ABSTRACT
Under the influence of Marxism, Brazilian historians were instigated, to reflect on the legacies of colonial past. In the field of historiography, Marxist reflection on the nature of the process of colonization of Portuguese America, and on the characteristics of colonial economy, polity and society appeared at that time deeply influenced by the idea of the paradoxical juxtaposition of Brazils an archaic, rural, economically backward one, industrial and developed one, resulting from the modernization undertaken by the Vargas government post-1930. In Brazil Marxism did not follow in all the developments, expansion and changes it experienced globally over the twentieth century. According to Caio Prado, who anticipates to some extent subsequent proposals as Cepalian thinking, Brazil has emerged as a vector of market expansion of the modern capitalist economic system. The presence of Marxism in the education of Brazilian historiography is obvious and massive. In summary, Marxism fed all branches of historical studies throughout the twentieth century.
