Historically, once mohammed came out of Arabia wirh his followers, they set out on conquest. I find little evidence for seeing these wars as defensive in nature. In Christian country's that were conquered, Christianity ceased to be. Islam never seemed to find a border it wanted to keep, fighting right up to the gates of vienna after invading austria. Of course, in India, huge moslem empires were carved out of peoples and lands that had never been moslem. I read in the koran, and hadith, about conquering the lands of the infidels. Doesn't history show that this advice (commands) was followed ?
Thanks for the question, looking at history of the period I see that there were four major groups during the ministry of MP,
the Pagans led by Abu Suffiyan of the Koresh,
the Persians led by Chosroes,
the Christians led by Heraclius
the Christians led by Najashi in the Axumite Empire.
All four groups were offered an opportunity to not be extremists and live peacefully. Three of them rejected that offer. The fourth led by Najashi accepted.
So Najashi's Christian empire was spared the Jihad and humiliation of paying Jizya upon direct orders of MP. Najashi was a Muslim Christian meaning he wasn't an extremist. When he died MP honored him like nobody else in history. MP offered an absentee funeral prayer for his soul. This MP didn't even do for the Muslim martyrs in wars. The Pagan Arabs scoffed at at MP for saying a funeral prayer for someone who didn't face the Kaba in and didn't follow MPs religion.
During MPs ministry one of his most formidable and cruelest enemies was Abu Suffiyan the pagan ruler of Koresh in Mecca. Abu Suffiyan and his wife planned and plotted to assassinate MP several times. They brutally desecrated the bodies of Muslims after they died in wars. They even plotted to gather men from several tribes to assassinate MP as he slept so no one tribe would be held responsible. When MP escaped Abu Suffiyan tried to hunt him down himself and murder MP . In other words this was not a run of the mill pagan who didn't accept MP. This was a man on a mission to kill. The Quran is pretty clear on how such people should be punished who try to attack the prophet. I'm sure you are familiar with the verse, crucify them and cut their hands and feet etc. so when the time came, MP attacked Mecca and the city laid down its arms, Abu Suffiyan received justice from MP. He, his wife and Son Muawiyya were told they could leave Mecca or convert, in the hope they would learn the meaning of if mercy and forgiveness. Two years later MP died. 20 years later Abu Suffiyan's son Muawiyya became the caliph. He willed his throne to his son Yazid who butchered The residents of Mecca and Medina as well as slaughtered MPs grandson and other members of MPs family. My point is these people didn't know the first thing about mercy and forgiveness. Their conduct was polls apart from that of MP.
As far as Heraclius was concerned his cruelty towards non Christians in general and the Jews in particular was legendary. He bainished them from Jerusalem and issued a proclamation to murder them all anywhere in his empire that now included Persia. He made this proclamation after making a pact with the Jews to treat them fairly if they helped him defeat the Persians. Heraclius was a psychopath megalomaniac who sacked the Persian temples and palaces of their treasures and used them to pay off his debts to the church. Flush with money after looting Persia, he was planning on using the rest of his loot to raise armies to invade Arabia, India and China.
A fifth group was Jews. There were two kinds. There was a splinter group in southern Arabia with Sadduceean tendencies who worked with the pagans and plotted against MP. Then there were mainstream Jews with their exilarchs in Baghdad. The mainstream Jews worked with the Rashidun. Consequently, Umer restored the exilarchs to the position of princes for the first time since the time of Jesus and permitted them to wear their signet rings. In addition, Umer could have turned a blind eye and grandfathered the laws of Heraclius to murder Jews. However, he didn't do this. He reversed those laws and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. The relations between the Rashidun and Jews was cordial. Caliph Ali was in Kuffa - a Jewish town near Baghdad. When Muawiyya attacked the Jews sided with Ali.
Eventually however Muawiyya son of Abu Suffiyan gathered the support of all the ex pagan Arabs and rose to power. He also set his son to become the next ruler and establish a dynasty. These people were more interested in looting than spreading Islam. They created the Sharia but knew nothing about what MP was teaching. This is obvoius from how they know nothing about verses such as 28:48-50 and 3:199 in the Quran but everything about how to rape plunder and conquer. They accused Jews and Christians of corrupting the Bible but did nothing to learn from the Muslim Christians in Ethiopia about the Bible used by MP. They learned nothing from the mercy shown by MP to their parents and grandparents
