Abstract Kroeze takes the Dutch–Indonesian histories of colonial state formation as a common base to test several hypotheses that are informed by debates in the historiography of corruption and (post-)colonialism. One is that corruption is never a neutral objective term, and that when it is used in a colonial context it serves to set or challenge norms that underly colonial power structures. By invoking scandals and asking for reform, elites challenged existing norms in order to maintain exclusive power structures of (late) colonial state formation and economic exploitation. Kroeze also argues that cases of colonial corruption show how the metropole and colony were interlinked and influenced each other. Political changes in the metropole, such as the growing influence of more morally outspoken Protestant and Liberal politicians, as well as experiences of misuse in the colony, together caused the emergence of the Dutch equivalent of the civilising mission: the so-called “Ethical Policy”.