At this stage of the Grand Line's New World, war raged everywhere.
A vacuum of power had appeared, and naturally, ambitious figures entered to carve up that power.
An organization built through force would naturally fracture when that force weakened.
That was why the old East continually preached "ritual propriety" to prop up its crumbling dynasties, while the old West first invoked divine right, then noble bloodlines, and finally bought the people over with money and benefits, entertaining them to death in order to maintain its rule and its tottering dynasties.
Yet regardless of the method, all of them were more sophisticated forms of governance than ruling directly through force.
Force was simply too crude, too violent, too straightforward. In the world of One Piece, there were still the Four Emperors, Sweet Commanders, captains, and Three Calamities to maintain the most basic foundation of force.
But now that individual strength was no longer enough to overturn the entire situation directly, the strength of ordinary people became soldiers. More soldiers meant greater power. Since you had founded your nation through force, if my force was now stronger than yours, then naturally I could usurp your nation through force, right?
That was precisely why, after Big Mom died, Totto Land collapsed. After Whitebeard was gone, the hundreds of Pirate crews under him scattered like birds and beasts. If the Revolutionary Army had not taken in the Whitebeard Pirates, then Whitebeard's ending would likely have been no better than that of the Sweets Pirates.
The Grand Line had long ceased to be what it once was, with the Four Emperors occupying the four corners in orderly fashion.
With the Four Emperors fallen, the Supernovas formed alliances and poured into the Grand Line, almost immediately launching a siege against the Sweets Pirates, who had