History Main / ForeignRulingClass

* The most powerful man in France between 1643 and 1661? The [[UsefulNotes/CardinalMazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin]], born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino in Italy. Nobles who were parts of the Fronde CivilWar factions against the Regency that followed the death of King UsefulNotes/LouisXIII depised him and played up his non-French origins. Nonetheless, he was pretty much as cunning and brilliant at his chief minister job as his predecessor and mentor, UsefulNotes/CardinalRichelieu, and crushed the Fronde. When UsefulNotes/LouisXIV eventually assumed power upon Mazarin's death in 1661, he inherited a pacified kingdom and solidified royal authority, allowing him to consolidate his absolute monarchical powers.

* The most powerful man in France between 1643 and 1661? The [[UsefulNotes/CardinalMazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin]], born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino in Italy. Nobles who were parts of the Fronde faction against the Regency that followed the death of King UsefulNotes/LouisXIII depised him and played up his non-French origins. Nonetheless, he was pretty much as cunning and brilliant at his chief minister job as his predecessor and mentor, UsefulNotes/CardinalRichelieu. When UsefulNotes/LouisXIV eventually assumed power upon Mazarin's death in 1661, he inherited a pacified kingdom and solidified royal authority, allowing him to consolidate his absolute monarchical powers.

* During his reign, Napoleon Bonaparte would leave his relatives as the new monarchs of conquered countries, which probably didn't help his popularity there. Though even Napoleon's own brothers weren't immune to GoingNative, as seen with Louis Bonaparte (King Lodewijk I of the Netherlands).

* The Aryan Invasion Theory is a hypothesis postulating that the Indian subcontinent, then mostly populated of Dravidians, was invaded by an Aryan people, who formed themselves into the [[TribeOfPriests Brahmins]], [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Ksatriyas]] and [[ProudMerchantRaceGuy Vaishyas]] and set the locals to be [[ServantRace Sudras]] (however, this theory is controversial-nowadays it's mostly called the Indo-Aryan migration theory, without claims of conquest). Aryans also became the overclass of the Mitanni people in modern Syria, as evidenced by numerous loanwords in the Mitanni language that came from a language very closely related to Vedic Sanskrit, including recognizable names of gods like Indra. This strongly suggests that the Indo-Aryan languages had begun to take recognizable form long before appearing in India proper.

'''Captain Edmund Blackadder:''' [[AnalogyBackfire So your father's German, you're half-German and you married a German?]]

'''Captain Edmund Blackadder:''' So your father's German, you're half-German and you married a German?

** Complicating matters is that the upper echelons of the (virtually French-Canadian only) Catholic clergy (which held ''disproportionate'' influence throughout Quebec history up until relatively recently, to the point were the argument could be made that Quebec was TheTheocracy) was in [[LesCollaborateurs cahoots]] with the British authorities as part of an agreement to preserve the power of the Church (and the freedom to practice Catholicism) in return for keeping French-Canadians docile and unambitious. The last remnants of this trope arguably began to die out in the 60's and 70's, as wealthy, English-speaking business owners began abandoning UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}, then Canada's economical powerhouse, for UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}, leaving French-Canadian Quebecers to fill in the gaps. At the federal, political level, French-Canadians have very good representation, and as tradition the (now largely ceremonial) Crown-appointed governor generally alternates between a French and English Canadian out of respect for Canadian history.

* In Belgium, nationalists from the Flemish and Walloon communities both see the other side as this trope.

* During his reign, Napoleon Bonaparte would leave his relatives as the new monarchs of conquered countries, which probably didn't help his popularity there.

* {{Parodied}} in ''Series/BlackadderGoesForth'': Charged with ferreting out a suspected German mole ([[spoiler:actually, it's George sending letters to his German uncle, because George is an idiot]]), [[TortureForFunAndInformation Captain Blackadder grills Captain Darling for his own amusement]] and and brings up the fact that [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor the British royal family]] is German-descended, like most of Europe's remaining monarchs at the time.

* In the Baltic lands conquered by UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights after the Livonian Crusade, the nobility were German while the peasantry was Baltic.

** Following UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat's campaign, the Greeks ruled the land from the 4th century to 2nd century BCE. While their culture flourished, the Greeks never succeeded in Hellenizing Iran (or any of their eastern dominions) completely as they did Anatolia.

* Several of the ancient Egyptian dynasties were ruled by foreigners, including the 15th Dynasty (Hyksos), the 22nd and 23rd dynasties (Libyan), the 25th dynasty (Nubian), and the 27th and 31st dynasties (Persian). In fact, since Egypt was conquered by the Greeks afterwards (followed by the Romans, Arabs, Turks, Tunisians, Circassians, Albanians, etc.), the 30th dynasty, which ended in 343 BCE, would mark the last time Egypt was ruled by an Egyptian until Mohamed Naguib became President in 1953.

* Happened twice in modern Taiwan. The Qing were not too concerned about Taiwan, so they were not too averse to handing it over to Japan in 1895 due to internal conflicts brewing within the Forbidden Palace. The Japanese imposed their language and culture on Taiwan; then in 1945 it was handed back to the mainland Chinese, who imposed Mandarin Chinese and government on the Taiwanese Hokkien-speaking and Hakka-speaking local population.

* The state of Nanyue was a Chinese kingdom comprised of conquered tribes in Southern China and Northern Vietnam. Unlike the Han after them, the Nanyue did not assimilate the native population, making it so that only the elites were of Han descend. Unlike most examples of this trope, the locals actually liked the elites, to the point that modern Vietnam named itself[[note]]They wanted to be named exactly Nam Viet (the Vietnamese form of Nanyue), but the Chinese made them reverse it to Viet Nam instead[[/note]] after this kingdom.

* A common trope in UsefulNotes/{{conspiracy theor|ies}}y literature, directed against ethnic and religious minorities with any level of economic status (especially those that have wound up filling a merchant niche in society), is that they are secretly this, functioning as a clique that's out to bleed the majority group dry. The classic example, of course, is the varieties of anti-Semitism that see the Jewish people as this, which have led to pogroms, expulsions, and [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust genocides]] throughout history. Similar accusations are thrown at the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, which led to race riots in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_May_incident Malaysia in 1969]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakarta_riots_of_May_1998 Indonesia in 1998]] as well as genocide in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period; a big reason why UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}} is independent is because Malaysia effectively expelled the multicultural, heavily Chinese city from their nation. In Rwanda, accusations that the Tutsi tribe were this also led to that country's 1994 genocide.

* From 1763 onwards up to relatively recently, with the British conquest of French possessions in North America, the [[UsefulNotes/CanadianHistory history of Canada]] becomes this from the perspective of French-Canadians, to a degree that heavily depends on the political beliefs of those concerned. From the very first days of the conquest, a general governor appointed by the British crown was charged with overseeing Canada alongside an occupation force, though out of pragmatism most of the day-to-day business was handled by Canadians [[note]]Which at the time referred to French speaking inhabitants of Canada[[/note]] as there was simply not enough British immigrants to fill all these roles. As time went on Crown loyalists from the USA (who, for [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution obvious reasons]], were no longer welcome after 1783) and immigrants from the British Isles poured into the colony and began assuming political and economical roles, though the (largely rubber-stamp and for-show) parliament had a fair representation of French-speakers [[note]]British-style parliaments were based on land ownership, which the Canadians had in plenty, and their ownership was recognized by the British crown and Canadians were recognized as British subjects and allowed to practice the Catholic faith[[/note]]. To make a long-story short, English-speaking Canadians were a minority in UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}} specifically (with most of them settling in what is now modern-day Ontario) but had disproportional economic power and acted as merchants or factory owners, while actual political power was much more evenly distributed.

** The [[UsefulNotes/JinDynasty Sixteen Kingdoms period]] saw the establishment of numerous foreign-ruled dominions in northern China. The most successful were the Xianbei, who consolidated the region into a single state in 439 as the [[UsefulNotes/SouthernAndNorthernDynasties Northern Wei dynasty, but others]], including the Xiongnu, Jie, Di, Qiang, and Dingling, also took part. Since the Han Chinese were very big on Sinicization, however, these people were assimilated in just a few centuries and we have no way to identify what languages they spoke initially, though there are theories.[[note]]The Xianbei and Xiongnu were possibly Mongolic, with Turkic admixture; the Dingling and Jie were probably Turkic; and the Di and Qiang were Tibeto-Burmans. There is an ethnic group in the present day bearing the Qiang ethnonym and speaking a Tibeto-Burman language, but it is unclear if they are related to the ancient Qiang.[[/note]]

** The Sixteen Kingdoms period saw the establishment of numerous foreign-ruled dominions in northern China. The most successful were the Xianbei, who consolidated the region into a single state in 439 as the Northern Wei dynasty, but others, including the Xiongnu, Jie, Di, Qiang, and Dingling, also took part. Since the Han Chinese were very big on Sinicization, however, these people were assimilated in just a few centuries and we have no way to identify what languages they spoke initially, though there are theories.[[note]]The Xianbei and Xiongnu were possibly Mongolic, with Turkic admixture; the Dingling and Jie were probably Turkic; and the Di and Qiang were Tibeto-Burmans. There is an ethnic group in the present day bearing the Qiang ethnonym and speaking a Tibeto-Burman language, but it is unclear if they are related to the ancient Qiang.[[/note]]
** During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Shatuo Turks ruled three of the eponymous dynasties and one kingdom. They had previously served as allies of the preceding Tang dynasty until it collapsed in the early 10th century. Concurrent with them was the Liao dynasty, ruled by ethnic Khitans, which existed in northern China for two centuries. The Khitans were related to the Mongols but not part of them.
** The Western Xia dynasty, infamously [[{{Unperson}} annihilated completely]] by UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan early in his campaign, was founded by ethnic Tanguts (a Tibeto-Burman people related to the modern Qiang) ruling over a mixed Tangut, Tibetan, and Chinese population.
** The medieval Jin dynasty (not to be confused with the ancient Jin, an ethnic Han state)[[labelnote:*]]The medieval one (1115-1234) is "金朝" in Chinese; the ancient, ethnic Han one (266-420) is "晉朝" in Chinese[[/labelnote]], created by a Tungusic people called Jurchens from [[UsefulNotes/{{Manchuria}} northeastern China]]. These same Jurchens changed their ethnonym to Manchu in 1635 and founded a second Chinese state, the Qing dynasty, in the early modern period. They actually attempted to oppress the Han populace [[GoingNative until the noble class assimilated]]. Today, the Manchu are virtually Sinicized.
** The Yuan dynasty was of Mongol origin, founded by the grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, and set up Mongol nobles to rule over China. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_dynasty#Social_classes More specifically]], the people of the Yuan dynasty were divided into the four classes--the Mongols at the top, the "Semu"[[labelnote:*]]non-Mongol foreigners[[/labelnote]] after them, the "Han"[[labelnote:*]]northern Han Chinese, Jurchens, Khitans, Koreans, etc. who were conquered as part of the Jin dynasty (金朝)[[/labelnote]] in third-class, and finally the "Southerners"[[labelnote:*]]southern Han Chinese and indigenous peoples who were conquered as part of the southern Song dynasty, sometimes called "Barbarians" by the Mongol ruling class and nobility[[/labelnote]] at the bottom. The lowest two classes of "Han" and "Southerner" were oppressed greatly by the ruling class, and by the time they revolted to form the succeeding Ming dynasty, one of their mottos was to rid China of the "Barbarian"[[labelnote:*]]The imperial-era Han Chinese were rather arrogant (one might even call them Han Chinese-supremacists at worst) and called pretty much anyone that ''wasn't'' Han Chinese in the area a "barbarian" or more specific race/ethnicity-related pejorative terms, a little like in Ancient Rome[[/labelnote]] ruling class and to restore the country to be ruled by Han Chinese, i.e. non-foreigners. (For the record, many revolutionaries said the same when overthrowing the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty as mentioned above, though many other factors were also involved for [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors that]].)

* Happened several times in China:

** The Normans would conquer Sicily and southern Italy as well, and most of the Crusader States were ruled by nobles of mixed Norman, Flemish, and Frankish origin [[note]] for example William's son Robert went on the First Crusade with Godfrey and Baldwin de Boulogne, sons of his father's Flemish companion at Hastings who were the founders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem [[/note]].

->'''Captain Kevin Darling:''' I'm as English as UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria!\\

* The state of Nanyue was a short-lived kingdom comprised of Southern China and Northern Vietnam. Unlike the Han after them, the Nanyue did not assimilate the local Baiyue population, making it so that only the elites were of Han descend. Unlike most examples of this trope, the locals actually liked the elites, to the point that modern Vietnam named itself[[note]]They wanted to be named exactly Nam Viet (the Vietnamese form of Nanyue), but the Chinese made them choose Viet Nam instead[[/note]] after this kingdom.

* The state of Nanyue was a short-lived kingdom comprised of Southern China and Northern Vietnam. Unlike the Han after them, the Nanyue did not assimilate the local Baiyue population, making it so that only the elites were of Han descend. Unlike most examples of this trope, the locals actually loved the elites, to the point that modern Vietnam named itself[[note]]They wanted to be named exactly Nam Viet (the Vietnamese form of Nanyue), but the Chinese made them choose Viet Nam instead[[/note]]after this kingdom.

* Simulated in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'', which makes a distinction between a province's culture and religion, and that of the character holding the title (who will spawn courtiers, minor nobles, of his own culture). The province will tend to shift to match that of its ruler over time, or the ruler can change cultures to that of their capital province, but in the meantime, there's a small increase in revolt risk.
** Additionally, some cultures, such as English and Russian, are programmed to be created by having a province of one culture be controlled by a ruler of a different culture.
** Hilariously enough, players managed to combine a random event where a crazy ruler names his horse to his council with this mechanic, spawning actual horses as courtiers which can then be married off to humans to produce a ruling class of, yes, horses.

Over time, this class can [[GoingNative go native]], or [[TheAssimilator their local subjects can assimilate into their masters' culture]].

* Simulated in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'', which makes a distinction between a province's culture and religion, and that of the character holding the title (who will spawn courtiers, minor nobles, of his own culture). The province will tend to shift to match that of its ruler over time, or the ruler can change cultures to that of their capital province, but in the meantime, there's a small increase in revolt risk. Additionally, some cultures, such as English and Russian, are programmed to be created by having a province of one culture be controlled by a ruler of a different culture.

* From 1763 onwards up to relatively recently, with the British conquest of French possessions in North America, the [[UsefulNotes/CanadianHistory history of Canada]] becomes this from the perspective of French-Canadians, to a degree that heavily depends on the political beliefs of those concerned. From the very first days of the conquest, a general governor appointed by the British crown was charged with overseeing Canada alongside an occupation force, though out of pragmatism most of the day-to-day business was handled by Canadians [[note]]Which at the time referred to French speaking inhabitants of Canada[[/note]] as there was simply not enough British immigrants to fill all these roles. As time went on Crown loyalists from the USA (who, for [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution obvious reasons]], were no longer welcome after 1783) and immigrants from the British Isles poured into the colony and began assuming political and economical roles, though the (largely rubber-stamp and for-show) parliament had a fair representation of French-speakers [[note]]British-style parliaments were based on land ownership, which the Canadians had in plenty, and their ownership was recognized by the British crown and Canadians were recognized as British subjects and allowed to practice the Catholic faith[[/note]]. To make a long-story short, English-speaking Canadians were a minority in UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}} specifically (with most of them settling in what is now modern-day Ontario) but had disproportional economic power and acted as merchants or factory owners, while actual political power was much more evenly distributed. Complicating matters is that the upper echelons of the (virtually French-Canadian only) Catholic clergy (which held ''disproportionate'' influence throughout Quebec history up until relatively recently, to the point were the argument could be made that Quebec was TheTheocracy) was in [[LesCollaborateurs cahoots]] with the British authorities as part of an agreement to preserve the power of the Church (and the freedom to practice Catholicism) in return for keeping French-Canadians docile and unambitious. The last remnants of this trope arguably began to die out in the 60's and 70's, as wealthy, English-speaking business owners began abandoning UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}, then Canada's economical powerhouse, for UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}, leaving French-Canadian Quebecers to fill in the gaps. At the federal, political level, French-Canadians have very good representation, and as tradition the (now largely ceremonial) Crown-appointed governor generally alternates between a French and English Canadian out of respect for Canadian history.

* Happened twice in modern Taiwan. The Qing were not too concerned about Taiwan, so they were not too averse to handing it over to Japan in 1895 due to internal conflicts brewing within the Forbidden Palace. The Japanese imposed their language and culture on Taiwan; then in 1945 it was handed back to the mainland Chinese, who imposed Mandarin Chinese and government on the Taiwanese Hokkien-speaking and Hakka-speaking local population.[[/folder]]

** After the death of Reman Cyrodiil III, the last in the Reman dynasty, at the end of the 1st Era, his [[{{Wutai}} Akavari]] advisor, Versidue-Shaie, took over the Empire. Following his death, his son Savirien-Chorak, would continue to rule. The Akavari Potentates were members of the Tsaesci race, supposedly SnakePeople right down to having scales and serpentine lower bodies (though [[MultipleChoicePast other accounts]] state they were men little different than those from Tamriel with some East Asian features). Ultimately Savirien-Chorak and his heirs would die under mysterious circumstances, leading to the 400+ year Interregnum before Tiber Septim's rise to power.

** The medieval Jin dynasty (not to be confused with the ancient Jin, an ethnic Han state), created by a Tungusic people called Jurchens from [[UsefulNotes/{{Manchuria}} northeastern China]]. These same Jurchens changed their ethnonym to Manchu in 1635 and founded a second Chinese state, the Qing dynasty, in the early modern period. They actually attempted to oppress the Han populace [[GoingNative until the noble class assimilated]]. Today, the Manchu are virtually Sinicized.
** The Yuan dynasty was of Mongol origin, founded by the grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, and set up Mongol nobles to rule over China.