Divide and rule policy, also known as divide and conquer, is a strategy used in politics and sociology to gain and maintain power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into pieces that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy. This strategy has been used in many different ways by empires seeking to expand their territories, and it has been attributed to sovereigns ranging from Louis XI of France to the House of Habsburg. The maxim "divide et impera" has been attributed to Philip II of Macedon, and it was utilized by the Roman ruler Julius Caesar and the French emperor Napoleon. The British imperial policy of "divide et impera" fomented religious antagonisms to facilitate continued imperial rule and reached its tragic culmination in 1947 with the creation and perpetuation of Hindu-Muslim antagonism. The strategy of division and rule can be used by states to weaken enemy military alliances by disseminating propaganda within the enemy states in an attempt to raise doubts about the alliance. 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.