fostering distrust and enmity between local rulers.

aiding and promoting those who are willing to cooperate with the sovereign.

creating or encouraging divisions among the subjects to prevent alliances that could challenge the sovereign.

Explosum est illud diverbium: Divide, & impera, cum radix & vertex imperii in obedientium consensu rata sunt.” On the other hand, in a minor variation, Sir Francis Bacon wrote the phrase “separa et impera” in a letter to James I of 15 February 1615. James Madison made this recommendation in a letter to Thomas Jefferson of 24 October 1787, which summarized the thesis of The Federalist #10: “Divide et impera, the reprobated axiom of tyranny, is under certain (some) qualifications, the only policy, by which a republic can be administered on just principles.” In Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch by Immanuel Kant (1795), Appendix one, Divide et impera is the third of three political maxims, the others being Fac et excusa (Act now, and make excuses later) and Si fecisti, nega (If you commit a crime, deny it). The strategy of division and rule has been attributed to sovereigns, ranging from Louis XI to the Habsburgs. Edward Coke denounces it in Chapter I of the Fourth Part of the Institutes, reporting that when it was demanded by the Lords and Commons what might be a principal motive for them to have good success in Parliament, it was answered: “ Eritis insuperabiles, si fueritis inseparabiles.

Strabo also reports in Geography, 8.7.3 that the Achaean League was gradually dissolved under the Roman possession of the whole of Macedonia, owing to their not dealing with the several states in the same way, but wishing to preserve some and to destroy others. The strategy, but not the phrase, applies in many ancient cases: the example of Gabinius exists, parting the Jewish nation into five conventions, reported by Flavius Josephus in Book I, 169-170 of The Wars of the Jews ( De bello Judaico). It was utilised by the Roman ruler Caesar and the French emperor Napoleon (together with the maxim divide ut regnes) The maxim divide et impera has been attributed to Philip II of Macedon. It is now housed in the Chiaramonti Museum of the Vatican Museums. Machiavelli advises this act be achieved either by making him suspicious of his men in whom he trusted, or by giving him cause that he has to separate his forces, and, because of this, become weaker.īust of Philip II of Macedon, a 1st-century Roman-era copy of a Greek original.

Machiavelli identifies a similar application to military strategy, advising in Book VI of The Art of War ( L’arte della guerra): a Captain should endeavor with every art to divide the forces of the enemy. “ divide et impera” is cited as a common principle in politics by Traiano Boccalini in La bilancia politica The use of this technique is meant to empower the sovereign to control subjects, populations, or factions of different interests, who collectively might be able to oppose his rule. T he use of this technique is meant to empower the sovereign to control subjects who collectively might be able to oppose his rule.ĭivide and rule (from Latin divide et impera), or divide and conquer, in politics and sociology is gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into pieces that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy. Statue of Julius Caesar / Wikimedia Commons

Machiavelli divide and conquer quotes