This article analyzes the effects of the process of European modernization in Brazil, especially in what refers to the delay of the introduction of a teaching structure organized based on in a national system. In agreement with our hypothesis, in the same way as it lacked in Brazil a social movement that it looked for the creation of a scientific ethos, of which the European university system would be the great model, according to Simon Schwartzman's interpretation, the same happened for the constitution of a system of public education, of character secular and universal.
Education; History; Catholic Church; Higher education; Basic Education; Republic