This article about a political use of History analyses the chronology - from 1500 to 1889 - figured on Amoedo gallery in Itamaraty as an official version of Brazilian History, structured on a narrative that values political-military facts. It puts in historical context the ordering, in 1906, of the artwork by summing up the foreign policy of Rio Branco, Amoedo's career and the historical view of the minister. It maintains that the events had been selected to permanent celebration with the intention of endowing the Brazilian State with historical-political legitimacy by emphasizing the alleged antiquity and continuity of its institutions.
historiography; History of Brazil; national State; national memory; Baron of Rio Branco; Rodolfo Amoedo