Company rule in the Dutch East Indies began when the Dutch East India Company appointed the first governor-general of the Dutch East Indies in 1610,^[30] and ended in 1800 when the bankrupt company was dissolved and its possessions were nationalized as the Dutch East Indies. By then it exerted territorial control over much of the archipelago, most notably on Java.

In 1603, the first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia was established in Banten, northwest Java. Batavia was made the capital from 1619 onward.^[31] Corruption, war, smuggling, and mismanagement resulted in the company's bankruptcy by the end of the 18th century. The company was formally dissolved in 1800 and its colonial possessions were nationalized by the Batavian Republic as the Dutch East Indies.^[32]