The War of Earthly Aggression: Difference between revisions
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We've got news for you: The colonies have rebelled against taxes, telepathic Gestapo, and pretty much every other injustice that Earth has inflicted on them, spawning a movement that strongly parallels historical insurrections on an interplanetary or even an interstellar scale.
An interesting note is that, since the Earth loyalists are frequently [[The Federation]],
The trope title comes from "The War of Northern Aggression", a political term for the [[American Civil War]]. (Go ahead, guess which side applied the label.) [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle]]. So to speak.
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* [[Les Collaborateurs]]
* [[Redshirt Army]]
* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized]]
* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified]]
* [[Rousing Speech]]
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== [[Anime]] ==
* This is one of the most common themes in ''[[Gundam]]''. Due to Gundam's influence, it's also a common theme in [[Humongous Mecha]] anime as a whole.
** The original ''[[
** ''[[
** In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
** ''[[After War Gundam X
** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
** ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' has {{spoiler|the UE, which turn out to be Martian colonists who were abandoned by the Earth Federation some 150 years ago and are still bitter.}}
* The war in ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', while originally presented to the Earthlings as an attack by alien invaders, turns out to be something like this.
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* ''[[Mars Daybreak]]'' has the type of conditions that usually results in this as a backdrop for the series, {{spoiler|though nothing comes of it by the end}}.
* The [[Backstory]] of ''[[Legend of the Galactic Heroes]]'' had one or two of these in the distant past; in the end, Eath was so thoroughly trounced that by the time of the main story, it's [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet|an impoverished backwater way out in the Empire's boonies]].
== Comic Books ==
* In ''Insurrection'', set in the ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' universe, a Mega-City One colony grants full citizenship rights to [[Mutants]], robots, and [[Uplifted Animal|uplifts]] in order to fight off an alien incursion. When the authorities back on Earth demand that status quo be restored, the colony goes into open rebellion and renames itself Liberty, then seeks to inspire other colonies to also rebel.▼
== [[Film]] ==
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== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress]]'' by [[Robert Heinlein]]. Neither side is shown to be really ''evil'', per se, it's just that people on the Moon discover that their ecology is on the brink of collapse (due to their exporting almost exclusively agricultural products and never getting imports of things like ''water'' in return) and Earth not believing them. Of course, the Moon is much more ''sympathetic'', not only because the story is from [[Sympathetic POV|their POV]], but also because Earth regards them as literal scum of the Earth due to lunar colonization's origins as a [[Penal Colony]].
** Heinlein also did ''[[
* Cleverly averted in [[Peter F. Hamilton]]'s [[The
** The first extrasolar colonies did not follow ethnic streaming, and so, served as an example for future generations: they were splintered into warring nations and financially bankrupt.
* The [[Red Mars Trilogy]] seems to have this, where a revolution in the first book is slapped down with orbital lasers and whatnot, but the 2nd one works, in part due much better planning.
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** Earth is not entirely united, though. There are several rogue states that cling to old ideals, such as ''democracy'', the strongest of them being [[Israelis With Infrared Missiles|Israel]]. The last novel makes it clear that a revolution can only succeed with a simultaneous assault on the surface and space.
* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''The Gods Themselves'', the leader of the Lunar separatist group has the long term goal of actually making the moon mobile so it can leave earth orbit and even the solar system entirely. The rebellion, however, is put down by the other separatists holding a quiet vote and deciding he is getting a bit wacky and should step down.
* In [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s novel ''The Sirens of Titan'', {{spoiler|Winston Niles Rumfoord creates the Martian civilization using brainwashed disenfranchised people from Earth and sends them on a mission to conquer Earth, arming them only with enough equipment to put up a pathetic fight as Earth unites against the pitiful alien invaders, triggering a world-wide existential crisis which allows for Rumfoord to institute the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent religion}}.
* ''Martian Rainbow'' by Robert L. Forward plays with the trope a little. First, a Russian colony on Mars is forcibly conquered by American-led United Nations forces when the Russians won't let anyone else set up colonies there. Then the resulting UN scientific colony is cut off after the leader of that multinational fleet hooks up with a [[Sinister Minister|corrupt televangelist]], gets himself elected [[President Evil|President]] [[One World Order|of the World]], and makes all space travel illegal as part of a general anti-science campaign to satisfy his religious backers, who have in the meantime declared him the new Messiah. So the scientists in the Mars Colony, cut off from resupply and rescue, are essentially forced to admit they are now independent, and try to make a go of things. Finally, they send the chief scientist from the Mars base, who happens to be the identical twin brother of the [[Dark Messiah]] President of Earth, to assassinate his brother and take his place, and resume legal space travel. Did I mention that both twins are Neil Armstrong's identical grandsons?
* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''A World Out of Time'', Earth tries to assert its influence on the extrasolar colonies it has seeded. They then go to war by firing ''neutron stars'' at each other.
* In [[Charles Harness]]' [[The Ring Of Ritornel]], Earth has been bombed back to the Azoic after starting a nuclear war against rebellious colonies, and is so execrated that most people have forgotten that "Terror" used to be "Terra".
* In ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'' series, the First Galactic War starts when the [[The Empire|Earth Alliance]] president orders the invasion of the Dabog colony, one of the many which refused to submit to Earth rule. When the invasion fails due to the farmers proving themselves a little too good at fighting, the fleet admiral nukes the planet. The other [[La Résistance|Free Colonies]] band together and turn what was supposed to be a Blitzkrieg into a decades-long war, which Earth eventually loses (due to a betrayal in their top brass). The war turns the colonies into industrial and scientific powerhouses that later form the core of the [[The Federation|Confederacy of Suns]]. Earth is left alone but under watch, populated by only a few million people (most having escaped the horrors of war).
** The invasion of Dabog is detailed in the novel ''Dabog'', where it's revealed that the Earth Alliance never made itself known to the colonies. They merely sent spies to infiltrate the colonies and detemine if the colonials would accept additional settlers from Earth (whose population numbers in the hundreds of billions). While the colonials claim they would accept more people, they wish to reserve the right to select appropriate candidates (i.e. people with useful skills and no criminal past). Not liking this, the President sends a strike fleet to Dabog. There are to be no ultimatums, no negotiations. The fleet makes itself known by nuking two cities from orbit. Even the Earth soldiers don't much care for the colonists.
* [[Philip K. Dick]]'s ''Time Out of Joint''. The conflict (between Mars and Earth) is revealed in the [[Twist Ending]]. The protagonists decide to side with Mars.
* ''[[
* [[David Weber]], author of the ''[[
** And now The Honorverse is doing it too in the war against the Solarian League.
* The Company Wars as part of the [[
* Forms part of the background tension in ''[[
* This is the setting of Colin Kapp's ''The Ion War''. (The title refers to a new [[Applied Phlebotinum]], "para-ion transformation," which makes [[Boxed Crook|certain Terran troops]] into [[Super Soldier]]s — and then some of them into [[Phlebotinum Rebel]]s.)
* A former System States Alliance officer in [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''The Cosmic Computer'' expresses attitudes strongly resembling those of the South following the American Civil War. The short story from which that book was rewritten, though, includes a passage dismissing his views as propaganda:
{{Quote|Conn swore impatiently. "You've been listening to old Klem Zareff ranting about the Lost Cause and the greedy Terran robber barons holding the Galaxy in economic serfdom while they piled up profits. The Federation didn't fight that war for profits; there weren't any profits to fight for. They fought it because if the System States had won, half of them would be at war among themselves now."}}
== [[Live
* ''[[Firefly]]'': Although Earth was ancient history, the war between the Alliance and the Independents over Unification is the same basic pattern, fought between rich central worlds and poor, far flung colonies.
* ''[[
* Came up sometimes on ''[[Blake's
* In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', the Maquis were rebelling because they felt the Federation sold them out. In fairness, the Cardassians were committing ''blatant'' treaty violations, and the Federation wasn't exactly very quick to respond.
** That was a pretty complicated situation borne of a monumentally stupid redrawing of lines on the map where Federation citizens ended up on the wrong side of the line... and in fairness to the Federation, there were more than a few in the hierarchy that were on the side of the Maquis (and the Cardassians also had to cede worlds as well) - it's just that the Federation didn't want another war. As far as ''Star Trek'' goes, this is one of the few political situations that had actual depth and not just good vs. evil.
*** Also note that it wasn't a clear 'wrong side of the line'. Some colonies ended up in an ambiguous 'demilitarized zone'. Others ended up in enemy space and were evacuated, but many of the colonists refused to leave.
** The most out-and-out example of this trope would be the Terran Empire in the [[Mirror Universe]], which is hell bent on conquering every non-human species in the universe. ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' shows that eventually they were overthrown, which triggered a reverse insurrection of the enslaved humans.
*** To clarify, this was the result of the events in an episode of ''[[Star Trek:
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Commonly occurs in ''[[Warhammer
** Until recently?
** Until recently the Imperium was winning. Now it's constant wars of trying to hold onto Imperium-controlled worlds.
* ''[[Tech Infantry]]'' has the Frontier Worlds Territory and a few other colony-world minor political entities who broke off from the Earth Federation, along with the various internal rebel groups who aren't so much interested in independence as in taking over the whole shebang for themselves.
* The backstory of ''[[
* Dream Pod 9's older franchises tend to incorporate this. In ''[[Heavy Gear]]'' Earth decides to reclaim its colonies after years (well, more like a ''
** And the Atlanteans. And the Caprician Liberati. And {{spoiler|whatever we learn about New Jerusalem in 2012.}}
* SPI's ''Battle Fleet Mars''. The human colony on Mars revolts against Earth's control and tries to become independent.
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== [[Video Game]] ==
* ''The Moon Shall Rise Again'':
* ''[[Killzone]]'', while not involving Earth itself, involves a separatist movement from an Earth-like (''Earthlike''? Have you ''seen'' that place?) planet breaking away to form a new colony separate from the human colony, forming a totalitarian Nazi-like regime, and then invading the mother planet en-mass.
** It's worth noting that the separatist movement in this case is technically no longer the same subspecies as mainline
*** It actually went both ways, humans hate the Helghast and want them dead, and it didn't even begin with a speciesist conflict. It began with the Helghan Corporation objecting to the UCN's unfair treatment of the corporations they sent to colonize planets for resources, and the ISA was sent to drive them out of Vekta, forcing them to settle on the only other world they had, Helghan.
* The ''[[Red Faction]]'' series is all about this trope, focusing on various [[La Résistance]] groups of Martian colonists fighting against an oppressive, Earth-centric government.
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* The ''[[Halo]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] revealed that there were rebel elements fighting against the UNSC, some of which continue their struggle even after the Covenant invasion has begun. The Spartan program was originally implemented to help put down the revolts.
** There revolts had the effect of preparing humanity for the coming Covenant, so they had a positive effect in the end.
* ''[[
** There was also the little fact of [[Jerkass|General Duke]] imprisoning Raynor for destroying an obvious Zerg infestation. Anyone would be upset at this point.
* A galaxy-wide civil war is the setting of ''[[
** But the Earth Empire collapsed on itself long ago, and the succeeding United Earth Federation was merely trying to hold on its territory while the Crusading Aeons wanted to convert or exterminate by force. The Cybrans' struggle is greyer, as they try to free cyborgs who are essential to the proper administration of the UEF territories. The UEF is really on the defensive there.
* The Asian campaign in ''[[Empire Earth]]: Art of Conquest'' is about Mars rebelling against the Earth government.
* In ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'', Earth keeps a tight leash on the Martian and Outer System colonies, which is explored more in-depth in the Anime ''Dolores, I'' and [[Gaiden Game]] ''Fist of Mars''. The largest Rebel group turns out to be almost [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized|just as bad]] as [[The Federation]], and that's ''before'' their leader goes batshit insane.
* 'Incoming' was a game centered on a sudden mass invasion of Earth by aliens - the plot gradually goes from defending, to launching an attack on the Moon (delivered via Space Shuttles!), where it is detected that the aliens are teleporting in from - you put a stop to their shenanigans.
** Now, fastforward many years. 'Incoming Forces' has you in the perspective of an alien federation whose planets are suddenly invaded by crusading...humans. Yes, those same humans who about 20 years ago were nearly killed. Not the same alien race, mind; Humans were just plain omnicidal at this point.
* Not quite this trope, but the whole point of ''[[Ground Control]] II: Operation Exodus'' is the desperate fight of the [[The Alliance|Northern Star Alliance]] against the ruthless [[The Empire|Terran Empire]]. The difference is that the colonies that make up the NSA have rebelled centuries before, and the government they have rebelled from no longer exists, having been taken over by the Draconis Empire, which renamed itself the Terran Empire after conquering Earth. As far as the imperials are concerned, though, all of space rightly belongs to them.
* The "A New Hope" scenario of ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' is about this.
* The first ''[[Colony Wars]]'' is [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[Power Dolls]]'' is about the independence war of planet Omni against the Earth forces.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Angels 2200]]'' milks the "morally ambiguous" version of this trope for all it is worth: the Terrans have a [[State Sec]] and use biological warfare; The Colonials use [[Child Soldiers]] as kamikazes and torture their prisoners. On balance the Terrans come out slightly on top, since most of their viewpoint characters are noble warrior types whereas the Colonials' commander tends to do [[Magnificent Bastard]] things like deliberately sacrificing his own troops as bait.
* In ''[[Galactic Maximum]]'', the [[Backstory]] of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20171023222125/http://maximumcomic.com/?strip_id=6 Great Solar Wars]. [[The Federation]] is the aliens who showed up to help the colonists.
* The first arc of ''[[Escape
* Details about the conflict are sketchy, but in the backstory of [[Yoake Mae Yori
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Earth government in ''[[Exo Squad]]'' has previously crushed the first neo-sapiens rebellion on Mars.
▲* In ''Insurrection'', set in the ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' universe, a Mega-City One colony grants full citizenship rights to [[Mutants]], robots, and [[Uplifted Animal|uplifts]] in order to fight off an alien incursion. When the authorities back on Earth demand that status quo be restored, the colony goes into open rebellion and renames itself Liberty, then seeks to inspire other colonies to also rebel.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:This Index Earth]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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