In this article, we will analyze the narratives about the natural resources indicated as conducive to cultivation in Brazilian soil present in the reading book Cousas Brasileiras (1896) as instructors of useful knowledge for the ideal republican man between 1890 and 1896. Therefore, we will dialogue from decolonial concepts and, when selecting the speeches, we will carry out the analyzes to highlight the educational purposes of the period that were immersed in liberal ideas, intending to point out the ideal citizen. With this, when developing the study we will present the effort undertaken by the author to form modern values that are directly linked to the formation of the colonizing aspects. Situating within the scope of qualitative research in Education, of documentary type, with procedures for discourse analysis, thus, we will demonstrate how the formation of the values of modernity was inherent to the formation of the colonizing aspects as an initiative of political-ideological affirmation for the development of Brazilian nationality and its economic progress.