Quote Originally Posted by rvg View Post
You cannot conquer something that is already under your jurisdiction. You can oppress and mistreat your people, yes, but that is not the same as conquest.
If we really, really, really wanted to stretch things, we could call it a "re-conquest". Technically, the US and early states came in and "conquered" the land from the natives that already inhabited it and claimed as their own. They in turn had been giving and taking it from each other for millennia before the Europeans showed up.

... but we didn't, because I still agree one can't conquer their own people.