World Government

The World Government (世界政府, Sekai Seifu) is a fictional political organization, in the Japanese manga and anime series One Piece.

About the World Government
The World Government is affiliated with roughly 170 countries from around the world. Those member countries retain autonomy, that is to say, the countries run their own internal affairs (though the World Government does sometimes meddle), but cooperate with the World Government for massive international relations.

At first glance, the World Government seems to maintain a worldly order that benefits all, making the world safe for the sake of everyone. Using the Navy, they pursue criminals endangering the lives of those who are innocent, protecting the people of each country in the world. The World Government is the largest World Power maintaining full rights to halt or encourage any political action without question or opposition from any side.

The reality though is that, unknown to most citizens (and many world leaders), the World Government's actions are secretly and often based on corruption or questionable motives. Often when the storyline involves them, it shows them hiding the truth or ignoring the rights of the people. Individuals who become the enemies of the World Government are ruthlessly hunted down and dealt with and all those who walk along the same path as them are doomed to share the World Government's fury.

The World Government's power to release information on anyone as they please can often led to the truth being hidden, altered or ignored all together. Any countries attempting to protect or harbour criminals are at risk from the World Government, although what would happen exactly has not been addressed yet. For the most part, the important role in maintaining world stability on a political ground far outweighs the corruption they often display. Often there is a 'holy' or 'just' theme to the naming of things related to the World Government, like 'the Just Eleven Jurymen'.

The Ohara Island incident
During the Buster Call on Ohara Island, the island in the West Blue where Nico Robin was born, 20 years before the current events, we learn more about the World Government. Professor Clover is shown while he was talking on the telephone to the Five Elder Stars. He explained that, a long time ago, an enormous kingdom existed. People of that kingdom left the Poneglyphs, large unbreakable stone cubes, which carry written records of history etched into their surfaces. Those people were destroyed by some unknown enemy. Those enemies survived and, 800 years ago, at the end of the Lost Century of History, the World Government was born. The Lost Century of History, according to Professor Clover's words, may be inconvenient history for the World Government. The kingdom held a great power, but all the information about that was erased. As soon as Professor Clover was saying the name of the old kingdom, one of the Five Elder Stars gave the order to kill him and ordered to start the Buster Call.

The Conspiracy of Water 7
The World Government made a move once again some 8 years ago at the island of Water 7. They discovered that the blueprints of the ancient weapon, Pluton, existed there and were under the protection of the great shipwright Tom. At that time, Tom had two apprentices working for him, Cutty Flam and Iceburg. Tom had spent the last ten years building a steam powered boat that would help make Water 7 a great city again in order to cancel out the crime of building the ship belonging to Gold Roger. Tom was confronted by CP5 under the orders of the World Government to find and take the blueprints from Tom. However, Tom protected the blueprints by denying he ever had them.

Angry that Tom lied to him, Spandam, the leader of the CP5, decided to investigate Tom under the notion that he was a criminal. At the same time, he decided to frame Tom for not handing over the blueprints to him. On the day Tom was due for pardon for building Gold Roger's ship, CP5 attacked the boat the trial was to be held on using warships made by Cutty Flam, one of Tom's apprentices. Everyone knew who the warships belonged to and presumed Tom had ordered them to attack the trial boat to save himself. Still hoping to get the blueprints from Tom, Spandam confronted him once more declaring Tom as a criminal under CP5 and the World Government's investigation. However things did not go as planned. As Tom had been allowed to have one crime pardoned, he asked to have the crime committed that day, the attack on the trial boat, to be pardoned so that he could save his two apprentices.

As Tom was carted off on the steam boat he had created, Cutty Flam tried to stop it from leaving but was hit by the train and declared dead. After being declared dead, Cutty Flam was put down to being the one behind the attacks and he was known as a criminal who caused the deaths of over a 100 people that day. Cutty Flam did not die however, as he managed to drag himself from the ocean and onto an abandoned ship, where he proceeded to modify himself into a Cyborg. Prior to being carted off, Tom had already handed the Pluton blueprints to Iceburg, the only apparent surviving apprentice of Tom. Thus once again the World Government had lost its chance to get hold of the blueprints.

The Alabasta Cover-up
One of the most recent actions made by the World Government was to hide the truth about Sir Crocodile and his actions in Alabasta. After Sir Crocodile was defeated and the secret behind the Baroque Works organization was discovered, the World Government took actions to cover-up the events that took place in that country. While it was Monkey D. Luffy and his crew that took out the Baroque Works organization, the World Government did not want the public to know that it was a pirate who defeated Crocodile and saved the kingdom of Alabasta. Captain Smoker and his partner Tashigi were awarded all the credit for the group's defeat and capture. To add to this, both were rewarded with medals and promotions, however, Smoker rejected both the medals and promotions for his partner and himself. Roronoa Zoro was given a bounty of 60,000,000 beli for his massacre of over a hundred agents at Whiskey Peak and his defeating Mr.1, while Luffy's previous 30,000,000 beli bounty was raised to 100,000,000.

The Lost History
For the World Government, the most serious crime is searching for and reading the Poneglyphs the ancient stone cubes that hold the history of the blank century. The World Government censored this period of history, erasing everything that happened in those 100 years. Those who know how to read Poneglyphs have the knowledge to revive ancient weapons of mass destruction. This is the reason behind Nico Robin's 79 million beli bounty and the coverup story of her sinking six Marine ships when she was eight years old.

For the World Government, the history held within those texts are considered highly dangerous, too dangerous for the world to know and they seem paranoid about anyone knowing about them. So much so that even world leaders do not know about the lost history or the fact that there are aspects of events that do not tie up with each other. The World Government, while they dread criminals finding the ancient weapons mentioned in the poneglyphs and using them, they are however keen to get hold of them themselves to use their power for their own means.

What is known is that an ancient race that came about during the censored history died out fighting a war against an ancient enemy. The repressive nature of the World Government can often be called into question and through all of these stated facts, it can be assumed that The Five Elder Stars are the enemies the ancient race fought during the missing century. However at this stage of the story that remains unproven. What truths they hide from the world or why they hid them is a great mystery, one that is enough to make them willing to use assassination tactics, military force and the sacrifice of lives to keep a secret.

Pirates
In the world of One Piece, one risks being arrested by the Marines just for raising the Jolly Roger and claiming to be a pirate, regardless of whether you do anything wrong or not.

With the great age of piracy comes the ever growing power of the pirates of the sea. The concerns of the strength of pirates led to the original pact with the Shichibukai being formed as a way of controlling the balance of power on the seas as helping to prevent a Marine vs. Pirate war. Several pirates however continue to cause problems for the World Government leading them to monitor the movements of these pirates closely. If things prove too risky, the World Government steps in and tries to do whatever is needed to halt the progress of these pirates. As stated during a meeting with the Marines and the Shichibukai, the power of the pirates is equal to that of the marines themselves.

During the Water 7 arc, CP9 sought to gain control of the blueprints for one of the ancient weapons the Poneglyphs talk about, Pluton, to end the Great Age of Pirates.

Known pirates that concern the World Government:
 * 'Straw Hat' Luffy: Since Alabasta, Luffy has been seen as an evil man (despite saving the kingdom of Alabasta) in the eyes of the World Government for defeating Sir Crocodile. While they are concerned he might cause trouble, so far their only tactic in dealing with him was to raise his bounty.  It is speculated after the Enies Lobby Arc, Luffy will be high on their list of priorities, for he had declared open defiance against the world government, something that only revolutionaries would do.
 * 'Red Haired' Shanks: Shanks is a well known troublemaker to the World Government and they monitor his movements constantly. They see him as a threat to the balance of world power, and seem paranoid he might attempt to form an alliance with Whitebeard the pirate.  With this fear, they know they cannot let Shanks meet with Whitebeard; they even consider elimination as a way of stopping him should things get out of hand.
 * 'Whitebeard' the Pirate: Currently the strongest man on the seas. While the World Government hasn't displayed a great interest in Whitebeard, they have shown at least interest in another captain (Shanks) forming an alliance with him.

The Revolutionaries
Little is known about this force thus far into the story. What is known is that their movement is a threat to the stability of the world and that they aim to go against the World Government itself. It was revealed that during the World Government's meeting at Mariejoa (the World Government's capital) six years before the current storyline that Dragon, one of the Revolutionaries, was getting stronger and that in 2 or 3 years time he would be a threat to world power. Anyone who becomes a revolutionary is declared a threat and becomes wanted by the World Government. What the motives are of the Revolutionaries remain unknown.

Known Revolutionaries:
 * Dragon: Dragon seems to be the main figurehead for talk about the Revolutionary movement and no other revolutionaries have been seen or mentioned so far in the current storyline. He is said to be their leader and the most wanted man in the world.  Oddly, Dragon seems to have an interest in Monkey D. Luffy and also pleased he has chosen the life of a pirate.

Gorōsei
The heads of the Government are the Gorōsei (五老星 Five Elder Stars). They are the five men who rule above the Navy, the Cipher Pol and a made pact witht the Shichibukai.