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{{trope|wppage=Balkanization}}
{{quote|''"It is a general truth of this world that anything long divided will surely unite, and anything long united will surely divide."''|''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]''}}
In [[Alternate History]] and [[Speculative Fiction]] (especially the kind that takes place [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]), authors like to have fun by turning big countries into lots of smaller ones. May be justified by a war, a large-scale catastrophe, or simply a successful secessionist movement. Often happens with the United States of America, resulting in the [[Divided States of America]], but other large countries such as
Contrast [[Space
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
* China is further divided in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' where it is now the People's Liberation Committee (North China) and the Democratic Chinese Alliance (South China). Makes more sense than many, given the long-standing (cultural) north/south divide along the Yangtze.
* ''[[Ghost in
==
* ''[[Titanium Rain]]'' has a neo-Imperial China and the Sino Union, made of China's peripheral territories minus Tibet.
* In ''[[Judge Dredd]]'', [[Divided States of America|America]], [[Red Scare|Russia]], China, and [[Land Down Under|Australia]] all consist of independent [[Mega City|Mega-Cities]] and massive radioactive deserts.
== Literature ==
* [[Robert Heinlein]]'s ''Friday''. In addition to [[Divided States of America]], also has a divided Canada, and more than 400 UN member states. It mentions "Great Russia", indicating that the Soviet Union broke up (the book came out in 1982, before it happened in [[Real Life]]). There's also a mention of Prussia, but whether or not it's the united Germany is unclear.
* In [[
** An article on the author's website, as well as two short stories released, talk about how Great Britain survives due to its offshore islands where civilisation can wait until everyone on the mainland dies off. It then rapidly expands to the point where in 2050 it controls all of Britain, Iceland (nominally) France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, a large Part of North Africa and the East Coast of the USA, as well as being the de facto rulers of New Zealand and what remains of Australia. It appears that instead of Balkanising, Europe simply falls apart and then a few states re-expand. Russia does dissolve into lots of rural kingdoms, though.
* [[Ken MacLeod]]'s ''The Star Fraction'' (first in the Fall Revolution quadrilogy) has a Balkanised UK, and mentions the UN having over two thousand national flags flying outside.
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* Several examples in Jasper Fforde's [[Thursday Next]] series, for example [[Land of My Fathers and Their Sheep|The Socialist Republic of Wales]].
** Turned [[Up to Eleven]] in [[The Last Dragonslayer]].
* In Orson Scott Card's ''[[Orson Scott
* Happened in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]. After the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire began to fracture apart with the deaths of its two top leaders and elite military command staff. Over the course of nearly a decade, various Imperial Admirals began taking sectors for themselves and became warlords over sizable chunks of the galaxy.
* In John Birmingham's ''After America'' although it doesn't go into details it's mentioned that France has become divided after the French Intifada in the previous book, ''Without Warning''. Also there are several cities in Germany called "sharia towns", particularly Neu Koln that have become independent entities ''de facto'', if not ''de jure''.
* In John Barnes ''Mother of Storms'' Siberia has become independent of Russia. Ironically it in turn is trying to absorb an independent Alaska. And while Alaska is the only US state to secede Canada is broken into at least Pacificanada, Ontario and Quebec. What happened to the Maratime States or the provinces between British Columbia and Ontario is not mentioned. By the end of the book China has broken into a dozen or more states controlled by warlords.
* In Ian
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' in addition to suffering from the [[Divided States of America]] has a large amount of Balkanization occurring, mostly as the result of famine, disease, [[Post
* ''[[Rifts]]'', by comparison, partially avoids this only because most places are too wild to ''become'' nations, or the ones that do forms tend to quickly fill the old borders and then some. One notable exception being Japan, which is split into a High-tech time-displaced remnant of Pre-Rifts Japan, an anti-technology Empire of Samurai (who ironically, actually ''like'' the previously-mentioned Republic), a much meaner High-tech Shogunate, a kingdom of <s>Demons</s>Oni, and a few scattered nations besides.
* ''[[GURPS]] [[Transhuman Space]]'' has a few examples, but probably the most balkanized country is Canada. The core of the country is still called Canada, and the rest are Quebec, Newfoundland, the Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), Nanavut, the ABC Republic (Alberta and British Columbia), and the Free City of Montreal. Quebec, Newfoundland and the Maritimes are members of the [[European Union]]; ABC is a member of the Pacific Rim Alliance.
* ''[[Risk]]''. This is really only done to provide game balance, as there isn't really much backstory to a simple board game. The extent of Balkanization is rather vague in ''Risk 2210 A.D.'', where one might believe ''every single individual territory'' to be a separate country.
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== Videogames ==
* ''[[Victoria:
** We can't mention [[Paradox Interactive]] games without mentioning ''[[Crusader Kings]]'' - just as in the real [[Middle Ages]], large kingdoms have an alarming tendency to fragment into independent states if the dukes and counts don't consider the king a worthy ruler. This sometimes happens peacefully, but [[Civil War|sometimes not.]]
* ''[[Supreme Ruler]] 2020'' has done this with pretty much the entire world (though some countries are slightly bigger, such as Belgium and Luxembourg forming one country.
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* ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations]]'' does it to itself. The fictional country of Cohdopia splits for unspecified reasons into Allebahst and Babahl.
** As well, the Republic of Zheng Fa seems to be a splinter country from China.
* ''[[Global Domination]]'', a game based on the computer game [[James Bond (
* ''[[Metal Gear]] 2: Solid Snake'' has Zanzibarland which was one of the many splinter countries of the former Soviet Union (keep in mind that this game was released before the actual fall of the Soviet Union).
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== Web Originals ==
* ''[[Decades of Darkness]]'' starts with the USA falling apart, and later France, Italy and Britain will meet the same fate {{spoiler|after being defeated by Germany in the Great War}}.
* Parodied and taken to the illogical extreme in the [[
* The [[Alternate History]] project [http://www.bethisad.com/ Ill Bethisad] has only Russia as the only real [[Space
* The [[
* [[Union and Liberty]] includes the balkanization of Mexico into a dozen states.
== Real Life ==
* The term [[Trope Namer|stems from the fragmentation of the Ottoman Empire]] (specifically, in the Balkans) which was happening throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
** Ironically, the same would happen to Turkey's archrival, the Habsburg Empire. Nationalist pressures forced Austria to grant autonomy to Hungary, creating the Austro-Hungarian Empire and dividing the realm between Cisleithania (Austria) and Transleithania (Hungary). Then after [[World War
** After [[Josip Broz Tito]]'s death, ethnic tensions in Yugoslavia brought a more modern meaning to the term (as in through ethnic lines). Yugoslavia's balkanization was bloody, involved various foreign powers, and is still ongoing, the latest event being Kosovo's secession in 2008.
*** Coming soon to a Southeastern Europe near you: the independence of the four Serbian-majority counties in Kosovo as ''North'' Kosovo!
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** [[The Daily Show]] publication "America: The Book" suggests that "today, each resident [of former Yugoslavia] lives in the Independent Republic of Himself".
* Since [[Alexander the Great]] left no heir and no instructions for a regency (and his only son Alexander IV born after his death), his Macedonian Empire fractured after his death in 323 BCE. Once the dust cleared (after ''forty years''), it was divided among his generals: Macedon (Cassander / Alexander's native Greece), the Ptolemaic Kingdom (Ptolemy I Soter / modern-day Egypt), the Seleucid Empire (Seleucis I Nicator / modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel), and the Kingdom of Pergamon (Lysimachus / modern-day Bulgaria, eastern Greece and European Turkey).
* It's a major historical pattern that the fall of a [[Space
* China deserves special mention. This has happened so often between Chinese dynasties that it was considered the "Will of Heaven" for a kingdom with a corrupt dynasty to break down into warring states, only to be reunited some time later under the banner of one of them.
** Summed up in the opening line to [[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]: "The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide."
** In modern times China remains divided between the People's Republic of China (mainland) and the Republic of China (Taiwan), while there are separatist movements within the mainland in both Tibet and Xinjiang, provinces which are Autonomous Regions only in name.
* In a somewhat logical conclusion of the events of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s reign, USSR balkanized itself rather peacefully in 1991, thus creating [[The Great Politics Mess
** Ironically enough, most of these further balkanizations has been under the auspices of Russia in order to weaken the states that broke away from the USSR, but also with a plausible
** In 1993 Czechoslovakia followed USSR's example.
** Famously inverted by the two German states in 1990.
** Sorry to interrupt, but the balkanization of the USSR was anything but peaceful: it resulted in terrible sieges in Middle Asian republics, wars in Chechnya, which to this day remains a terribly unstable region, racism and international hatred.
* Germany, to varying degrees in history. Spent several centuries as at least 300 states under one theoretical state, then reduced into around twenty, both legally and in practice (though bound in an alliance), followed by a shrinking number until there were two left (as far as Germans of the time saw it). After a short period of non-Balkanization, went back to being three again, with Germany split into Austria, BRD and the DDR ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]). Was [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] in 1990.
* Following the death of Prince Bolesław III in 1138, Poland was divided among his sons and over the next two centuries fractured into smaller princedoms. It was not until 1320 that the major regions were united under a single ruler. Some of the other regions would not become part of Poland until after [[World War 2]]
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* After [[The Korean War]] ended with an unofficial armistice (meaning both countries are technically still at war), the Korean Peninsula, once a unified state, split between communist North and capitalist South, and judging by their less-than-friendly relations, the status quo may have to remain.
* Sentiment for the secession of majority Francophone Quebec from Canada ebbs and wanes, culminating in a referendum which resulted in narrowly defeating the effort back in 1995.
** One possibility suggested during the 1995 referendum was that parts of Quebec that were against secession could split off from an independent Quebec and either form their own nations or more likely merge back into Canada.
** Quebec wasn't the first to attempt secession. Nova Scotia seemed to move to that direction in the first provincial election right after Confederation even occurred. British Columbia and western Alberta also mulled secession at the same time as Quebec. Newfoundland, the last province brought into the fold, has had a recent Premier who made overtures of secession, but it's never been taken seriously as in Quebec. Even ''Provinces'' came close to this at different times, such as creating a Province out of northern Ontario and dividing the Northwest Territories (one successful attempt is Nunavut)(Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Nunavut were all carved out of the Northwest Territories).
*** YMMV on whether it has never been taken as seriously as in Quebec. The idea of joining Canada was put to a vote for Newfoundlanders and they joined the confederation because that side won by 1%.
** Saskatchewan and Alberta went through a phase of this in the early 1980s, with several secessionist parties, such as the Unionist party (Who wanted to join the US) and the Western Canada Concept (who wanted to make a new country from the western provinces and the territories.). The latter
* Several political parties in Belgium also want to split the country up between Dutch-speaking Flanders and Francophone Wallonia. Flemish nationalist party N-VA (the New Flemish Alliance) became the largest party in Parliament in the 2010 elections, leading to [[
** Some figures point out that, if Belgium were to split, it could split into up to 4 different
* One recent example is [
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Alternate History Tropes]]
[[Category:
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