"With all due respect, King T'Challa, what can a nation of farmers have to offer the rest of the world?"
— UN diplomat, Black Panther
When a large, expansionist power faces off against a country that's a fraction of its territorial and population size, you'd expect that the former could easily conquer the latter. It makes sense, after all: with much greater territory and population comes much greater economic power and that much bigger of a manpower pool to recruit from. Even if the tiny country has a technological edge, as long as the large power has adequate logistics and uses proper strategy and tactics, it should be able to win through either overwhelming numbers or a protracted war of attrition. And even if the large power isn't planning on conquering the tiny country, it should logically be able to project much more hard and soft power on the international scene, allowing it to win diplomatically whenever the two countries' interests clash. Seems straightforward so far, right?
Enter the Tiny World Power. Somehow, despite being a dwarf among giants by pretty much any reasonable metric, it nevertheless packs disproportionately immense hard and/or soft power such that the more realistically sized superpowers are forced to tread carefully around it. The means by which this is achieved can take any of multiple forms, which can naturally be mixed and matched:
- Military: Maybe the TWP's army is surprisingly powerful despite its tiny size — or, alternatively, surprisingly numerous — enough to stop The Empire's invasion in its tracks and wear it down in a war of attrition; more powerful examples can even break the invasion outright before counter-invading in retaliation.
- Economic/Technological: The TWP could be an economic/technological powerhouse, having such control over the financial world or a very valuable resource/technology that it can make or break other nations before they could even begin mobilizing for an attack. Alternatively, it could use this supreme economic/technological advantage to secure a rock-solid alliance with a great power that would otherwise snub the country for its seeming insignificance, and be able to essentially sic it on its enemies at will.
- Environment: Perhaps the very land that the TWP occupies makes it extremely difficult if not outright impossible for even the greatest of outside power to militarily threaten it. Towering mountain ranges that would strangle any invasion force, severely hostile weather that perennially affects the region as a whole (or at least its entry points), or massive forests full of monstrous beasts that would devour everything that the outside world can throw at it. Pray that the TWP doesn't have the ability to weaponize such a deadly environment for offensive purposes.
- Superweapon: Maybe the TWP has a superweapon that single-handedly equalizes the balance of power between it and any other major power; bonus points if it's kept hidden from the prying eyes of would-be aggressors until the last possible moment, to be unleashed as a nasty surprise when the enemy is least prepared for it. A One-Man Army (or the Ace Pilot equivalent) of sufficiently high effectiveness may also qualify. This, however, naturally makes the Superweapon the country's Achilles' Heel, as its removal from the equation (e.g. via covert sabotage) would instantly deprive the TWP of its disproportionate power.
Sometimes, Applied Phlebotinum is used as an explanation for a Tiny World Power's disproportionate capabilities, such as Unobtainium that only that country has access to. But it could very well be that no reason is ever given for why such a small country is so extraordinarily powerful.
Countries like this tend to adopt a neutral stance within international politics, refusing to get involved in any disputes or armed conflicts in the rest of the world. But that usually doesn't last forever; whether due to a paranoid villain launching a "preemptive" attack, or the country finding it immoral to just stand by and let evil have its way, a Tiny World Power may eventually make the fateful decision to break its neutrality and choose a side to fight alongside (usually the one that the heroes are on). A country like this is likely to end up in a case of David Versus Goliath.
A world where All Nations Are Superpowers may have one of these as a subversion of the expectation that size equals power. Taking the idea to the Logical Extreme gives you the Undefeatable Little Village, a tiny settlement that packs enough punch to fend off entire countries single-handedly. If the country is ruled by a monarch, it could be a Micro Monarchy.
Note: Although the description is written from the perspective of traditional countries on a single planet, the trope could just as well be applied to higher scales, like a galaxy-spanning setting with interplanetary/interstellar polities.
Compare Pint-Sized Powerhouse for a similar trope for characters. Contrast N.G.O. Superpower, which is when a non-governmental entity, such as a corporation (if they haven't taken over a country outright), has the power and influence to rival if not outright eclipse actual nations.
No Real Life Examples, Please! Allowing them would just be asking to be mired in endless jingoism.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The Principality of Zeon and its two offshoots, Axis Zeon and Newborn Neo Zeon, fall under this:
- In Mobile Suit Gundam, as admitted even by Gihren Zabi, the Principality has less than 1/30th of the Earth Federation's manpower and resources. Yet Zeon is able to fight them into a stalemate during the One Year War. This is thanks in no small part to the use of Mobile Suits altering the balance of power, and certain atrocities committed on the Zabis' orders (such as Operation British) further hindering the Federation.
- In Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Axis Zeon has the means of producing their own weapons and maintaining a sizable military despite Axis Space Station having a very limited population and industrial capacity. It allows them to be a disproportionate threat to the Earth Sphere during the Gryps Conflict and the First Neo Zeon War.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, Newborn Neo Zeon is even smaller than the original Principality's armies at the start of the One Year War. But when facing against Londo Bell and the Earth Federation Forces, they are able to punch far above its own weight thanks to effective use of resources and manpower, from Anaheim Electronics aiding them under Plausible Deniability and sympathetic Spacenoids joining the ranks. However, it becomes clear that even with the most careful strategies, Newborn Neo Zeon could not win a prolonged campaign against the Federation. It turns out to be intentional by Char Aznable who couldn't care less about Spacenoid independence so long he gets his final duel with Amuro Ray.
- The Orb Union from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED is a roughly Taiwan-sized country on an Earth where the rest of the world is controlled by continent-spanning superpowers that all militarily outgun and outnumber it (with near-Earth space being all under one such superpower), yet in each installment it manages to not only shake off occupations by some of those superpowers but ultimately becomes instrumental in ending each of the plot-driving wars, and attains a disproportionate influence on the international stage, thanks to the superlative Ace Pilot main protagonist being an Orb citizen who shares the nation's ideals and Orb actively providing support to him and his faction. It reaches the point that some villains actively try to wipe the entire country off the map with superweapons that are frankly overkill, just to ensure that its prominent leaders/citizens won't meddle in their schemes.
Comic Books
- Marvel Universe:
- Latveria from Fantastic Four, home of the supervillain Doctor Doom. As a Ruritania, it is normally portrayed as being quaint, with many citizens wearing what could be best described as "rustic, traditional European" fare. Despite this, it is still considered a First World nation purely thanks to the presence of Doom himself, as his robotic armies ensure crime is practically non-existent, and his various technologies give the citizenry a high standard of living note . There are, however, two major issues: firstly this high standard of living is only true if Doom himself is running the state, as Latveria generally goes downhill very quickly on the occasions he is removed from power; and secondly, it's still ruled by Doctor Doom, who is not above using his own people as test subjects for projects or weaponry.
- The Kingdom of Wakanda from the Black Panther comics is rather consistently described and depicted as a tiny countrynote in Sub-Saharan Africa, surrounded by a handful of similar small countries and then by much larger neighbors (which ones vary depending on where Wakanda is placed within the continent), with one population estimate being "only" 6 million note . Yet due to its large, ancient deposit of vibranium, a millennia-long policy of aggressive isolationism and self-concealment to protect itself from foreign exploitation, and secretively sending people out to furtively go through high education in foreign universities and bring back what they've learned to their homeland, the modern Wakanda is arguably the most technologically and militarily advanced nation on the planet, such that it was able to fend off without outside help an Alien Invasion that had pretty much the rest of the planet's superheroes and national militaries on the ropes, and even after its existence was made public to the rest of the world, there has been no instance so far where any of the existing real-life superpowers (e.g. the United States or China) making any successful attempts at exerting their influence on it or threatening it like they would with other small countries, strongly implying that its effective power as a state is very much disproportionately larger than its size and population would have you believe. Being the homeland of and ruled by the Black Panther himself probably helps, too.
- X-Men: The Krakoan Age revolves around Krakoa, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean that is alive and (Depending on the Writer) an X-Mutant in its own right, which ended up becoming the home for a new Mutant nation bearing its name. Besides the island itself having a host of superpowers that make it quite capable of defending itself against most conventional threats, the Mutant population exhibits a dizzying variety of abilities and has at its peak included several Omega-level powerhouses, such as Magneto and Jean Grey, lending the nation disproportionate power in any potential military confrontation. On top of that, the country produced several life-saving medications from local flora that it leveraged on the world stage to secure international recognition of its sovereignty in the face of widespread anti-Mutant xenophobia. Sadly, the nascent nation of Krakoa ended up being destroyed by both infighting and an outside invasion by the villainous organization Orchis, although the island itself and the massacred inhabitants ended up being transported to the White Hot Room, where they continue to live in peace.
Film
- In Star Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the First Order fall under this:
- During the Clone Wars, the Confederacy, or commonly known as the Separatist Alliance, has hundreds of thousands of worlds that seceded from the Galactic Republic whose members is composed of millions of worlds. Through several megacorporations' funding and industrial capacity, the Separatists are able to get even with the Clone Army and the Jedi throughout the front lines of the conflict.
- The First Order is a hermit kingdom from the Unknown Regions formed by Imperial Remnants that built up its armies and militaristic society. They manage to work around it by using Starkiller Base to destroy the Hosnian system where the New Republic leadership is based there. It allows the First Order to swoop in and occupy most of the galaxy, while also hunting down the Resistance and the New Republic remnants.
Fan Works
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: The Avatar Islands are just a set of islands off the coast of one of the main continents, but said Avatar is the strongest force of good, empowered by the God of Good collective, making his islands basically unconquerable until said divine power was removed, and the sebsequent conquerers of the land have had ever more impressive reputations, accordingly.
- Embers in the Dusk:
- The Eldar, after creating Ynnead, have regained their full psyker potential and are now a major power despite numbering only in the tens of billions. Other major powers have populations in the lower quadrillions.
- The Imperial Trust is only a few sectors in size, but it contributes a lot of new technology along with elite troops, especially psykers, making it a player at least comparable to the other major human remnants, which number in hundreds of sectors.
- Avernus, a single planet in the Imperial Trust, is a surviving War in Heaven biolab. As such, it has remnants of the ancient warrior races and weapons, along with creations made since. The Council of the Peoples is close to being considered a major power, especially since they spread to the rest of the system (including numerous planets the controlling intelligence pulled out of a pocket dimension).
- A Thing of Vikings: As a direct result of taming dragons, the Hairy Hooligans, a single tribe with about 700 members, including elderly and children, become disproportionately powerful and influential to the point King Magnus of Norway enthusiastically supported his regent Einar's attempts to form an alliance with them and his vassals accepted him marrying Ruffnut since her status as a Dragon Rider was functionally equivalent to being a powerful noble. In the climax of Book 1, because they are the only army of dragon riders, they successfully fight off King Harthacnut's fleet of about 8,000 strong, proving to all of Europe and beyond their strength despite their small size. Averted later on though as by the middle of Book 3, their territories expand enough that they can no longer be considered small.
Literature
- In A Certain Magical Index, Academy City is a sovereign city-state located in Western Tokyo. It has exclusive access to the world's most advanced technology that is decades ahead of the rest of the world and is testing ground for the Power Curriculum Program that produces espers. Because of this, it has an outsized effect on the global stage due to its overwhelming technological and military advantage. Moreover, its role as the center of the "Science Side" brings it into conflict with the "Magic Side" of the world, as magicians fear that the proliferation of espers could destroy the usage of magic entirely.
- The small and seemingly insignificant Kingdom of Lancre holds a lot of significance in the Discworld. For one thing, it educates a significant proportion of the Discworld's Witches, seen as holding the other half of the magical balance alongside Wizards. Lancre is also a place of concentrated, focused magic. This has implications for the wider Disc: in The Shepherd's Crown, Lord Vetinari reflects on Lancre's importance as both a doorway to Other Worlds, and as a first line of defence against incursions from those other worlds. note
- The Elenium: The Holy City of Chyrellos is an independent city-state that houses the Seat of the Archprelate and Patriarchy of the Elene faith. It is surrounded by most of the Elene kingdoms, and since all Elenes are nominally followers if the Elene faith, all kings are basically subservient to the Archprelate up to the Church's power to order these kingdoms to mobilize their armies to defend the Church.
During the events of "The Sapphire Rose", The Dragon Martel is only able to mobilize an army against Chyrellos by (1) enlisting the aid of fanatical heretics that have had centuries of animosity against the Church of Chyrellos; (2) recruiting bands of mercenaries and outlaws that were tempted by the chance to plunder the riches of the Holy City; (3) having an inside man in the Patriarchy who kept the de facto organisation of any defense of the Holy City bogged down in red tape and (4) having led the army of the united Elene kingdoms on a wild goose chase so they are unaware of the danger the Holy City is in.
Then Sparhawk's allies manage to get a message from their ally within the Patriarchy to the Elene army, calling them to the defense of the Holy City, and the ensuing Curb-Stomp Battle demonstrates why it's a bad idea to attack Chyrellos. - In Legend of the Galactic Heroes, due to being smaller in terms of population, military, infrastructure and economy compared to that of the Galactic Empire's, the Free Planets Alliance is this. That doesn't stop the Alliance from fighting a Forever War with the Empire on almost even ground, having won several battles prior to being on its last legs and eventual collapse at the end of the series.
- The Duchy of Grand Fenwick
from The Mouse That Roared is a parody of this trope. It's an absurdly tiny Micro Monarchy — spanning a mere 39 sq km (15 sq mi) — that nevertheless manages to repeatedly punch well above its weight and triumph over multiple superpowers in improbable ways.
- The first novel has Grand Fenwick, facing the threat of bankrupcy due to a California winery making a knockoff of the microstate's "Pinot Grand Fenwick" wine that its economy almost entirely depends on, comes up with the zany scheme of declaring war on the US to suffer the expected quick defeat and then benefit from a Marshall Plan-style reconstruction. It sends an "army" of 20-something medieval troops to "invade" the US when there's no response to their declaration of war (it was perceived as a prank and misplaced), only to somehow wander into a secret government lab and accidentally obtain the only existing model of a doomsday superweapon that the US was newly developing. Once the troops return with their unexpected prize, Grand Fenwick uses the resulting leverage to form an alliance of similarly tiny nations and strongarm the world's superpowers into accepting regular inspection of their nuclear arsenals by impartial scientists, which leads to much hope that world peace is finally on the horizonnote .
- The third novel, The Mouse on the Moon, has the fictional duchy Grand Fenwick seek to boost tourism by installing modern plumbing, and obtains a loan of $5,000,000 from the US government under the fraudulent pretense of a space program, and are given 10 times that amount simply because the US wants to impress the United Nations. The microstate finds itself with enough money left after the plumbing modernization that they can buy a second-hand Saturn rocket and some used spacesuits. Then their scientist discovers that the national wine, Pinot Grand Fenwick, the very thing that sparked the plot of the first novel, works surprisingly well as rocket fuel. Invitations for the Fenwickian rocket's launch are sent out to other countries, which they predictably ignore until they notice that the rocket is already mid-flight at a steady speed of ~1,600 km/hnote . The US and the USSR frantically rush to beat the Fenwickians with their own much faster space rockets, but fail miserably.
- The fourth novel, The Mouse on Wall Street, has the diminutive duchy competing in the financial arena, and they discover that their Queen has the Midas touch in the stock market, leading the country to become a financial superpower.
- In the fifth novel, The Mouse that Saved the West, admist the world suffering from an oil crisis and being at the mercy of OPEC's monopoly over the major oil reserves, Grand Fenwick yet again tries to pull a hair-brained plot to profit off the situation by pretending to have found oil and sell it off at a premium, only to accidentally discover that it is sitting on the biggest oil reserve in the whole world!note
- The first novel has Grand Fenwick, facing the threat of bankrupcy due to a California winery making a knockoff of the microstate's "Pinot Grand Fenwick" wine that its economy almost entirely depends on, comes up with the zany scheme of declaring war on the US to suffer the expected quick defeat and then benefit from a Marshall Plan
- Reincarnated as a Sword: Shows two samples during the "travel to Ulmutt" arc.
- The kingdom of Phyllius is a small coastal kingdom squeezed between the two much larger kingdoms of Raydoss and Granzell. However, it has been able to fend off attacks of armies many times its size because its royal family controls the God Sword Diabolos, one of the 5 God Swords known to exist in the world (which are basically the setting's equivalent of a nuclear weapon). This sword gives its owner the power to summon and control near-endless armies of demons, which can confront any invading army without human cost to the population of Phyllius.
- The Seedrun Maritime Nation is an island nation close to both Raydoss and Granzell. Though it is dependent on alliances with countries on the continent for much of its imports, it has never been absorbed by one of the larger kingdoms. Seedrun's navy contains four tamed Sea Dragons, which each are B-rank threats by themselves. Each Sea Dragon would be able to sink a much larger fleet.
Live-Action TV
- The Orville: Moclus would be a case of a tiny galactic power. Under other circumstances, the bigoted, extremely misogynistic Moclans would have simply been ignored by the rest of the galaxy, but their factories produce a significant percentage of the weapons used by everyone else, and thus for a long time, the Union reluctantly gave them a seat at the table.
Video Games
- Civilization V: Brave New World: Venice is a unique civilization in that it can't found or annex cities, limiting its direct power to the capital. In exchange, it gets double the normal number of trade routes and an enhanced Great Merchant that can buy out city-states and make puppet cities out of them, allowing it to dominate the map through economic influence — and through sending its city-state allies to war on its behalf.
- In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, the Empire of the Rising Sun is the newest superpower from an altered timeline caused by Anatoly Cherdenko's assassination of Albert Einstein via Time Travel.note It may be smaller in terms of military strength and economy compared to the Allies and the Soviet Union, but the Empire possesses an Elite Army with the most advanced technology it developed, making them capable to throwing down with the two older superpowers in its own right.
- Endless Legend: Unlike most other factions, the Cultists are unable to expand beyond their starting city. While they get some advantages that enable them to increase the size of that one city beyond what any other faction can do with a single city, it is still a massive disadvantage overall. Instead, befitting their name, they can convert the villages of Neutrals, Critters, and Creeps to their side. While not direct control, these villages provide modest resources and conscript troops to the Cultists' armies. While utterly lacking in synergy, the Cultists can build a larger army, faster, than any other faction in the game, enabling them to Zerg Rush opponents with impunity.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- The tiny island city-state of Old Sharlayan is Hydaelyn's City of Wizards and Scienceville rolled into one. As such, it possesses some of the most advanced magical technology in the world and has a disproportionate number of powerful mages at its disposal. Most notably, it's the primary source of the aetheryte technology used to transport people across vast distances. Its technological and magical advantage is great enough that even the Garlean Empire is reluctant to try invading it, while many Sharlayan researchers, including many of the founding members of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, are responsible for sparking massive global changes.
- The city-state of Radz-at-Han, on the Isle of Thavnair. Though small and having only a modestly sized armed force, the isle nation was widely known for its trade markets and alchemical knowledge. Both of which allowed them to remain neutral and free from conquest at the hands of the Garlean Empire.
- Knights of the Old Republic: Manaan is a neutral aquatic planet found in a largely inconsequential system in the Inner Rim, with neither armies nor a galactic navy at their disposal. The native Selkath population tends to avoid contact with outsiders, with only Ahto City, the capital, having a spaceport and facilities to accomodate air-breathing visitors without equipment. However, Manaan is the only source of kolto, an essential Panacea valued throughout the galaxy, and the planet has obtained immense political and economic power as a result, comparable to the likes of the Republic and the Sith Empire (both of which have territories that span several star systems). Because nobody dares to endanger the kolto, the Selkath government has made Manaan officially neutral, to the point of creating a planet-wide Truce Zone that both the Republic and the Sith respect, while also gaining the leeway to execute criminals from either galaxy superpower without having to fear backlash. This gets Deconstructed later in the timeline as Manaan quickly falls into decline after they've lost their kolto supply, with even the Republic refusing their offer to join.
- Metal Gear series:
- Metal Gear 1 takes place in Outer Heaven, a microstate enclaved by South Africa and populated by rogue soldiers and mercenaries. Eventually, it would be discovered that the country had succeeded in creating a prototype Metal Gear — a bipedal mech capable of launching a nuclear attack from any kind of terrain — which rendered it nigh-invincible and thus subverted the global balance of power. This would prompt the attention of FOXHOUND, who deployed Solid Snake in hopes he would destroy Metal Gear and therefore pave the way for the dismantling of the rogue state.
- The main location of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Zanzibar Land, was a Central Asian country of ~40,000 people and less than 500 sq kmnote that borders the much larger China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and which was populated almost exclusively by war-hardened mercenaries after the country's successful independence. The country gained notoriety after raiding nuclear disposal sites around the world to become one of the few nuclear-armed states, boosting their military capabilities so much that they were able to invade neighbors with impunity. Then Zanzibar Land kidnapped a scientist who had developed the OILIX species of bacteria as a solution to the world's ongoing oil crisis, planning to hold the world hostage via both monopolistic control over the oil supply and the threat of nuclear war to assert its global supremacy. This ultimately garnered the attention of world leaders and the deployment of Solid Snake to the country to eliminate its threat.
- The New Order: Last Days of Europe: Even though it is a Land of One City, Komi enjoys disproportionate influence in Siberia thanks to its stock of chemical weapons.
- Total War series:
- Rome: Total War: The purple Roman "Senate" faction only controls the city of Rome itself. Despite this, they have numerous advantages a human player does not which make them disproportionately powerful. The city will never rebel against the Senate, even if it's deep in the red in terms of finances and unrest. Even if they cannot afford the recruitment costs and upkeep, the Senate spawns stacks of powerful units every turn, including late-game elite legionaries. Like other AI-controlled factions, they can spawn new family members and promote generals whenever needed. However, unlike other AI factions, despite never leaving their home province, their Generals seem to grow command stars as easily as most people grow hair, meaning their armies will always be led by strong commanders. Note to complete the Grand Campaign as any faction, conquering Rome is a requirement, so you will have to battle them eventually.
- Medieval II: Total War: The Papal States is a non-playable faction that only controls Rome at the start of the game. It has little to boast about militarily and therefore has no real prerequisites for acquiring significant territorial size. Yet, the Papal States draws considerable power from its status as the spiritual leader of the entire Catholic world. The Pope, the faction leader, has the right to call a crusade against a specific settlement, thereby making its owner a target for numerous Catholic armies. In the event of war between two Catholic factions, he may call on them to cease hostilities under threat of excommunication for the violator, essentially making it a Pariah State in the eyes of other Catholic factions and potentially leading to a crusade on one of its settlements. If there is significant heresy within the territory of a Catholic faction, the Papal States may send Inquisitors there, whose presence is always a risk due to them being capable of interrogating any generals and agents in their path and executing them should they fail the trial of faith. Finally, the Papal States cannot be eliminated, as there must always be a Pope, even if he has no settlements to govern or generals to command.
- The namesake of Tropico is a nation the size of maybe a handful of small Caribbean islands, and yet under the player's control, it can be made capable of single-handedly ending the Cold War by developing its own nuclear arsenal and threatening both the US and USSR into standing down. Alternatively, it can crash the USSR's economy through sheer amount of exports, causing it to dissolve entirely.
- Valkyria Chronicles: The Principality of Gallia is a small country bordering between the East Europan Imperial Alliance and the Atlantic Federation; assuming that Europa is roughly the size of real-life Europe on this official map◊, Gallia is about the size of Estonia next to the Russia-sized Empire and the EU-sized Federation. Despite this disparity, they manage to thwart invasions from the Empire and maintain their independence from the two superpowers.
