This paper has two aims. First, to discuss the main theoretical approaches about the Brazilian colonial period, from the perspective of their methodological foundations. This critical analysis of the historiography is based on an interpretation of Marx that recovers the influence of Hegelian dialectic in Marxian view of History. Second, from the defense of one of those models present on the debate, based on the concept of "capital escravista-mercantil" as a particular form of capital which existed during the colonial period, we try to advance on the comprehension of this period arguing that it is part of the historical process of consolidation of the capitalism as a world system, process this which has the capital as an automatic subject. We defend that the force of the capital form doesn’t need the generalization of the typical bourgeois relations for the entire globe, and that the colonial system neither should be understood as another mode of production, nor as a mere piece of the primitive accumulation of capital. The "sentido da colonização" is, therefore, the constitution of the periphery of the world capitalist system.
sentido da colonização; historiography; methodology; dialectic capitalism