Conquest ( military ) Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms . One example is the Norman conquest of England , which provided the subjugation of the Kingdom of England and the acquisition of the English crown by William the Conqueror in 1066 . There are many other examples of conquest throughout military history : the Roman conquest of Britain , the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and the entire Indian subcontinent , Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and various Muslim conquests are just a few . Ancient conquests . The ancient civilized peoples conducted wars on a large scale that were , in effect , conquests . In Egypt the effects of invasion and conquest are to be seen in different racial types represented in paintings and sculptures . Both Assyrians and Egypt ians often waged against their less civilized race , or at least of the whole adult male populace and the absorption of the women and children by the conquering race , so as practically to extinguish the conquered tribe . Improved agriculture production was not conducive to peace , it allowed for specialization including the formation of ever larger militaries and improved weapon technology . This combined with growth of population and political control , war becomes more widespread and destructive . Thus , the Aztecs , Inca s , African Kingdoms of Dahomey and Benin and the ancient civilizations of Egypt , Babylonia , Assyria and Persia all stand out as more militaristic than the less civilized tribes about them . Military adventures were on a larger scale and effective conquest now for the first time became feasible . Conquest and plunder . Plunder has in all times and places been a result of war , the conquerors taking whatever parable things of value they find , the desire for it has been one of the commonest causes of war and conquest . Subjugation . With subjugation , further class distinctions arise . The conquered people are enslaved ; thus the widest possible social classes are produced : the enslaved and the free . The slaves are put to work to support the upper classes , who regard war as their chief business . With effective conquest , subjugation and enslavement the state arises and not before . The state is in origin a product of war and exists primarily as an enforced peace between conquerors and conquered . From slavery and from conquest , another result of war , sprang differentiation of classes and occupations termed the division of labour . Through conquest , society became divided into a ruling militant class and a subject industrial class . The regulative function devolved upon the conquering soldiers and operations side to the serf s and slaves . Conquest and the state . In the formation of the modern state , the conspicuous immediate causes are the closely related facts of migration and conquest . The state has increased civilization and allowed increased cultural contact allowing for a cultural exchange and stimulus ; frequently the conquerors have taken over the culture of their subjects . Conquest leading to migration . Military conquest has been one of the most persistent causes of human migrations . There is a significant influence of migration and conquest on political development and state formation . Conquest leading to migration has contributed to race mixture and cultural exchange . The latter points influence on conquest has been of far greater significance in the evolution of society . Conquest brings humans into contact , even though it is a hostile contact . Culture after conquest . After a conquest where a minority imposes itself on a majority , it usually adopts the language and religion of the majority , through this force of numbers and because a strong government can be maintained only through the unity of these two important facts . In other cases , especially when the conquerors create or maintain strong cultural or social institutions , the conquered culture could adopt norms or ideas from the conquering culture to expedite interactions with the new ruling class . These changes were often imposed on the conquered people by force , particularly during religiously motivated conquests . Methods of conquest . The Ottomans used a method of gradual , non - military conquest in which they established suzerainty over their neighbours and then displaced their ruling dynasties . This concept was first systematized by Halil Inalcik . Conquests of this sort did not involve violent revolution but were a process of slow assimilation , established by bureaucratic means such as registers of population and resources as part of the feudal " timar " system .