Where I live, I have to have this conversation way too often with people.
Early Modern Period (~1600 AD)
Medieval Period (~1000 AD)
(thelemmy.club)
It doesn't, unless you're a colonizing nation, then any justification will do.
There are two significant papal bulls around the time that "allowed" European nations to go and conquer the world to spread Christianity and created the Doctrine of Discovery, meaning that non-Christian civilisations were not actually civilized and should be civilized by force for their own good.