History Main / TakeOverTheWorld

For more information, check out the EvilOverlordList, a detailed guide on what should an evil overlord do and not do. Typically, this is accomplished with StockEvilOverlordTactics. Although sometimes the plans of villains with this motivation go rather in the StepThreeProfit direction. For several country-specific [[SubTrope SubTropes]], see AmericaTakesOverTheWorld, JapanTakesOverTheWorld, and ChinaTakesOverTheWorld. See TakeOverTheCity for a more modest version.

** Makes Rita's motivations clear the moment her [[strike:can]] [[SealedEvilInACan space dumpster is unsealed.]] ''"After 10,000 years I'm free! '''It's time to conquer Earth!'''"'' Same goes for the motivation of every other PowerRangers villain ''ever''.[[hottip:* : Its even the goal of villains that already rule entire galaxies, sometimes ''several galaxies''. Earth is just that special, possibly because nobody has taken it over yet.]]

* NapoleonBonaparte, maybe. What is certain in sure terms is that he wanted to make France the principal state in Europe, a large and prosperous military power full of national pride that would dominate the continent and lord over a vast colonial empire; essentially a new Roman Empire with Paris as its capital instead of Rome. He changed his tactics to accomplish this goal several times, but it was always a constant of Britain (which traditionally tried to undermine any continental power that it perceived as growing too powerful) and a shifting coalition of European allies opposing France to break the new empire. He did manage to take over all of continental Western and Central Europe, but was eventually outdone after the disastrous venture in Russia and the War of the Sixth Coalition. He escaped his exile on Elba to try again, but Waterloo proved to be the hypothetical nail in Napoleon's coffin, not the turning point of the wars[[hottip:*:Even if Napoleon's forces had managed to beat Britain and Prussia there and then and managed to occupy the Low Countries there would be still more Russians, Austrians, ''more'' British and Prussians, and others ready to oppose him, all now using the same once-revolutionary tactics of Napoleon.]].

->'''Brain:''' Come, Pinky. We must prepare for tomorrow night.
->'''Pinky:''' Why, Brain? What are we going to do tomorrow night?
->'''Brain:''' [[EveryEpisodeEnding The same thing we do every night, Pinky: Try to take over the world!]]
->'''Singers:''' ''They're dinky, they're WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain, [-Brain,-] [--Brain,--] [---Brain,---] [----Brain!----]''

* ''EndersGame'': Peter Wiggin, the brother of Ender begins putting his TakeOverTheWorld plan in motion at the age of, like, fourteen? [[spoiler:He succeeds several books later. And in an interesting turn, is a very effective and respected leader.]]

** It's probably worth noting that in the new series, at least, when an episode takes place on Earth, chances are good the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Alien of the Week]] is trying to take over the world or some variant on that theme. Recurring villains the Cybermen are also proponents of [[TakeOverTheWorld Taking Over The World]]. Notable exceptions to this rule, however, are the [[OmnicidalManiac Daleks]] and the [[spoiler:Time Lords]].

* On the opposite side of the (old) world from Alexander, [[QinShihuangdi some other guy]] did take over the whole known-world to his people. [[ImperialChina His empire]] did last, unlike Alexander's, even his dynasty did not.

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': General Sebastian "Bass" Monroe of the Monroe Republic wants to take over the continent of North America one territory at a time. [[spoiler: By the first season finale, Bass ends up on the run from his own militia, and Tom Neville has apparently adopted this as his new goal]].

* ''HarryPotter'': Lord Voldemort has this goal, now that he's [[spoiler:functionally immortal]].

* ''TheBloodWatersOfDrZ'': Dr Z wants to take over the universe -- by turning himself into a humanoid catfish and mutating all sea life.
* ''GIJoeTheRiseofCobra'': the goal of Cobra is to -- you guessed it!

* ''StarWars'': Senator Palpatine, AKA [[strike: Rapmaster]] Darth Sidious, didn't just take over a world, he took over a ''galaxy''. Beat that!

* General Zod in ''SupermanII'' did take over Earth after defeating the pesky son of Jor-El. It just didn't last because of Superman.

* ''TheLordOfTheRings'': Sauron already controlled the greater part of the world by the main story opens. Two ages before that, his boss -- a [[{{Satan}} fallen angel type]], name of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Morgoth]] -- had similar ambitions before the gods dethroned him. The key difference is that for Morgoth, world domination was merely one step in his ultimate plan to [[OmnicidalManiac corrupt and destroy all reality]], whereas for Sauron it was an end in and of itself.

* This is the major goal of the [[VideoGame/{{StreetPassMiiPlaza}} Warrior's Way]].

* In the VideoGame/DeusEx series, the Illuminati plan to do this with by gaining control over an advance A.I. to control everything.

* "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Everybody Wants to Rule the World]]," by Tears for Fears.

* Nathan Stark of ''{{Eureka}}'' admits in one episode that he has dreams about world domination. "But not all the time!"
* On ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'', the Spellman family cat Salem is actually a former warlock who's being punished for plotting to rule the world. In one episode he is denied parole (and a return to his human form) when he lets it slip to the interviewer that he still dreams of overlordship.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "Tomb of the Cybermen", Kleig, a human helping the Cybermen for power, goes on a rant about how the world is a disorganized mess of conflicting ideals, and only his superior intellect could bring it together to solve all its problems. A few seasons later, in "The Invasion", Tobias Vaughn, also helping the Cybermen, would make almost word-for-word the same rant.

* The ultimate goal of every single villain in ''Series/StargateSG1'' is conquest or control of the Milky Way galaxy. Every. Single. One.
* ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' makes Rita's motivations clear the moment her [[strike:can]] [[SealedEvilInACan space dumpster is unsealed.]] ''"After 10,000 years I'm free! '''It's time to conquer Earth!'''"'' Same goes for the motivation of every other PowerRangers villain ''ever''.[[hottip:* : Its even the goal of villains that already rule entire galaxies, sometimes ''several galaxies''. Earth is just that special, possibly because nobody has taken it over yet.]]

* This is BigBad Herrick's ultimate plan in season 1 of ''Series/BeingHuman''.
* ''TheMiddleman'' is GenreSavvy about this being a standard EvilPlan.
* ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'': Khan Noonien Singh wakes up after a 270-year nap and decides to take over the galaxy.
* Warren Mears in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. He mostly fails because he's less like [[CutLexLuthorACheck Lex Luthor]], and more like [[AxCrazy Max Cady]].
** Apparently the goal of [[AffablyEvil The Mayor]], though he never got past the "[[ScaledUp become giant demon snake]]" stage of his plan. Presumably this would give him the power to do so.
** The Master also showed interest in ruling the world, as did Adam, and the First wanted to possess every human being on the planet, so it probably applies as well. The only BigBad with no ambitions of this kind was Glory who just wanted to go home at the cost of the apocalypse (and even then, she only wanted to go back to her home world so that she could rule it).
* On ''Series/{{Angel}}'' this was Illyria's plan when she first reemerged. She went to revive her demonic army to conquer the earth, and found she'd been dead so long they had all crumbled to dust. She was so depressed she just gave up on it after that.
** And one season before that, rogue [[PowersThatBe Power that...]] [[BuffySpeak Am]], Jasmine, nearly ''succeeded'' as she was able to brainwash everyone who saw or heard her, even via electronic media, into loving her. She was ultimately only defeated by epic GlamourFailure [[spoiler: and Connor turning into a full-blown NietzscheWannabe who punched through the back of her head]].
* Unsurprisingly, this is Hitler's goal in ''Series/{{Danger 5}}''. He is also depicted as being in charge of Benito Mussolini and Emperor Hirohito - the show being a parody of pulp and exploitation fiction, he's pretty similar to the stereotypical megalomaniacal supervillain.
* Tons of Showa era ''KamenRider'' villains had this as this as their plan. Not so much in the Heisei era, where the villains plans are usually more complex. The only villains whose end goal plan is conquering the world is Smart Brain from ''KamenRiderFaiz'', whose plan entails a ZombieApocalypse.

** OF COURSE!

If you have time, please take time to put examples in alphabetical order. This page Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings should help you with that.

* While Peter the Great's infamous challenge to his successors to conquer the world is a fabrication of Anti-Russian propaganda, the [[TsaristRussia Russian Empire]] at its height covered more than one-sixths of the Earth's landmass.

* This is the goal of Rider, aka AlexanderTheGreat, in ''FateZero''. Which is to be expected, given that it was his goal in RealLife. An unusual case in that he is a hero rather than a villain.

-->-- ''PinkyAndTheBrain''

!!Examples

->'''Singers:''' ''They're dinky, they're WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain, [-Brain,-] [--Brain,--] [---Brain,---] [----Brain!----]''

* ''PrincessTutu's'' [[AllThereInTheManual Japanese official website]] listed profiles for most of the major characters--pretty standard stuff, including height, weight, and each character's "likes" and "dislikes". Most of it isn't too much of a surprise, like Ahiru's love for ballet and dislike of food with chicken in it... but then you get to [[ScaryShinyGlasses Autor's]] profile. What he likes? "World Domination". Apparently ''that's'' the reason he's so obsessed with [[spoiler:Drosselmeyer's [[RealityWarper story-spinning]] powers]]!

* In ''TheShadow'' the villain is a descendant of Genghis Khan. He says that his ancestor conquered half the world and he's here to "finish the job".

* While it's never explicitly stated that Lydia, the [[EvilSorcerer villain]] of ''BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', wants to take over the world, the heroines bent on stopping her treat her actual goal, ruling the birthplace of all music (and keeping all the music for herself) as the same thing.

[[quoteright:350:[[{{Risk}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riskalmostwin.JPG]]]]

* Played straight in Mark Waid's ''{{Empire}}'' limited comic series. The supervillain mastermind Golgoth actually conquers the world. All opposition is crushed, all superheroes are defeated, and Golgoth is still victorious at the end of the tale. Needless to say, it's a VERY dark story. However, Golgoth finds that ruling the world is not exactly easy, either.