The Netherlands initially had no intention of coming to the archipelago if it were not for its trade interests being disrupted. The occupation of Portugal by Spain in 1580 had closed the Portuguese port. This had an impact on Dutch trade interests, because the Netherlands was at that time at war with Spain.

In fact, the Portuguese port has been visited by Dutch ships to transport and distribute spices (spicies) to Northern and Eastern Europe. The closure of the port had an impact on Dutch merchant ships so they could not dock. This encouraged Dutch ships to find their own trade routes to the East Indies (oost Indie; East India).

In its development, the Netherlands formed the VOC trading company and carried out monopolistic trading practices in the archipelago by having the right to buy and sell spices at prices determined by the VOC. VOC traders transacted on Dutch merchant ships under the provisions of ancient Dutch law (oud Nedelands recht) whose material is mostly disciplinary law and plus the principles of Roman law. In daily life, according to Utrecht at that time, native Indonesians lived under the rule of customary law and the Dutch under the rule of Dutch law brought to Indonesia.

In 1800 the VOC was dissolved because it went bankrupt due to its inability to pay its debts. Since then, the Dutch government has carried out direct colonization of the Indonesian nation. The VOC's territory was taken over by the Dutch government. The next development was the transition of VOC power to the Dutch Government. The Governor General was no longer an agent of the trading company but a representative of the government.

Indonesia was once colonized by England in 1811. Java was controlled by England under the leadership of T.S. Raffles. England recognized the existence of customary law and Islamic law for native Indonesians. However, European law was still considered superior. The people at that time were burdened with land taxes. Raffles' government ended when the Napoleonic Bonaparte government collapsed.

France as a colonizer imposed code de civil and code de commerce in the Netherlands, the same thing was also done by the Dutch colonial government in the Dutch East Indies (read Indonesia) imposing Burgerlijk Wetboek and Wetboek Van Kophandel in the Dutch East Indies. This enactment is a legal adjustment or is called concordance (concordantie) law, namely the enactment of BW and WVK in the Dutch East Indies. However, the legal adjustments implemented in the Dutch East Indies from a legal political perspective are seen only as a legal basis for implementing devide et impera.