The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, which ceded Dutch Malacca, a governorate of the Dutch East Indies that was transferred to Great Britain has consolidated modern-day rule to the Malacca state of Malaysia. It was divided into three governorates, namely the Great East, Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sumatra, and into three provinces in Java. Provinces and governorates were further divided into residencies. Residencies under the provinces were divided into regencies (Dutch: regentschappen), and residencies under governorates were divided into departments (Dutch: Afdeelingen, modern spelling afdelingen) and then further into regentschappen.^[1]

The following list is the divisions of the Dutch East Indies in 1942, prior to the Japanese occupation in World War II.

In 1938, all of the various Residencies and Gouvernements in Sumatra were reorganized under the new Gouvernement of Sumatra.^[2]

Java comprised three provinces,^{[citation needed]} West, Middle and East Java, the boundaries of which were similar to the island's pre-2000 boundaries.^{[citation needed]}

In 1938 both of these Residencies were again united in a Governorate of Borneo (Gouvernement van Borneo) with its capital at Banjarmasin.

The governorate of the Great East (Dutch: 'Gouvernement Groote Oost') was created in 1938. It comprised the islands to the east of Borneo and Java, including the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Maluku and Western New Guinea.

Vorstenlanden were four native states on the island of Java in the Netherlands Indies that were nominally self-governing under suzerainty of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Their political autonomy was however severely constrained by treaties and settlements. Two of them were the Governorate of Djokjakarta and the Governorate of Soerakarta, which controlled the Residentie Djokjakarta and the Residenties of Soerakarta and Klaten respectively.