Conflicting ideas in a paragraph

Conflicting ideas in a paragraph

The passage below is from The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree.

The new settlers planted books, libraries and eventually domestic printing in almost all the places where Europeans asserted right of abode and rulership. Most of the books were imported from the home country: the demand for books to fill the new libraries far exceeded the small capacities of the printing presses they carried with them, which continued to be the case until the end of the eighteenth century. But these colonising missions found an equally contentious theatre in Europe itself, one rather neglected in the narrative of library building: the contested spaces in northern and central Europe where Protestants and Catholics fought for supremacy. Here, in lands somewhat removed from the main centres of European print culture, the libraries erected were statements of purpose and celebrations, often prematurely, of victory. Inevitably, whenever the balance of power shifted, the libraries were regarded as legitimate targets. Libraries were looted or dismantled to delegitimise the claims of the rival, and carried off as booty to decorate a different library in the conqueror’s homeland.

First, about ‘missions’.

Does this ‘missions’ mean just colonizers’ missions or preachers’ missions or does it just mean missions of both all together?

Next, about ‘equally contentious’.

In this paragraph I cannot see the purpose of ‘equally contentious’.

For ‘equally contentious’ to have any purpose there should be any contention before this sentence in question. But I cannot find any conflict before this phrase. Just descriptions of how so many books were imported from Europe in the process of colonization. All told, I don’t find any causal link between ‘these colonising missions’ and ‘an equally contentious theatre in Europe itself’. Can you tell me where I am wrong or (if by any chance I am right) why the sentence seems awkward.

Thanks in advance.