What disagreement cause the Lilliputians to divide?

Answer 1

An intra-Lilliputian quarrel had occurred over the practice of breaking eggs. Traditionally, Lilliputians broke boiled eggs on the larger end; a few generations ago, an Emperor of Lilliput, the Present Emperor's great-grandfather, had decreed that all eggs be broken on the smaller end after he cut himself breaking the egg on the larger end. The differences between Big-Endians (those who broke their eggs at the larger end) and Little-Endians had given rise to "six rebellions... wherein one Emperor lost his life, and another his crown". The Lilliputian religion says an egg should be broken on the convenient end, which is now interpreted by the Lilliputians as the smaller end. The Big-Endians gained favor in Blefuscu.

Answer 2

The disagreement that caused the Lilliputians to divide was whether boiled eggs should be cracked open from the small or big end. This trivial argument escalated into a major political and social rift between the Big-endians and the Small-endians in Jonathan Swift's novel "Gulliver's Travels."