CONQUEST, in the law of nations, is the acquisition
of sovereignty by force of arms, by some foreign prince;
who reduces the vanquished under his empire. The
right of conquest is derived from the laws of war; and
when a people is subjected, the conduct of the conqueror
is regulated by four kinds of law. First, the law
of nature, which dictates whatever tends to self-preserva-
tion; secondly, our reason, which teaches us to use
others as we would be treated ourselves; thirdly, the
laws of political society, to which nature has not assigned
any precise boundary; lastly, the law which is de-
rived from the particular circumstances attending the
conquest. Thus, a state conquered by another will be
treated in one of the four methods following: Either
the conqueror will continue it under its own laws, and
will only claim the exercise of civil and ecclesiastical
sovereignty; or he will impose a new form of govern-
ment; or he will destroy the frame of their society, and
incorporate the inhabitants with others; or he will ex-
terminate them.