International territorial administration has its origin in the practice of internationalisation. The notion of internationalisation formally emerged as a legal concept in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and was originally used to define situations in which the territorial sovereignty of a state over strategically important areas, such as harbour cities, outlets to the sea, rivers and canals, was limited in favour of another state or a group of states. This narrow understanding was later overtaken by the growing institutionalisation and codification of international law in the aftermath of World Wars I and II. The emergence of organisations at an international level led to the increased involvement of international institutions in the administration of common spaces or international regimes.

Today, two main forms of internationalisation can be distinguished: territorial and functional internationalisation. Territorial internationalisation is a device that removes a territory from the jurisdiction of a state and places it under an international institutional framework. Functional internationalisation, on the other hand, represents a broader technique which limits the jurisdiction of states over a certain space and submits it to international supervision and control.

The practice of international territorial administration is rooted in both traditions. Territorial internationalisation has set a precedent for the most concentrated forms of international territorial administration, namely models of governance and administration in which the exercise of state-like powers by an international organisation has coincided with the removal of jurisdiction of other entities over the territory.