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What role did European colonial expansion play in spreading European international law around the world?

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Oil portrait of Hugo de Groot, also known as Hugo Grotius, by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, showing him with a ruffled white collar and dark clothing. — Hugo Grotius Portrait of Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius), oil on panel by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, 1631; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

European colonial expansion played a central role in transforming European international law into a global system. While non-European civilizations possessed their own regional normative systems—such as the siyar in Islamic tradition and the Sino-centric tributary system—these were largely subjugated by European powers by the end of the 19th century.1

As European nations expanded, they imposed their legal frameworks to facilitate trade, secure resources, and maintain social stability in colonized territories. This process involved:2

Institutional Imposition: Colonial powers installed or amended legal systems to support private property, money-based economies, and commercial agriculture.2
Global Standardization: Concepts such as sovereignty, exclusive domestic jurisdiction, and nonintervention—which were fundamental to the European state system—were spread worldwide by imperial powers.3
Legal Grafting: In regions like India, foreign laws were often "grafted" onto indigenous systems, creating an amalgam of local customs and European legal models.4

Through this expansion, the principles developed by theorists like Hugo Grotius—who advocated for the freedom of the high seas—became the foundation for a global international order.13