This article examines the formation of the Brazilian Northeast region, set in a long temporality, from the colonial era to the current days. It is in disagreement with two main views of that process. The first one considers the Northeast region as an historical entity existing since the colonial times. The second reduces the region to a criation of its oligarchies in order to ensure their privileges, their domination and the presevation of their power. Located in between such views, this article offers another way of interpreting the Northeast regional formation, laying it on the historical plan. In that way, the formation of the region issues its entire meaning when we link it up with the political chronology, which is also the political chronology of the formation of the Brazilian nation.
The Northeast; Region; Social formation; Identity; Political history