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What was role of the State in the advent of the industrial pathways at the source of contemporary ecological crises? What is the State’s responsibility in the advent of technical gigantism and natural imbalances that pose serious threats today? In this contribution to the history of the modern State at the turn of the 19th century, the challenge is to both explore the bounds of the modern State as a historical actor and its agency in nurturing new industrial pathways that take hold around this time. The aim is to examine how governments of the first major industrialized nations have worked to remove obstacles and force acceptance of the crises and disturbances that came with the dawn of industrialization, be it pollution or social and environmental risk.