This article addresses the role of the state and state formation in theestablishment of national education during the nineteenth centuryand early twentieth century. Through a comparative case analysis oftwo countries at the European periphery (Finland and Turkey), thisarticle shows how national educational systems, in both instances,were driven by periods of intense state building. In the nineteenthcentury, military defeats sparked educational reforms, and inthe early nineteenth century school laws were enacted due tothe establishment of the republics of Finland and Turkey.Nevertheless, these examples also show the limits of a stateformation perspective. Despite changes in educational policy,neither state reached high enrolment levels in the nineteenthcentury, and only in Finland schooling for all was realised in the1930s. Thus, this work encourages further comparative analyses ofthe social, economic and political circumstances in which thesestates acted.