divide and conquer

From Latin divide et impera

divide and conquer (third-person singular simple present divides and conquers, present participle dividing and conquering, simple past and past participle divided and conquered)

1. To use a combination of political, military and economic strategies that aim to gain and maintain power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy.
2. (as imperative, proverb) In order to rule securely, do not allow alliances between your enemies.

• divide and rule

divide and conquer (uncountable)

1. A strategy for achieving political or military control.
2. (computing) An algorithm design technique applied to various algorithms, such as quicksort, that solve a problem by splitting it recursively into smaller problems until all of the remaining problems are trivial.