History Main / DivideAndConquer

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': The strategy 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]].

->''"Siamese fighting fish -- fascinating creatures. [[FearlessFool 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 VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2, there is a section where a group of Fire Giants want to kill a nearby Dragon and the Dragon wants to kill the Fire Giants that have been harassing it. They both request your aid to deal with the other, and they both have something valuable that you may wish to take (for the Fire Giants, it's a quest item. For the Dragon, it's a massive pile of gold). No matter who you ally with, in the end you're given the option to betray both of them and let them duke it out with each other. Whichever side survives will be in a weakened state, thus allowing you to easily finish them off.

* The description above says "contrast EnemyMine", but in ''Manga/SoulEater'', Medusa actually managed to DivideAndConquer by means of EnemyMine. And although she didn't tell them, the people she was "helping" found it obvious that this is her plan.

* Discord in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' splits up the Mane cast physically when they enter his hedge maze. He takes the opportunity to MindRape them one by one to split up their friendship as well.

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** In ''Literature/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.

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* The conflict in the ''AudioPlay/BlakesSeven'' audio "Fractures" comes from the pre-existing weaknesses in the Liberator crew, which are exploited by sabotage to the power system so they must split up to fix it. Isolated, they can be slowly pushed into paranoia.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Spike (inspired by Music/TheBeatles) tries it at the end of Season 4 at the behest of the BigBad Adam, which initially works quite well. Unfortunately, [[DidntThinkThisThrough another part of Adam's plan]] involved the Scoobies sharing information. So he then had to convince them to talk to each other again, whereupon they figured out what's going on and reconciled.

* Helmut Zemo does this to Captain America and Iron Man in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Spike (inspired by Music/TheBeatles) tries it at the end of Season 4 at the behest of the BigBad Adam. Unfortunately, another part of Adam's plan involved them sharing information. So he then had to convince them to talk to each other again, whereupon they reconciled.

* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', [=McKay=] reactivates the Replicators' programming that causes them to attack the Wraith. Unfortunately, it backfires a bit when the Replicators determine that the most efficient way to wipe out the Wraith is to eliminate [[ImAHumanitarian their food supply]].

* The BigBad of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has the goal of destroying humanity from the shadows. One of her best tools for this goal is to divide mankind with doubt and anger until they turn on each other. Her VillainSong is even titled "Divide".

* ''Film/XMen2000'': Toad employs this on a tactical level. Since he's outnumbered 3-to-1 after Mystique goes to fight Wolverine, he takes Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey on all at once. His first move is to knock out Cyclops, lock him up, and kick Storm and Jean away from each other. Toad then throws Storm to the next floor to force Jean to fight him alone, immobilizes her, and then lays a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Storm. It doesn't quite work since Storm turns out to be more durable than he anticipated.

* ''Film/XMen'': Toad employs this on a tactical level. Since he's outnumbered 3-to-1 after Mystique goes to fight Wolverine, he takes Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey on all at once. His first move is to knock out Cyclops, lock him up, and kick Storm and Jean away from each other. Toad then throws Storm to the next floor to force Jean to fight him alone, immobilizes her, and then lays a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Storm. It doesn't quite work since Storm turns out to be more durable than he anticipated.

** The overarching plot of the first four books of the ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'' has Imperial spymaster Ysanne Isard unleashing a SyntheticPlague on the imperial capital of Coruscant just before the Rebels capture it. The plague has two main characteristics - it is gruesomely lethal to most alien races, and easily cured with [[MagicAntidote bacta]]. The net result is that the New Republic gets to bankrupt itself trying to fight the Krytos virus, all while resentment and paranoia over why humans are immune to it threatens to tear apart the multi-species coalition. Later in the same series, Warlord Zsinj has a brilliant scheme to invoke this by using extremely quick {{Brainwashing}} on members of various species to create fake terrorist threats, supposedly along species lines.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'' invoked 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.

* ''Literature/AfterDoomsday'' by Creator/PoulAnderson. Earth has been destroyed, apparently by the Kandemir in retaliation for a secret aid agreement between the Soviet government and their enemies the Vorlakka (the Soviets will build weapons in exchange for secret instruction in Vorlakkan technology). When one of the human survivors confronts a Kandemiran intelligence officer with the accusation, he points out that they'd hardly go to the trouble when there's a more efficient method they've used before--approach the United States and tell them what the Soviets are doing. Why expend Kandemirian lives to conquer Earth when humans would be willing to do half the job for them?

* This is a key element in ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars''
** ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' got the plot from Kurosawa's ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'' which in turn got it from a 1930 gangster film called ''Roadhouse Nights'' which was based on Creator/DashiellHammett's novel ''Literature/RedHarvest''.
** The same plot was used in the western ''Film/{{Django}}'' and ''Film/LastManStanding''.
* Used in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', where Mal pits [[spoiler:the Alliance and the Reavers]] against each other to buy enough time to [[spoiler:broadcast the secret of Miranda to the entire verse]].
* And in ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'', which is unfortunately a huge spoiler. [[spoiler:Slevin had been playing a con the entire movie to kill both the mob bosses by setting them against each other. He also puts himself in the middle of it by appearing like a harmless bystander, but eventually he gets his revenge for the murder of his parents, two decades in the making.]]

* Also, [[Film/TheDarkKnight the Joker's]] strategy: get Batman so riled up with the BlackAndGreyMorality, fighting the police ''and'' trying to redeem Harvey Dent, he can barely take on the Joker.
* In the FilmOfTheBook ''Film/TheSumOfAllFears'', "You don't fight Russia and America. You get Russia and America to fight each other... and destroy each other."
* The Hellfire Club tries to do this by engineering the Cuban Missile Crisis in ''Film/XMenFirstClass''.
* Done to the two rival gangs in ''Film/DesertHeat''. Naturally, considering it's an [[AdaptationInspiration adaptation]] of ''{{Film/Yojimbo}}''.
* In ''Film/TheThing1982'', The Thing realizes it can't win against a united camp, so it tries to sow paranoia and distrust among them. It frames Macready as a Thing to keep the remaining humans from being united under his leadership and assimilates [[spoiler:[[NiceGuy Norris]] and [[TheStoner Palmer]], the two least likely to be suspected as Things.]]
* Helmut Zemo does this to Captain America and Iron Man in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''.

* In ''Film/TheTerrorOfTinyTown'', Bat Haines pits two rival ranching families against each other; planning to trigger a range war so they wipe each other out and he can acquire both properties cheaply in the aftermath.

** UsefulNotes/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 ("Regrant"). English titles are inherited by the eldest son (or nearest male relative), whereas 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 be fought over between the claimant under English law and the claimant under Irish clan law, giving the English an opportunity to "intervene".

* One of the reasons why people of different backgrounds in America cannot come together and demand equal opportunities for everyone can best be surmised by this quote by president LyndonJohnson:

* Inverted in Creator/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.
** ''Militarily'' stronger, that is (and -- which turns out to be an important plot point -- ''only'' if no faction on the divided side decides it is a better bet to support the united side). It is acknowledged that being united is generally a preferable state, and in fact [[spoiler: the seeming turned opponent to human [[TheFederation Federation]] at the end reveals that he still wants it, and now that the aliens have been defeated, the situation is right for such a call to be made and heeded.]]

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/InAGoodCause": When FirstContact with the Diaboli was first established, the human race came pre-divided. Many governments were quick to declare alliances with the Diaboli, and it took decades of political maneuvering to ensure no other human government would be allied with the Diaboli by the time Earth went to war against them, conquoring the first alien race.

Compare LetsYouAndHimFight and SetAMookToKillAMook. Contrast EnemyMine and DefeatMeansFriendship. #9 in UsefulNotes/TheThirtySixStratagems, making this one of TheOldestTricksInTheBook. Not to be confused with the ''VideoGame/ThirdAgeTotalWar'' sub-mod of [[VideoGame/DivideAndConquer the same name]].