This article discusses the formation of the Brazilian culture. Just like other Hispanic countries, Brazil presents the peculiarity of being a country born of ideas and projects. It was brought out from a medieval reason complex including greedy for money and power, as well as religious impulses, preceding the commercial capitalism. A succession of projects follows the history of the country, from the first plans of the Portuguese crown for the colonization followed by first the Jesuits and then Pombal, with the central motif of the Indians; in the empire, the projects to form a State and some citizenry (to the "country without citizenry"); in the Old Republic there is a start, with Canudos, of the discovery of citizenry, which finally arises in the "Vargas era." The so called great ideas and projects along history have definitely left grooves in the political culture.
Discovery; Colonization; Empire; Republic; Nation