In the first ''{{Conqueror}}'' book, Wen Chao keeps up hostilities between the Mongols and Tartars to keep both sides weak and thus allow the Chin to extract tribute from them. Unfortunately for him, the Mongols manage to win the war under [[GenghisKhan Temujin]], who quickly ends the practise.

* The number of times they've done this in ''PowerRangers'' is beyond counting. Often more than once in the same season.

* The ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'' episode "[[spoiler: The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street]]", aliens do this, taking advantage of the fact that HumansAreBastards. [[spoiler:An ordinary street, in an ordinary town, suffers a sudden and inexplicable power outage, with a few suspicious items still functioning. The neighborhood gets together and comes to the somewhat strange conclusion that alien invaders are messing with things, and then start accusing each other of being in league with the invaders.]] End result: mass hysteria. Cut to two {{Human Alien}}s on a hill overlooking Maple Street, marveling at how they won't have to fire a single shot, the humans can easily be tricked into killing each other!

* In the eighth season finale of ''{{Bones}}'', [[spoiler: Christopher Pelant uses this tactic on Booth, blackmailing him by threatening to go on a new killing spree if he married Brennan. The season ends with Brennan and Booth both devastated, and Booth unable to even tell her why he had to break off their engagement]].

* Any good ''Risk'' player has done this.
* [[TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}} Friend Computer]] would like to remind all citizens that this is an effective way of dealing with commie mutant traitors. Also that knowledge of such techniques is treason.

* [[spoiler: Sturm]] attempts to do this in the first AdvanceWars. He tried to get the nations of Orange Star, Blue Moon, Green Earth and Yellow Comet to engage in a brutal war that would leave all sides devastated, so he could sweep in with his own forces and conquer all of Wars World.
* Kerrigan does this to ''[[spoiler:[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome everyone]]]]'' in ''{{Starcraft}} [[ExpansionPack Brood War]]''.

* Any Pit player worth his weight in salt does this as well when deploying [[LimitBreak Palutena's Army]] in ''SuperSmashBrosBrawl''. It's one of the few Final Smashes that allows the user to move and act freely with his own moveset during its execution. The reason it falls here is that the Centurions are dangerous in their own right, and the player has to choose to either focus on dodging them or dodging Pit, though a skilled player can do both for the most part.

* Seems to be the main strategy of the BigBad, Snadhya'rune Vel'Sharen, in {{Drowtales}}. She doesn't have enough followers to take over the Drow race uncontested, so instead, her agents have been secretly manipulating all the major factions across the underworld into destroying one another so that she can fill the power vacuum.

* ''ThunderCats'' partial example: in one episode Lion-O is bodyguarding some old peasant and fights off an attacker, who turns out to be Tigra. And the peasant turns out to be Mumm-Ra, who told Lion-O that a thief would attack him and told Tigra that a thief was following him. The end result was that Lion-O's magic sword was broken because he battled a fellow Cat.
* Grodd did this with the JusticeLeague in "Secret Society".
** Also in ''JusticeLeague'', we are treated to a CrowningMomentOfAwesome when [[spoiler:Batman takes out the Injustice League like this. ''While chained up in the basement''.]]

* Done (as a reference to the Beatles, once again!) in an episode of ''PowerPuffGirls''.

->''"Siamese fighting fish - fascinating creatures. Brave, but on the whole, stupid. Yes, they're stupid. Except for the occasional one, such as we have here, who lets the other two fight. While he waits. [[VictoryByEndurance Waits until the survivor is so exhausted that he cannot defend himself, and then like SPECTRE... he strikes!"]]''

* In ''[[{{Asterix}} Asterix and the Roman Agent]]'' this is the natural gift of the titular Tortuous Convolvulus (French: Tullius Détritus), who foments conflicts between the inhabitants of the little Gaulish village that come close to enabling Caesar to take it.

* ''AceCombat 5'' has this as the driving force behind its plot. 15 years before the game began, the country of Belka tried to take over the world and failed, eventually setting off 7 nuclear weapons ''on their own cities'' to stave off the approaching allied forces that included Osea and Yuktobania. In the present day, Yuktobania attacks Osea, and the two are plunged into a bitter war that drags on until nobody can remember why they're fighting. After the player's squadron is betrayed, the truth is revealed: [[spoiler: Belka, the country that was defeated 15 years earlier, was behind the whole thing. They started the war in hopes that it would eventually exhaust both of the other superpowers, and helped to escalate it at several key points. After rescuing the Osean president and Yuktobanian Prime Minister (and getting them to stage a peace rally in order to end the war), the Razgriz Squadron takes down the Belkans' last superweapon, ending the threat for good.]]

* In ''SilentStorm'', Thor's Hammer is trying exactly that with the Allies and the Axis. While they didn't start the war, they are taking advantage or it by supplying both sides with advanced weapons, while keeping the best goodies for themselves.

** An important thing to note is that this conflict is so integral to the plot of ''Continuum Shift'' that if anyone - ''anyone'' - were to mend the girls' psyches, everything [[DidntSeeThatComing would fall apart]]. Fortunately, just about the rest of the cast is indifferent to or despises Tsubaki, indifferent to or despises Noel, could give a shit less about them both, or is exploiting their relationship for their own ends. [[spoiler:The exception is Makoto Nanaya, their common friend, who signed on with NOL Intelligence and proved ''dangerously'' competent at her job, forcing Terumi to [[ReassignedToAntarctica send her to Ibukido]], her assignment [[UriahGambit meant to dead-end her job or have her killed from seithr overexposure or cauldron timefuckery]]. [[ReassignmentBackfire Even THAT failed to do her in, and instead made her even more dangerous to the overall scheme]], forcing Hazama to take matters into his own hands. As proof that the entire plot was completely brittle to Makoto's touch, in Arcade mode Terumi interfered after Makoto knocked Noel out to move the poor girl into the tempering phase ahead of schedule - he literally had no choice, as Makoto was going to talk some sense into Noel after she came to, and had subdued Tsubaki earlier to keep her from killing Noel. [[VillainousBreakdown Suffice it to say he didn't take it well]].]]

** One of the reasons Japan was able to conquer large portions of China in the 1930s - the Communist Chinese wanted their own government defeated even more than Japan did, while the ruling Chinese Nationalists were conversely so preoccupied with trying to stamp them out (not to mention being hopelessly corrupt, incompetent and unpopular-those going together) they caved easily before the Japanese.

## Partition of Ireland into the [[UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} Irish Free State]] (later the Republic of Ireland) and [[StrokeCountry Northern Ireland]] in 1922,

* Inverted in Harry Turtledove's ''WorldWar'' series, as the invading aliens' millennia-old unifications means their technology has been purposely stagnated by the government to prevent disruptive changes in society, while humans being disunited and constantly at war with each other means we're able to change much quicker.

** A literal example occurred during TheAmericanRevolution, when Britain tried to take over the Hudson River valley in order to physically cut off New England from the rest of the Thirteen Colonies.

** The Soviets tried to do this throughout their history (and started before the Soviet Union even existed yet) by trying to drive wedges between their enemies, whoever they might be at the time. In WorldWarOne, they tried to pull Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the various White Factions apart and incite revolution in at least one of them. Before, [[FalseFriend during]], and after WorldWarTwo, they believed that pitting the West against the Germans would leave a power vaccum that would effectively cement Soviet dominance ([[NiceJobFixingItVillain which was thwarted by Hitler's paranoia and decision to strike at the USSR first]]). And in the Cold War they generally tried to keep the West and the Chinese from coming to any kind of agreement while trying to undermine the solidarity of the Western powers themselves.

* Inverted in IsaacAsimov's short story: "In a Good Cause". where the wars amongst humans actually made them stronger, which gives them the upper hand against the united aliens.

* Not a gameplay element, but Caesar from ''FalloutNewVegas'' cites this as how he was able to take the puny Blackfoot tribe ... and conquer 85 others. This is a deliberate homage to the RealLife Caesar, as is the entire nation he's trying to found.

* Very common tactic players use in video games that allow {{NPC}}s to fight each other, such as ''{{Half-Life}}'' (letting Combine fight Zombies, HECU to fight aliens) and ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' (letting the Flood take out the Covenant). It can be traced back at least as far as ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', where "monster infighting" was crucial to beating some parts. Doom 2, for example, has a Spider Mastermind and a Cyberdemon right next to each other. The only effective way to survive is to get them fighting each other.

* Inverted in the Asimov's short story: ''In a Good Cause''. where the wars amongst humans actually made them stronger, which gives them the upper hand against the united aliens.

* In ''MassEffect'' this is ''the'' M.O. of the Reapers, the big bulletpoint at the top of the plan behind every invasion. Starting by using the Citadel to decapitate galactic governments, followed by shutting down the Mass Relays to isolate systems from one another so they cannot receive help. Nevermind their Indoctrination tricks to further divide those who oppose them long before the Reapers actually appear on the field. It's a ''brutally'' efficient demonstration of the trope. If not for the Protheans deciding to throw a SpannerInTheWorks, who knows how long the cycle could have gone on for?

* Bane, of ''{{Batman}}'' extraction, is legendary for this. Aware that he couldn't take Batman in a straight fight, he instead released dozens of inmates from Arkham Asylum, leading Batman to run himself ragged for months until Bane showed up in the Batcave and "[[{{Knightfall}} broke the Bat]]."

* In ''{{Haegemonia}}: Legions of Iron'', the Darzok use this method to break up their enemies. They convince a Kariak general to rebel against the Human-Kariak alliance, allowing them to build up their forces while the Kariak fight among each other.