The geographic studies of the rural area in the last years are directed, above all, to the agrarian organization. This work deals with the process of occupation of the territory of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in order to capture the dynamics of spatial organization through the analysis of the state's agricultural evolution. The relationships arising from the natural environment and the historical process are understood as determining factors of the structural and conjunctural transformations that have been established in recent years, separating the "Old Rio Grande" from the "Rio Grande" of today
