Two Treatises of Government · Chapter
XVI: Of Conquest explained
Locke argues that conquest, even in a just war, does not grant the conqueror legitimate political authority over the conquered people.
What happens
Locke argues that conquest, even in a just war, does not grant the conqueror legitimate political authority over the conquered people. He distinguishes between just and unjust wars, asserting that only consent of the governed can establish lawful government. The conqueror may have rights to reparation but not to dominion over the innocent, including women and children, who retain their natural rights to freedom and inheritance.
Themes in this chapter
Consent of the Governed
Locke emphasizes that no government can be legitimately established without the consent of the people, even after conquest.
Natural Rights and Liberty
The chapter defends the natural rights of individuals, including the right to freedom and inheritance, which cannot be forfeited by the actions of ancestors.
Right to Revolution
Locke asserts that the conquered and their descendants have the right to appeal to heaven and resist unjust governments imposed by force.
Property and Labor
Locke discusses the limits of a conqueror's claim to land and property, arguing that reparation does not justify dispossessing the innocent.
Characters to notice
- Jephthah
Cited as an example of appealing to heaven when no earthly court is available to the conquered.
Key passages
“But conquest is as far from setting up any government, as demolishing an house is from building a new one in the place.”
Conquest no more creates legitimate government than tearing down a house builds a new one.
Locke uses an analogy to illustrate that force alone cannot establish lawful authority.
“That the aggressor, who puts himself into the state of war with another, and unjustly invades another man’s right, can, by such an unjust war, never come to have a right over the conquered.”
An unjust aggressor cannot gain any rightful authority over those he conquers.
Locke distinguishes between just and unjust wars, denying any legitimacy to conquest by an unjust aggressor.
“But the conquered, or their children, have no court, no arbitrator on earth to appeal to. Then they may appeal, as Jephthah did, to heaven, and repeat their appeal till they have recovered the native right of their ancestors.”
When earthly justice is unavailable, the conquered may appeal to divine justice, as Jephthah did, to reclaim their natural rights.
Locke invokes the biblical figure Jephthah to justify resistance against unjust conquest.
“Every man is born with a double right: first, a right of freedom to his person... Secondly, a right, before any other man, to inherit with his brethren his father’s goods.”
Every person is born with two inherent rights: personal freedom and the right to inherit property from their father.
Locke outlines fundamental natural rights that cannot be taken away by conquest.