Divide and rule
In Revolutions of 1848, the governments which were being revolted against used this tactic to counter the rebels.
The Salami strategy of Hungarian Communist leader, Mátyás Rákosi.
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: Divide and rule can be used by states to weaken enemy military alliances. This usually happens when propaganda or disinformation are disseminated within the enemy states in an attempt to raise doubts about the alliance. Once the alliance weakens or dissolves, a vacuum will allow the hostile state to achieve military dominance.
The divide and conquer strategy is similar to the notion of a Wedge strategy (diplomacy).

United States: Some analysts assert that the United States is practicing the strategy in the 21st-century Middle East through their supposed escalation of the Sunni–Shia conflict. British journalist Nafeez Ahmed cited a 2008 RAND Corporation study for the U.S Armed Forces which recommended "divide and rule" as a possible strategy against the Muslim world in "the Long War".

Israel: Professor Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official, publicly acknowledged that Hamas was "Israel's creation." Similar statesments have been made by Yasser Arafat.
Assertions of Israeli support for Hamas date back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period marked by significant political upheaval in the Middle East. Former Israeli officials have openly acknowledged Israel's role in providing funding and assistance to Hamas as a means of undermining secular Palestinian factions such as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, who served as the Israeli military governor in Gaza during the early 1980s, admitted to providing financial assistance to Muslim Brotherhood, the precursor of Hamas, on the instruction of the Israeli authorities. The aim of the support was to weaken leftist and secular Palestinian organizations.
Israel contributed to the construction of parts of Islamist politician Ahmed Yassin's network of mosques, clubs, and schools in Gaza, as well as the expansion of these institutions.
Shlomo Brom, retired general and former deputy to Israel's national security adviser, believes that an empowered Hamas helps Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu avoid negotiatings over a Palestinian state, suggesting that there is no viable partner for peace talks. Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right lawmaker and finance minister under Netanyahu Government, called the Palestinian Authority a "burden" and Hamas an "asset".

Russia: Contemporary Russian affairs have characteristics of a "divide and rule" strategy, too. Applied domestically to secure Vladimir Putin's power in Russia, it is used abroad in Russian disinformation campaigns to achieve "regime security, predominance in Russia’s near abroad, and world-power status for Russia".

Mexico: 

Politics: In politics, the concept refers to a strategy that breaks up existing power structures, and especially prevents smaller power groups from linking up, causing rivalries and fomenting discord among the people to prevent a rebellion against the elites or the people implementing the strategy. The goal is either to pit the lower classes against themselves to prevent a revolution, or to provide a desired solution to the growing discord that strengthens the power of the elites.
The principle "divide et impera" is cited as a common in politics by Traiano Boccalini in La bilancia politica.

Economics: In economics, the concept is also mentioned as a strategy for market segmentation to get the most out of the players in a competitive market.

Psychopathy in the workplace: Clive R. Boddy found that "divide and conquer" was a common strategy by corporate psychopaths used as a smokescreen to help consolidate and advance their grip on power in the corporate hierarchy.

See also: 
Ad hominem
Agent provocateur
Apartheid
Astroturfing
Black propaganda
Critical theory
Divide and conquer algorithm
False flag
Front organization
Cracking
Hate speech
Demographic engineering
Defeat in detail
Destabilisation
Identity politics
Overton window
Pork barrel
Promoting adversaries
Psychological warfare
Red herring
Right of conquest
Salami slicing tactics
Smear campaign
Smoke screen
Social exclusion
Social undermining
Strategy of tension
Triangulation (psychology)
Wedge issue


== References ==