Divide and Rule, or Divide and Conquer is an effective way to weaken one's enemies in such a way that they would not even think of trying to resist. It simply is systematically breaking up large concentrations of power into smaller pieces and eventually each individual piece is weaker than the power that is implementing the strategy.
It can be employed in any sphere of human activity and through the ages shrewd men and women have used it in politics, sociology, in countless military campaigns and even as an economic strategy.
The objective: To make your enemies fight amongst themselves, let them waste their energy, take advantage of their weakness and then you can and rule over them. Simple.
Historical Applications
- Julius Caesar successfully used this strategy in his conquest of Gaul and then the Greek city states.
- Legendary Italian statesman Machiavelli advises of it's use in his book, The Art of War as follows, "a captain should endeavor to divide the forces of the enemy with every art, either by making him suspicious of the men in whom he trusts, or by giving him cause that he has to separate his forces, and,because of this becomes weaker".
- Germany and Belgium used it successfully to divide the Hutu and the Tutsi of Rwanda and then successfully ruled over them during the colonial days. The division lingers till today.
- The British colonial authorities used it in Sudan (which caused the Sudanese civil wars), and in Nigeria. Today both countries are still seriously weak and hopelessly divided. They used it in India, Cyprus, the Middle East, in fact they used it everywhere.
We can see now that this "evil" tactic has been an integral part of our past, is deeply embedded in our present and will definitely be part of our future. Many people will be surprised to know that the progenitor of of this highly effective Divide and Rule technique in none other than the maker of heaven and earth, the creator of all things. God himself.
Before you get angry and try to leave this website, I want you to take a copy of the Christian Holy Bible (I am a Christian myself) and read the book of Genesis Chapter Eleven. If you cannot get your Bible now, you can read the complete story below.
A Classic Story
It was after the flood of Noah, the whole Earth spoke the same language and everyone was of one speech. The inhabitants of Earth settled in the land of Shinar and built successful settlements. They were united and the unity made them very strong.
Then they said to one another, "let us build for ourselves a tower whose top may reach unto heaven". They made bricks and mortar, rocks and cement and they started to build a massive tower. They also said, "Let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth".
These people early on realized that to be united brings strength and to be divided creates weakness.
Then God came down to see the city and the tower which man was building. God became alarmed, panicky and distressed. He said,"Behold the people is one, and they all have one language, and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do".
Take special note of the above statement.
God realized, at that moment, that he was seriously in danger of not being God anymore because he knew that with the unity of man everything that they want to achieve, surely they will get it. God created man, he is the only one that really knows what we can really achieve.
Then God came up with a strategy and said,"Let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one anothers' speech"
So God scattered them abroad up on the face of the Earth and they not being able to understand the other persons' tongue began to fight amongst themselves, they abandoned their project, became divided and therefore weak. Man was doomed.
...And It Continues Today
God did not stop there. Although the human race was now badly weakened, God decided to crush the human race totally. He further deepened this division of man by eventually doing the following, among other things:
- He divided the various languages into sub-languages, and even these into much smaller divisions. Ethnic groups begin to emerge, and so did ethnic hatred.
- He gave man different religions telling each that it was the only way to him (God) and that every other religion is false, evil and should be hated. Religious hatred was born.
- He further divided each religious groups into smaller sub-groups most of them disagreeing with the other. Sectarianism and sectarian hatred was born.
The division continues in every sphere of human interaction.
The Consequence
Everywhere man lives, division and ethnic hatred ran so deep creating countless thousands of small wars and hundreds of very big wars. The body count has been simply unimaginable.
Man is now so divided that it is almost impossible to come together and be one again, and meanwhile God had become so powerful in the life of man that man now does almost nothing without first asking his consent. God is everywhere, God is all powerful and man is nothing.
The power of Divide and Conquer.
But can we blame God? The answer is a definite NO. After all who will taste the sweet taste of power and want to leave it?! NOBODY. God is only protecting his almighty interest, after all if man was allowed to ascend to the same level as God, we may have done even worse than he had ever done to us. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The ephemeral power that man had wielded in his short time on Earth and what he did with it will attest to that. How many of you think about Genghis Khan, Vlad Dracula, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin and other countless "gods" who have wielded their power on their fellow men.
Let us leave God alone to do his thing and let we, men also do our own thing.