World Government

The World Government is a political organization comprised of the majority, if not the entirety of the world at large, ruled by the Gorosei. The Marines serve as their primary military organization, headed by the Fleet Admiral and managed by the Commander in Chief, while the Cipher Pol operate behind the scenes, either through sabotage, reconnaissance, spying, espionage and/or assassination; their most powerful enemies are largely pirates and revolutionaries. Collectively serving as the most prominent antagonists in the series, the World Government is largely portrayed as a corrupt entity, particularly through their absolute justice doctrine and the callousness of their aristocratic World Nobles.

About the World Government
Look at that symbol, pirates-!!! That mark represents the unity of over 170 nations... In the four seas and the Grand Line...!!! This is the World!!!

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. Their political ideals are unknown and everything they do is considered to be right. Not everyone approves of their political ideals as there are people like Dragon who are against it. They approve of Absolute Justice and reside in the holy land of Mariejois, ruled by the Gorousei, the highest authority of the world. They seem afraid of losing power and the World Government depends on the 3 Great Powers to keep the world from falling apart.

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 Marines, 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 with many individuals using justice to further their own aims. 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. Nico Robin in particular spent her entire life running from the World Government, and everyone who she fell in with soon betrayed her for the bounty on her head, or found themselves against the Marines and other government forces who were after Robin.

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 harbor 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 they have in maintaining world stability far outweighs the corruption they often display though this is changing as more people are beginning to question whether what the World Government is doing is right. Sengoku recently witnessed the release of several level 6 criminals back into the world, only to be told by the World Government to cover the greater details up, since they did not want ordinary citizens to know that these potentially dangerous criminals were free to roam. This meant that the Marines could not issue the warrent for their arrests, leaving the Marines in a difficult position wherein the recapturing of the level 6 criminals means they cannot reissue bounties or release information related to these criminals.

Much of the World Government appears to be centered around paranoia, as they appear to divide power very carefully. However, this paranoia, though strong, can be bypassed, as seen when Spandam manipulated the Gorosei. Also, judging by what King Wapol said that changing the governing form of Drum Island would provoke the government, it would seem that there are very particular expectations that must be lived up to from governors or kings.

The World Government can be described as totalitarian to a certain extent, as they often will make excessive efforts to ensure that they remain in power, including the elimination of any source of power that could be dubbed greater than their own.

Culture
The World Government has a religious and holy theme. Mariejois was called the 'holy land', the place where the Gorosei resides was called the sanctuary, the World Nobles have the word "Saint" in front of their names. Impel Down appears to be based on the Hell in Dante's  Divine Comedy .

Void Century
800 years ago, an ancient alliance was formed by the kings of the Twenty Kingdoms, who used their combined power to overthrow the Ancient Kingdom. After that, they banned research on the Poneglyph and set their headquarters in Mariejois. The twenty kings leading the war against the Ancient Kingdom later became the "creators", and the beginning of the World Government. Their descendants are the Tenryubito.

Age of the Pirates
In 1500 AOS, Pirate King Gol D. Roger turns himself in to the World Government though they claim to have captured him and execute him before the public. His death however sparked the Great Pirate Age.

Buster Call
In 1502 AOS, the World Government sent the Buster Call to wipe out Ohara. They accused the scholars of trying to recover the Ancient Weapon and spread lies around the world when in reality they never cared about it. The World Government used that excuse to hide the fact that the scholors of Ohara were researching the Void Century. Nico Robin was the only survivor of Ohara and was hated by the brainwashed world, who believed that she would kill them all. Nico Robin grew up hating the World Government and is determined to find out what happened during the missing 100 years.

Lucci's Mission
Fifteen years ago, there was a small unnamed kingdom that was captured by pirates. 500 royal guards were held hostage in an attempt to force the king to make the pirate captain the new king. The World Government sent a 13-year old boy to the kingdom. The boy in turn killed the 500 royal guards for showing weakness before killing the pirate captain and taking his head.

Spandam's Conspiracy
Twelve years ago, Spandam manipulated the Gorosei to change their mind about preventing the Ancient Weapons from being recovered and to allow him to revive the weapons. However, Spandam's plot was really to overthrow the government and rule the world himself.

Dragon
Eight years ago, Monkey D. Dragon started to stir up rebellion against the government. The Council of Kings took place in this time to discuss about his actions.

Captain Morgan Arc
The Marines let Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro free to show gratitude for bringing down Morgan and let Coby join the Marines.

Don Krieg Arc
Marine Lt. Fullbody is assaulted by Sanji after he put's a fly in the soup Sanji made, he then flees when the prisoner he captured escapes his ship.

After that, Shichibukai Dracule Mihawk was the initial reason Don Krieg arrived at the Baratie. He defeats Zoro and destroys Krieg's Ship.

Arlong Arc
After Luffy defeated Arlong, the World Government considered him a threat and put a bounty of 30,000,000 on Luffy. This was really because Nezumi (who the crew beat up) was mad at him so he "warned" the World Government about his defeat of Arlong.

Loguetown Arc
The Straw Hats escape from Smoker and Tashigi while Luffy is saved by Dragon. Smoker decides to chase after Luffy and his crew with Tashigi.

Drum Island Arc
When Luffy gained the upper hand in the fight against Wapol, the latter warned Luffy that if he defeats him, the World Government will not tolerate it. Luffy, however took no notice of his fearful babbling, and knocked him out of Drum Kingdom.

Alabasta Arc
After the Alabasta incident, the World Government acted swiftly to cover up the fact that Crocodile had in fact been defeated by a pirate, Monkey D. Luffy. The credit was given to Captain Smoker, along with a promotion and a medal. Smoker, knowing the truth, disapproved. Crocodile was stripped of his title and imprisoned. The government seemed to take the defeat of a Shichibukai very seriously as the Marines raised Luffy's bounty to 100,000,000 and gave Roronoa Zoro a bounty of 60,000,000, despite the fact that they had actually done the Government a favor, though without the intention.

Jaya Arc
The World Government became greatly alerted when they heard the news that Shanks was planning to meet Whitebeard, fearing a combined power would become a bigger threat and ordered the Marines to prevent them from meeting each other. Meanwhile there was a meeting of the Shichibukai to discuss Crocodile's replacement. Kuma, Doflamingo and later Dracule Mihawk showed up, Laffitte made an appearance to nominate Blackbeard to become a new Shichibukai.

Davy Back Fight Arc
At the Marine HQ, the Marines were panicking about Admiral Aokiji being gone and contacted the Gorosei. The Gorosei were not happy with Aokiji's rash behavior and labeled him one of the strongest men in the Marines and remarked that he needed to be careful with his rank.

Water 7 Arc
CP9 took Nico Robin into custody on her arrival. Agents were sent in to pressure Iceburg into telling them the location of the Pluton blueprints. CP9 was then ordered to assassinate him and then burned Galley-La HQ to eliminate any evidence. They then captured Franky, who possessed knowledge on the wherebouts of the blueprints.

Enies Lobby Arc
The Straw Hats defeated the entire CP9 organization and rescued Nico Robin, a criminal wanted by the Government for 20 years. The Buster Call, initiated by Spandam, destroyed Enies Lobby without eliminating the Straw Hats and their allies causing the World Government to suffer a complete defeat.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc
After their massive and spectacular failure at Enies Lobby, the Government deemed the Straw Hats a serious threat, raising the bounties of the entire Straw Hat crew, and released a heavily altered version of the events to the public, blaming the Straw Hats for destroying the island, which had actually been done by the Marines' Buster Call. After the arc Luffy's bounty was raised to 300,000,000, and Zoro's bounty was raised to 120,000,000, Robin's went up to 80,000,000 and the other members gained their first bounties.

Thriller Bark Arc
After the Banaro Incident, Blackbeard became an official Shichibukai.

Gekko Moriah, one of the Shichibukai ruled the island on his ship, Thriller Bark. The Government was aware that the Straw Hat Pirates were heading to Fishman Island and Thriller Bark would be in the way. After Moriah was defeated, the Government was afraid that the news of Moriah's defeat would cause another global uproar and therefore ordered Kuma to kill everyone on Thriller Bark. Even with Moriah defeated, they hoped that he would still be able to keep his position.

Sabaody Archipelago Arc
Following Luffy's attack on a Tenryubito, they dispatch Admiral Kizaru to deal with them.

Impel Down Arc
Luffy tarnishes Impel Down's reputation by becoming the first to break into the prison and lead the first mass breakout in history.

Post War Arc
At the destroyed Marineford, Sengoku is informed by Brandnew that Magellan had been beaten to an inch of his life. Upon reaching Level 6, Blackbeard had instructed the prisoners in each cage to engage in a battle for life and death, and the winners would be set free. Although Blackbeard only took four prisoners with him, there were many Level 6 prisoners that were missing, having escaped during the chaos. Although Sengoku demands that wanted posters of the escaped criminals be sent throughout the world, Brandnew claims that the World Government has chosen to hide the information of the Level 6 prisoners escaping, lest the world lose trust in the World Government, a decision which enrages Sengoku.

Elsewhere on Marineford, Donquixote Doflamingo and the Pacifista are beating Gekko Moriah to death. Doflamingo claims that the government has decided that he is too weak to remain in the Shichibukai, and that it would be better if he was thought to be "killed in the war" rather than eliminated by the government. Moriah asks if Sengoku is behind the decision, but Doflamingo claims that the decision was made by powers even higher than he. It was later revealed that Gekko Moriah escaped with the help of his Kage Kage no Mi abilities.

The World Government sent a message via messenger bat to Buggy the Clown. The contents of the message are currently unknown.

Security Forces
The World Government also operates a number of groups and organizations that protect the citizens of the world on a global scale.

Government Members
All over the world, there are over one hundred seventies countries that are members of the World Government. Within their own territory all these members have their own sovereign government that rules over its people. However, in the large World Government itself, those leaders are treated as equals and each have a seat within it.

Among these member countries, not all are of the same kind. Some are large countries with kings as their leaders, while others are simply big cities that are governed by mayors.

Kingdoms

 * Alabasta
 * Ilusia
 * Drum
 * Goa
 * Ryugu

Cities

 * Water 7

The Three Great Powers
The Three Great Powers (三大勢力), composed of the Marines, the Shichibukai, and the Yonkou. are the three greatest military forces on the oceans, and their relations are very vital to the World Government. The three powers exist in a delicate balance, not all the details of which are known. It is however known that only the other two organizations are equivalent to the Yonkou. Considering that these organizations are stated to be a balance and the fact that the loss of Crocodile threatened the balance, it is likely they are roughly equivalent in strength. The Yonkou and Marines seem to be on different ends of the spectrum, with the Marines being more orderly compared to the Yonkou which are very chaotic, with the Shichibukai acting as somewhere in between.

The Gorosei fear that if this balance gets disrupted, the world itself could fall apart, and the balance itself appears to be very fragile as the loss of even one key member (such as a Shichibukai) can disrupt the balance. This is why the defeat of Crocodile was so distressing to them; the loss of such a powerful ally in such a public manner tips the balance away from the Shichibukai and in turn the Marines. This leaves them with less force to counter the threat of the Yonkou and allows people to question their power. Another worry is that the Marines are the only organization completely under the control of the World Government. The Shichibukai often follow orders on a whim, if at all, and the Yonkou are entirely outside of the World Government's control.

The Shichibukai and the Marines have entered into war with the Whitebeard Pirates, this being the first known instance where any of the powers go into full-out conflict with one another. When Kaido tried to attack Whitebeard, Shanks intercepted him, causing a dispute between Yonkou. After Whitebeard's death, the balance has collapsed, and the world has entered chaos, contrary to the belief of the great pirate's death would bring peace.

Currently, the Yonkou have lost one from their ranks (Whitebeard), and the Shichibukai have lost three; Jinbe and Blackbeard resigned their positions (for different reasons: Jinbe because he opposed the war against Whitebeard and switched sides, and Blackbeard because he only wanted it to get into Impel Down and free several prisoners on Level 6), and Gekko Moriah was deemed "too weak" to retain his title. Also, both Garp and Sengoku resigned causing the Marines to lose two legends and have a change in fleet admiral.

After the timeskip, their status are not fully known aside from a new fleet admiral (currently unknown), and Boa Hancock and Bartholomew Kuma still have their titles.

Trivia

 * The workings of the government in the One Piece universe are closey similar to that of an oligarchy. In a oligarchy the government is controlled by a small group of people e.i. the Gorosei.

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