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-preservation; 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 derived 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 government; or he will destroy the frame of their society, and incorporate the inhabitants with others; or he will exterminate them.