Conquest was framed as restoring a prior Christian order, not acquiring new lands

Evidence

For Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, the conquest of Andalusia by Castilian armies is a reconquest, a restoration of proper political and ecclesiastical order. Churches return to their proper use; the proper hierarchy of priest, bishop, primate, and pope is reestablished, as is the right rule of the heir to the Gothic kings of Spain. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 962

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows the ideological meaning of ‘reconquest’ as restoration of hierarchy and sacred geography, not mere territorial expansion.
• XREF: Echoes how colonial ideologies always insist they are restoring rather than invading — parallels the Roman justification of expansion and later Spanish conquest of the Americas. — connects to: Unjust conquest confers no right over the conquered — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 222