The present paper aims to trace a genealogy of colonialism, and to see how practices of restructuring local societies by the classical colonial state were reified by the post-colonial state, many decades after formal decolonization. The case that will be discussed is relocation of settlements in the eastern part of Indonesia. What motives drove the authorities of the Netherlands East Indies to resettle populations against  their will, and why did the authoritarian Indonesian regime in the late 20^th century take over the practice?