Roman Empire In his history of the Gallic Wars,
Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar narrates the following episode: Translated into English, this reads: The Gauls were a people who shared a language and culture but were politically independent from one another, being separated into a number of tribes. Their interests frequently being at odds, and with existing populations being disrupted by large-scale migrations of other peoples being commonplace, warfare between the tribes was endemic; mostly simmering at a low level in the form of constant raids, but occasionally erupting in paroxysms of violence which saw entire cities laid waste and their populations dispersed or enslaved. For this reason the tribes frequently had bitter hatred for the others. These weaknesses — the lack of centralized political authority and the resultant animosity between the tribes — were relentlessly and systematically exploited by Caesar during his conquest of Gaul. Caesar used a system of incentives and punishments to ally with some tribes and intimidate others, ensuring that he was only ever fighting one opponent at a time. He carefully presented himself as a defender of Gallic interests, and his military actions as aimed only at hostile tribes who threatened the peace and stability of Gaul. Neighboring tribes often agreed with his assessment, viewing those he assailed as deadly foes who had all too often plagued them, rather than as fierce potential allies in the wars to come. Many even supplied Roman forces with grain or auxiliary troops, or even offered the use of their towns as permanent bases for legionaries. Eventually, though, there could be no mistaking Caesar’s true motive: not pacification, but conquest. The Gauls realized that they were on the verge of becoming a conquered people without ever having fought a war in their defense. In response they elected
Vercingetorix of the Arverni to lead the unified Gallic resistance with the goal of expelling the Romans from Gaul. Although Vercingetorix was a leader of an exceptionally high caliber, banding together the disparate tribes as had never been done, and enforcing discipline and order on a people who never known either; and despite his innovative strategy of continual retreat before the superior legions, burning or destroying all food that they left behind them denying Caesar the set-piece battle he desired, Vercingetorix eventually erred. Harried by the Romans, he and his forces sheltered in the walled city of
Alesia. Caesar entrapped them within a double ring of defensive fortifications: one to keep Vercingetorix and his army confined, the other as protection against the relief army that was sure to come, and the Romans waited. In the subsequent
Battle of Alesia, Caesar's legions won such a crushing victory that Gallic resistance to Roman rule was no longer possible. Vercingetorix rode into the Roman camp alone and silently fell at the feet of Caesar, laying down his arms in token of submission in what Plutarch described as “the most famous surrender in antiquity.” The rest of the tribes followed, and they were integrated as the province of Roman Gaul. The region was eventually organized into the Tres Galliae (
Gallia Belgica,
Gallia Lugdunensis, and
Gallia Aquitania) alongside the older
Gallia Narbonensis.
Mongol Empire While the
Mongols imported
Central Asian Muslims to serve as administrators in
China, the Mongols also sent Han Chinese and Khitans from China to serve as administrators over the Muslim population in Bukhara in Central Asia, using foreigners to curtail the power of the local peoples of both lands.
British India Some Indian historians, such as politician
Shashi Tharoor, assert that the
British Raj frequently used this tactic to consolidate their rule and prevent the emergence of the
Indian independence movement, citing
Lord Elphinstone who said that "
Divide et impera was the old Roman maxim, and it should be ours." A
Times Literary Supplement review by British historian Jon Wilson suggests that although this was broadly the case a more nuanced approach might be closer to the facts. On the other hand, Proponents of
Hindutva, the ideology of the current and recent Indian governments over the years, stress strongly Hindu-Muslim conflict going back centuries before the arrival of the British. The classic nationalist position was expressed by the Indian jurist and supporter of
Indian reunification Markandey Katju, who wrote in the Pakistani paper
The Nation in 2013: Historian
John Keay takes a contrary position regarding British policy, writing:
General S.K. Sinha, former Vice-Chief of Army Staff, writes that contrary to what the notion of divide and rule would predict, the
British Indian Army was effectively integrated:
French Algeria Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire often used a divide-and-rule strategy, pitting
Armenians and
Kurds against each other.
Europe •
Athenian historian
Thucydides in his book
History of the Peloponnesian War claimed that
Alcibiades recommended to
Persian statesman Tissaphernes, to weaken both Athens and Sparta for his own Persian's benefit. Alcibiades, suggested to Tissaphernes that '
The cheapest plan was to let the Hellenes wear each other out, at a small share of the expense and without risk to himself. • Tacitus in Germania. chapter 33 writes "May the tribes, I pray, ever retain if not love for us, at least hatred for each other; for while the destinies of empire hurry us on, fortune can give no greater boon than discord among our foes." • In
Revolutions of 1848, the governments which were being revolted against used this tactic to counter the rebels. • The colonial authorities in
British Cyprus often stirred up the
Turkish minority in order to neutralize agitation from the
Greek majority. This policy intentionally cultivated further animosity between the already divided Greek majority and the Turkish minority (which consists of 18% of the population) in the island that remains
divided to this day after an invasion by
Turkey to establish the state of
North Cyprus (which is only
diplomatically recognized by Turkey). • The
partition of Ireland in 1921 has been claimed as an intentional implementation of this strategy by
David Lloyd George, although the religious divisions in Ireland were notorious and of long standing. The
Stanford historian
Priya Satia claims that the partition of Ireland was in ways a patch-test for the
partition of India in 1947.
Colonialism According to Richard Morrock, four tactics of divide and rule practiced by Western colonialists are: • The manufacture of differences within the targeted population; • The amplification of existing differences; • The use of these differences for the benefit of the colonial empire; and • The carry over of these differences into the post-colonial period. == Foreign policy ==