Hugo Grotius, who was born in the western Netherlands and wrote in the early 1600s, appreciated Vitoria but complained of the absolutism of his followers, of “Molina and others,” and the obstacles they placed in the way of waging war. He disputed Molina’s argument that violations of natural law could only be punished by local civil authorities. In other words, under Molina’s rule, no European power could legitimately wage war under the pretext of protecting Native Americans from their own rulers or from other Native Americans. Grotius, in contrast, said that not only did European empires have the right to punish violations of natural law, but so could private-trading companies such as the Dutch East India Company. Grotius here was defending Dutch imperialism in Asia. Heralded as the founder of international law, Grotius advanced a generous array of rights for European nations to punish, wage war, and appropriate land. Europe’s storied protoliberal legal theorists didn’t want to end conquest but regulate how it was executed.

— America, América by Greg Grandin