From the initial French occupation of Algiers in 1830 to the end of direct colonial rule in 1962, the government of Algeria went through many permutations. After dedicating themselves to direct colonization of the territory at the end of the 1830s, the French were largely concerned with establishing physical, military control over the coastal and plains regions of the north. By the end of the 1850s, however, focus had turned to governance or management of the colony. This shift came with a break between the civilian administration (supported by the bulk of colonists), and the military regime (the de facto representative of the Algerians). The negotiation among these various interests in the 1860s – especially as concerned environmental challenges – changed the exercise and appearance of power in Algeria. Through examination of official correspondence, published memoirs, contemporary newspapers, and available environmental data, this paper traces the creation of what came to be a modern colonial “state” in Algeria through the formative years of 1860-1871. Environmental tests of governance and administration – combating epidemics of cholera and typhus, the challenge of maintaining crops through seasons of drought and locust invasion, the ongoing need to supply the larger coastal towns and colonial centers with clean water – brought together various colonial factions and led to the creation or expansion of “modern” tactics of governance and organization, creating a set of apparatuses that took on the appearance of a “state.” In effect, environmental policies created the state itself. This state was a shifting and amorphous congeries of tactics and practices, but nevertheless had a salience and power for the people of Algeria – settlers and autochthonous Algerians alike. While the “state” continued to be unsettled throughout the remainder of the colonial period, the broader contours of what could be identified as a “modern state” appeared for the first time through the environmental challenges of this period.