Chartered corporations

[Furious Mental]

The British East India Company was fairly unusual in how big its territorial possessions became, but bear in mind that before that most of southern India was under the control of the French East India Company and, of that, a substantial portion was directly administered by it. Take the Dutch East Indian Company in Indonesia as another example. Even in the late 19th century, when these companies had become more heavily regulated, they were still engaged in autonomous territorial conquest in Africa.