Based on a description of Brazil‘s political institutional structures over the course of five centuries – given that some have remained constant since the very start of colonisation in 1500 up to the present day – and including the monarchical regime in the 19th century and the Republic which has been in place since 1889 – this article seeks to put the key moments into historical order and display the chronological sequence of the creation of the nation‘s political institutions. At the same time, it engages in a debate with recent international literature regarding the basic attributes of a statehood process shaped according to the broader power relationships that encompass and sustain the structures analysed.