SUMMARY
The purpose of this article is to indicate that curricula in business administration and economics in the higher educational system of Brazil were not adequately introduced until the 1960s and that the absence of such curricula contributed to the delay of the economic development of the country. The Portuguese used Brazil as a source of raw materials and for the exportation of agricultural products to Europe. After the independence of the nation in the early 1800s, the large land owners and farmers resisted industrialization in order to perpetuate their power and safeguard their economic and social interests. Due to the lack of industrialization, there was no need to introduce curricula in business and economics. In the 1960s, Brazil witnessed a great movement toward industrialization and economic development in order to compete favorably on an international basis and to confront the economic progress of the Soviet Union and Cuba within the American hemisphere. For this reason, a large number of universities were established, most of which started to offer curricula in economics and business in order to prepare the countrys manpower to assume managerial and leadership positions in the areas of commerce and industry and thus contribute to the economic development of that nation.