Brasil

Contenido
Introduction.................................................................................................... 1
Etymology...................................................................................................... 2
History of Brazil.............................................................................................. 2
Precolonial history....................................................................................... 3
Beginnings of Brazil.................................................................................... 4
The Kingdom and Empire of Brazil..............................................................5
Republic of Brazil........................................................................................ 6
The Old Republic (18891930).............................................................6
Populism and development (19301964).............................................7
Military dictatorship (196485)............................................................8
Redemocratization to present (1985Present)............................................9
Geography................................................................................................... 11
Climate...................................................................................................... 12
Biodiversity............................................................................................... 13
Environment.............................................................................................. 13
Government and politics.............................................................................. 14
Law........................................................................................................... 15
Foreign Policy............................................................................................ 16
Military...................................................................................................... 16
Administrative divisions............................................................................ 17
Economy...................................................................................................... 17
Tourism...................................................................................................... 19
Infrastructure............................................................................................... 19
Components and energy...........................................................................19
Science and technology............................................................................ 20
Transport................................................................................................... 20
Recife Airport............................................................................................ 21
Health....................................................................................................... 21

Education.................................................................................................. 22
Communication......................................................................................... 22
Demographics.............................................................................................. 23
Race and ethnicity.................................................................................... 24
Religion..................................................................................................... 25
Urbanization.............................................................................................. 25
Language.................................................................................................. 26
Culture......................................................................................................... 27
Music......................................................................................................... 28
Literature.................................................................................................. 29
Cuisine...................................................................................................... 29
Sports........................................................................................................ 30

Introduction
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: Repblica
Federativa do Brasil, listen (helpinfo)), is the largest country in South America
and in the Latin America region. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by
geographical area and by population with over 193 million people. It is the
largest Lusophone country in the world, and the only one in the Americas.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km
(4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the
French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on
the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and
on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory,
such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and

Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except
Ecuador and Chile.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro lvares Cabral in
1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United
Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond
was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire
was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded
Portugal. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire
of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a
parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889,
when a military coup d'tat proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral
legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first
constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil
as a federal republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal
District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.
The Brazilian economy is the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP and the
seventh largest by purchasing power parity (as of 2011).Brazil is one of the
world's fastest growing major economies. Economic reforms have given the
country new international recognition. Brazil is a founding member of the United
Nations, the G20, CPLP, Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American
States, the Organization of American States, Mercosul and the Union of South
American Nations, and is one of the BRIC countries. Brazil is also one of the 17
megadiverse countries, home to diverse wildlife, natural environments, and
extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.

Etymology
The word "Brazil" comes from brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along
the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word
brasil commonly given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from Latin
brasa ("ember") and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium). As brazilwood
produces a deep red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry
and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. Through the
16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous
peoples (mostly Tupi) along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to
European traders (mostly Portuguese, but also French) in return for assorted
European consumer goods.
The official name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of
the Holy Cross" (Terra da Santa Cruz), but European sailors and merchants
commonly called it simply the "Land of Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) on account of
the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually

supplanted the official name. Early sailors sometimes also called it the "Land of
Parrots" (Terra di Papaga).
In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called
"Pindorama". This was the name the natives gave to the region, meaning "land
of the palm trees".

History of Brazil
The history of Brazil starts with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, who
arrived thousands of years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska
and then moving south.
The first European to explore Brazil was Pedro lvares Cabral on April 22, 1500
under the sponsorship of Portugal. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Brazil
was a colony of Portugal. On September 7, 1822, the country declared its
independence from Portugal and became a constitutional monarchy, the Empire
of Brazil. A military coup in 1889 established a republican government. The
country has seen a dictatorship (19301934 and 19371945) and a period of
military rule (19641985).

Precolonial history
When Portuguese explorers arrived in Brazil, the region was inhabited by
hundreds of different native tribes, "the earliest going back at least 10,000 years
in the highlands of Minas Gerais." The dating of the origins of the first
inhabitants, who were called "Indians" (ndios) by the Portuguese, are still a
matter of dispute among archaeologists. The current most widely accepted view
of anthropologists, linguists and geneticists is that they were part of the first
wave of migrant hunters who came into the Americas from Asia, either by land,
across the Bering Strait, or by coastal sea routes along the Pacific, or both.
The Andes and the mountain ranges of northern South America created a rather
sharp cultural boundary between the settled agrarian civilizations of the west
coast and the semi-nomadic tribes of the east, who never developed written
records or permanent monumental architecture. For this reason, very little is
known about the history of Brazil before 1500. Archaeological remains (mainly
pottery) indicate a complex pattern of regional cultural developments, internal
migrations, and occasional large state-like federations.
At the time of European discovery, the territory of current day Brazil had as
many as 2,000 tribes. The indigenous peoples were traditionally mostly semi-

nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant

agriculture. When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, the Natives were living
mainly on the coast and along the banks of major rivers. Initially, the Europeans
saw the natives as noble savages, and miscegenation of the population began
right away.
Tribal warfare, cannibalism and the pursuit of Amazonian brazilwood (see List of
meanings of countries' names) for its treasured red dye convinced the
Portuguese that they should civilize the Natives. But the Portuguese, like the
Spanish in their South American possessions, had unknowingly brought
diseases with them, against which many Natives were helpless due to lack of
immunity. Measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and influenza killed tens
of thousands. The diseases spread quickly along the indigenous trade routes,
and whole tribes were likely annihilated without ever coming in direct contact
with Europeans.

Beginnings of Brazil
There are several theories regarding who first set foot on the land now called
Brazil (the origin of whose name is disputed). Besides the widely accepted view
of Cabral's discovery, some defend that it was Duarte Pacheco Pereira between
November and December of 1498 and some others say that it was first
discovered by Vicente Yez Pinzn, a Spanish navigator that had
accompanied Colombus in his first trip to the American continent having
supposedly arrived to today's Pernambuco region on 26 January 1500.[citation
needed] In April 1500, however, Brazil was claimed by Portugal on the arrival of
the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro lvares Cabral. The Portuguese
encountered stone-using natives divided into several tribes, many of whom
shared the same TupiGuarani language family, and fought among themselves.
Until 1529 Portugal had very little interest in Brazil, mainly due to the high
profits gained through commerce with India, China, and Indonesia. This lack of
interest led to several "invasions" by different countries, and the Portuguese
Crown devised a system to effectively occupy Brazil, without paying the costs.
Through the Hereditary Captaincies system, Brazil was divided into strips of
land that were donated to Portuguese noblemen, who were in turn responsible
for the occupation of the land and answered to the king.
Later, the Portuguese realized the system was a failure, only two lots were
successfully occupied (Pernambuco and So Vicente, in the current state of
So Paulo), and took control of the country after its European discovery, the
land's major exportgiving its name to Brazil (another contested hypothesis)
was brazilwood, a large tree (Caesalpinia echinata) whose trunk contains a
prized red dye, and which was nearly wiped out as a result of overexploitation.

Starting in the 17th century, sugarcane culture, grown in plantation's property

called engenhos ("factories") along the northeast coast (Brazil's Nordeste)
became the base of Brazilian economy and society, with the use of black slaves
on large plantations to make sugar production for export to Europe. At first,
settlers tried to enslave the Natives as labor to work the fields. (The initial
exploration of Brazil's interior was largely due to para-military adventurers, the
bandeirantes, who entered the jungle in search of gold and Native slaves.)
However the Natives were found to be unsuitable as slaves, and so the
Portuguese land owners turned to Africa, whence they imported millions of
slaves.
During the first two centuries of the colonial period, attracted by the vast natural
resources and untapped land, other European powers tried to establish
colonies in several parts of Brazilian territory, in defiance of the papal bull ( Inter
caetera ) and the Treaty of Tordesillas, which had divided the New World into
two parts between Portugal and Spain. French colonists tried to settle in
present-day Rio de Janeiro, from 1555 to 1567 (the so-called France
Antarctique episode), and in present-day So Lus, from 1612 to 1614 (the socalled France quinoxiale). Jesuits arrived early and established Sao Paulo,
evangelising the natives. These native allies of the Jesuits assisted the
Portuguese in driving out the French.
The unsuccessful Dutch intrusion into Brazil was longer lasting and more
troublesome to Portugal ( Dutch Brazil ). Dutch privateers began by plundering
the coast: they sacked Bahia in 1604, and even temporarily captured the capital
Salvador. From 1630 to 1654, the Dutch set up more permanently in the
Nordeste and controlled a long stretch of the coast most accessible to Europe,
without, however, penetrating the interior. But the colonists of the Dutch West
India Company in Brazil were in a constant state of siege, in spite of the
presence in Recife of the great John Maurice of Nassau as governor. After
several years of open warfare, the Dutch formally withdrew in 1661. Little
French and Dutch cultural and ethnic influences remained of these failed
attempts.
Mortality rates for slaves in sugar and gold enterprises were dramatic, and there
were often not enough females or proper conditions to replenish the slave
population indigenously. Some slaves escaped from the plantations and tried to
establish independent settlements (quilombos) in remote areas. The most
important of these, the quilombo of Palmares, was the largest slave runaway
settlement in the Americas, and was a consolidated kingdom of some 30,000
people at its height in the 1670s and 80s. However these settlements were
mostly destroyed by government and private troops, which in some cases
required long sieges and the use of artillery. Still, Africans became a substantial
section of Brazilian population, and long before the end of slavery (1888) they
had begun to merge with the European Brazilian population through
miscegenation and mulatto work rights.

The Kingdom and Empire of

Brazil
United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (18161821)
Main articles: United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, Brazilian
Declaration of Independence, and Empire of Brazil
Brazil was one of only three modern states in the Americas to have its own
indigenous monarchy (the other two were Mexico and Haiti) for a period of
almost 90 years.
In 1808, the Portuguese court, fleeing from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal
during the Peninsular War in a large fleet escorted by British men-of-war,
moved the government apparatus to its then-colony, Brazil, establishing
themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro. From there the Portuguese king ruled
his huge empire for 13 years, and there he would have remained for the rest of
his life if it were not for the turmoil aroused in Portugal due, among other
reasons, to his long stay in Brazil after the end of Napoleon's reign.

In 1815 the king vested Brazil with the dignity of a united kingdom with Portugal
and Algarves. When king Joo VI of Portugal left Brazil to return to Portugal in
1821, his elder son, Pedro, stayed in his stead as regent of Brazil. One year
later, Pedro stated the reasons for the secession of Brazil from Portugal and led
the Independence War, instituted a constitutional monarchy in Brazil assuming
its head as Emperor Pedro I of Brazil.
Also known as "Dom Pedro I", after his abdication in 1831 for political
incompatibilities (displeased, both by the landed elites, who thought him too
liberal and by the intellectuals, who felt he was not liberal enough), he left for
Portugal leaving behind his five-year-old son as Emperor Pedro II, which left the
country ruled by regents between 1831 and 1840. This period was beset by
rebellions of various motivations, such as the Sabinada, the War of the
Farrapos, the Mal Revolt, Cabanagem and Balaiada, among others. After this
period, Pedro II was declared of age and assumed his full prerogatives. Pedro II
started a more-or-less parliamentary reign which lasted until 1889, when he
was ousted by a coup d'tat which instituted the republic in Brazil.
Externally, apart from the Independence war, stood out decades of pressure
from the United Kingdom for the country to end its participation in the Atlantic
slave trade, and the wars fought in the region of La Plata river: the Cisplatine
War (in 2nd half of 1820s), the Platine War (in 1850s), the Uruguayan War and
the Paraguayan War (in the 1860s). This last war against Paraguay also was
the bloodiest and most expensive in South American history, after which the

country entered a period that continues to the present day, averse to external
political and military interventions.

Republic of Brazil
The Old Republic (18891930)
Pedro II was deposed on November 15, 1889, by a Republican military coup led
by General Deodoro da Fonseca, who became the country's first de facto
president through military ascension. The country's name became the Republic
of the United States of Brazil (which in 1967 was changed to Federative
Republic of Brazil.). Two military presidents ruled through four years of
dictatorship amid conflicts, among the military and political elites (two Naval
revolts, followed by an Federalist revolt), and an economic crisis due the effects
of the burst of an financial bubble, the encilhamento.
From 1889 to 1930, although the country was formally a constitutional
democracy, the First Republican Constitution, created in 1891, established that
women and the illiterate (then the majority of the population) were prevented
from voting. The presidentialism was adopted as the form of government and
the State was divide into three powers (Legislative, Executive and Judiciary)
"harmonics and independents of each other". The presidencial rule was fixed in
four years, and the elections became direct.
After 1894, the presidence of republic was occupied by coffee farmers
(oligarchies) from So Paulo and Minas Gerais, alternately. This policy was
called poltica do caf com leite (coffee and milk policy). The elections for
president and governors was ruled by the Poltica dos Governadores
(Governor's policy), in which they had mutual support to ensure the elections of
some candidates. The exchanges of favors also happened among politicians
and big landowners. They used the power to control the votes of population in
return for favors (this was called coronelismo).
Between 1893 and 1926 several movements, civilians and military, shook the
country. The military movements had their origins both in the lower officers'
corps of the Army and Navy (which, dissatisfied with the regime, called for
democratic changes) while the civilian ones, such Canudos and Contestado
War, were usually led by messianic leaders, without conventional political goals.
Internationally, the country would stick to a course of conduct that extended
throughout the twentieth century: an almost isolationist policy, interspersed with
sporadic automatic alignments with major western powers, its main economic

partners, in moments of high turbulence. Standing out from this period: the
resolution of the Acreanian's Question and the tiny role in the World War I
(basically limited to the anti-submarine warfare).

Populism and development (19301964)

After 1930, the successive governments continued industrial and agriculture
growth and development of the vast interior of Brazil. Getlio Vargas led a
military junta that had taken control in 1930 and would remain ruling from 1930
to 1945 with the backing of Brazilian military, especially the Army. In this period,
he faced internally the Constitutionalist Revolt in 1932 and two separate coup
dtat attempts: by Communists in 1935 and by local Fascists in 1938.
A democratic regime prevailed from 194564. In the 1950s after Vargas' second
period (this time, democratically elected), the country experienced an economic
boom during Juscelino Kubitschek's years, during which the capital was moved
from Rio de Janeiro to Braslia.
Externally, after a relative isolation during the first half of the 1930s due to the
effects of the 1929 Crisis, in the second half of the 1930s there was a
rapprochement with the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany. However, after
the fascist coup attempt in 1938 and the naval blockade imposed on these two
countries by the British navy from the beginning of World War II, in the decade
of 1940 there was a return to the old foreign policy of the previous period.
During the early 1940s, Brazil joined the allied forces in the Battle of Atlantic
and the Italian Campaign; in the 1950s the country began its participation in the
United Nations' peacekeeping missions with Suez Canal in 1956 and in the
beginning of the 1960s, during the presidency of Janio Quadros, its first
attempts to break the automatic alignment (that had started in the 1940s) with
the U.S.A.
The institutional crisis of succession for the presidency, triggered with the
Quadros' resignation, coupled with other factors, would lead to the military coup
of 1964 and to the end of this period.

Military dictatorship (196485)

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the success of revolutionary warfare
techniques against conventional armies in China, Indochina, Algeria, and Cuba
led the conventional armies in the developed and underdeveloped worlds to
concentrate on finding military and political strategies to fight domestic

revolutionary warfare. This led to an adoption of what Stepan called, in 1973,

New Professionalism. The New Professionalism was formulated and
propagated in Brazil through the Escola Superior de Guerra, which had been
established in 1949. By 1963 New Professionalism had come to dominate the
school, when it declared its primary mission to be preparing civilians and the
military to perform executive and advisory functions (Decreto Lei No. 53,080
December 4, 1963). This new attitude towards professionalism did not arise
out of nowhere. Though its domination of the ESG was completed by 1963, it
had begun to penetrate the college much earlier than that assisted by the
United States and its policy of encouraging Latin American militaries to assume
as their primary role in counter-guerrilla and counter-insurgency warfare
programs, civic action and nation-building tasks.
By 1964, at the same time that the military elite were unsatisfied with the natural
delay, transfers and accommodation, characteristics of the negotiation
processes in democratic regimes and was also eager to impose their
development project, saw a leftist revolution as a real possibility (through the
paradigm of internal warfare doctrines of the new professionalism). Events like
the rising strike levels, the inflation rate, embraced demands by the Left for
broaden political process, land reform and the growing claims of the enlisted
men were seen as "evidence" that Brazil was facing the serious possibility of a
leftist internal insurgency.
By early 1964 important sections of the military had developed a consensus
that intervention in the political process was necessary. The development of this
consensus was likely helped by important civilian politicians, such as Jos de
Magalhes Pinto, governor of Minas Gerais, and the United States government.
Though many in the right of the political spectrum claim the coup was
"revolutionary," most historians agree that is not so, since there was no real
transition of power; military dictatorship was the fastest way to implement
neoliberal economic policies in the country while suppressing growing popular
discontent, and the coup was thus a way for Brazil's already-ruling elite to
secure its power.
At first, there was intense economic growth, due to neoliberal economic
reforms, but in the later years of the dictatorship, the reforms had left the
economy in shambles, with soaring inequality and national debt, and thousands
of Brazilians were deported, imprisoned, tortured, or murdered. Politically
motivated deaths numbered in the hundreds, mostly related to the guerrillaantiguerrilla warfare in the 196873 period; official censorship also led many
artists into exil.

Redemocratization to present
(1985Present)

Tancredo Neves was elected president in an indirect election in 1985 as the

nation returned to civilian rule. He died before being sworn in, and the elected
vice president, Jos Sarney, was sworn in as president in his place.
Fernando Collor de Mello was the first elected president by popular vote after
the military regime in December 1989 defeating Luiz Incio Lula da Silva in a
two round presidential race and 35 million votes. Collor won in the state of So
Paulo against many prominent political figures. The first democratically elected
President of Brazil in 29 years, Collor spent much of the early years of his
government battling hyper-inflation, which at times reached rates of 25% per
month.
Collor's neoliberal program was also followed by his successor Fernando
Henrique Cardoso who maintained free trade and privatization programs.
Collor's administration began the process of privatization of a number of
government-owned enterprises such as Acesita, Embraer, Telebrs and
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce.With the exception of Acesita, the privatizations
were all completed during the term of Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
Following Collor's impeachment, acting president, Itamar Franco, was sworn in
as president. In elections held on October 3, 1994, Fernando Henrique
Cardoso, his finance minister, defeated left-wing Lula da Silva again. He was
elected president due to the success of the so-called Plano Real. Reelected in
1998, he guided Brazil through a wave of financial crises. In 2000, Cardoso
ordered the declassifying of some military files concerning Operation Condor, a
network of South American military dictatorships that kidnapped and
assassinated political opponents.
Brazil's most severe problem today is arguably its highly unequal distribution of
wealth and income, one of the most extreme in the world. By the 1990s, more
than one out of four Brazilians continued to survive on less than one dollar a
day. These socio-economic contradictions helped elect Luiz Incio Lula da Silva
of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) in 2002.
In the few months before the election, investors were scared by Lula's
campaign platform for social change, and his past identification with labor
unions and leftist ideology. As his victory became more certain, the Real
devalued and Brazil's investment risk rating plummeted (the causes of these
events are disputed, since Cardoso left a very small foreign reserve). After
taking office, however, Lula maintained Cardoso's economic policies, warning
that social reforms would take years and that Brazil had no alternative but to
extend fiscal austerity policies. The Real and the nation's risk rating soon
recovered.
Lula, however, has given a substantial increase to the minimum wage (raising
from R$200 to R$350 in four years). Lula also spearheaded legislation to
drastically cut retirement benefits for public servants. His primary significant

social initiative, on the other hand, was the Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) program,
designed to give each Brazilian three meals a day.
In 2005 Lula's government suffered a serious blow with several accusations of
corruption and misuse of authority against his cabinet, forcing some of its
members to resign. Most political analysts at the time were certain that Lula's
political career was doomed, but he managed to hold onto power, partly by
highlighting the achievements of his term (e.g., reduction in poverty,
unemployment and dependence on external resources, such as oil), and to
distance himself from the scandal. Lula was re-elected President in the general
elections of October 2006.
Having served two terms as president, Lula was forbidden by the Brazilian
Constitution from standing again. In the 2010 presidential election, the PT
candidate was Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff won and assumed office on January 1,
2011.

Geography
Brazil occupies a large area along the eastern coast of South America and
includes much of the continent's interior, sharing land borders with Uruguay to
the south; Argentina and Paraguay to the southwest; Bolivia and Peru to the
west; Colombia to the northwest; and Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the
French overseas department of French Guiana to the north. It shares a border
with every country in South America except for Ecuador and Chile. It also
encompasses a number of oceanic archipelagos, such as Fernando de
Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim
Vaz. Its size, relief, climate, and natural resources make Brazil geographically
diverse. Including its Atlantic islands, Brazil lies between latitudes 6N and
34S, and longitudes 28 and 74W.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, and third largest in the Americas,
with a total area of 8,514,876.599 km2 (3,287,612 sq mi), including 55,455 km2
(21,411 sq mi) of water. It spans three time zones; from UTC-4 in the western
states, to UTC-3 in the eastern states (and the official time of Brazil) and UTC-2
in the Atlantic islands. Brazil is the only country in the world that lies on the
equator while having contiguous territory outside the tropics.
Brazilian topography is also diverse and includes hills, mountains, plains,
highlands, and scrublands. Much of the terrain lies between 200 metres (660 ft)
and 800 metres (2,600 ft) in elevation. The main upland area occupies most of
the southern half of the country. The northwestern parts of the plateau consist of
broad, rolling terrain broken by low, rounded hills.

The southeastern section is more rugged, with a complex mass of ridges and
mountain ranges reaching elevations of up to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). These
ranges include the Mantiqueira and Espinhao mountains and the Serra do
Mar. In the north, the Guiana Highlands form a major drainage divide,
separating rivers that flow south into the Amazon Basin from rivers that empty
into the Orinoco River system, in Venezuela, to the north. The highest point in
Brazil is the Pico da Neblina at 2,994 metres (9,823 ft), and the lowest is the
Atlantic Ocean.
Brazil has a dense and complex system of rivers, one of the world's most
extensive, with eight major drainage basins, all of which drain into the Atlantic.
Major rivers include the Amazon (the world's second-longest river and the
largest in terms of volume of water), the Paran and its major tributary the
Iguau (which includes the Iguazu Falls), the Negro, So Francisco, Xingu,
Madeira and Tapajs rivers.

Climate
Snow in So Joaquim, Santa Catarina (South) and tropical climate in Fernando
de Noronha, Pernambuco (Northeast).
The climate of Brazil comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a
large area and varied topography, but most of the country is tropical. According
to the Kppen system, Brazil hosts five major climatic subtypes: equatorial,
tropical, semiarid, highland tropical, temperate, and subtropical. The different
climatic conditions produce environments ranging from equatorial rainforests in
the north and semiarid deserts in the northeast, to temperate coniferous forests
in the south and tropical savannas in central Brazil. Many regions have starkly
different microclimates.
An equatorial climate characterizes much of northern Brazil. There is no real dry
season, but there are some variations in the period of the year when most rain
falls. Temperatures average 25 C (77 F), with more significant temperature
variation between night and day than between seasons.
Over central Brazil rainfall is more seasonal, characteristic of a savanna
climate.This region is as extensive as the Amazon basin but has a very different
climate as it lies farther south at a higher altitude. In the interior northeast,
seasonal rainfall is even more extreme. The semiarid climatic region generally
receives less than 800 millimetres (31.5 in) of rain, most of which generally falls
in a period of three to five months of the year and occasionally less than this,
creating long periods of drought. Brazil's 187778 Grande Seca (Great
Drought), the most severe ever recorded in Brazil,caused approximately half a
million deaths. The one from 1915 was devastating too.

South of Bahia, near the coasts, and more southerly most of the state of So
Paulo, the distribution of rainfall changes, with rain falling throughout the year.
The south enjoys temperate conditions, with cool winters and average annual
temperatures not exceeding 18 C (64.4 F); winter frosts are quite common,
with occasional snowfall in the higher areas. Other kinds of solid precipitation
happen in a wider area, including cities as Rio de Janeiro and So Paulo. Fall
of snow grains and ice pellets, deemed as not dissimilar from true hail, are
popularly called granizo.

Biodiversity
Brazil's large territory comprises different ecosystems, such as the
Amazon Rainforest, recognized as having the greatest biological
diversity in the world, with the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado,
sustaining the greatest biodiversity. In the south, the Araucaria pine
forest grows under temperate conditions. The rich wildlife of Brazil
reflects the variety of natural habitats. Scientists estimate that the
total number of plant and animal species in Brazil could approach four
million.

The Amazon rainforest, the richest and most biodiverse rainforest in

the world.
Larger mammals include pumas, jaguars, ocelots, rare bush dogs, and
foxes; peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, sloths, opossums, and armadillos
are abundant. Deer are plentiful in the south, and many species of
New World monkeys are found in the northern rain forests. Concern
for the environment has grown in response to global interest in
environmental issues.
Biodiversity can contribute significantly to agriculture, livestock,
forestry and fisheries extraction. However, almost all economically
exploited species, whether plant, such as soybeans and coffee,
whether animal, such as chicken, are from other countries, and its
operation is made so frequently harmful to the environment. Since
the economic use of native species still crawls. For the Brazilian GDP,
the forest sector represents just over 1% and fishing 0.4%. A small
part of the native species in the economy has, among its causes, the
lack of policies and investments both for basic research and for
product development. Failing that, there's no way to calculate how
Brazil could receive by patents and technologies developed to study
its biodiversity - something that, according to some experts, would be
in the trillions of dollars.

A single drug for controlling hypertension, developed with the venom

of the jararaca, a Brazilian species, would yield about $ 1.5 billion a
year to foreign laboratory that has patented a value comparable to
the national exports of beef and pork combined.

Environment
The natural heritage of Brazil is severely threatened by cattle ranching and
agriculture, logging, mining, resettlement, oil and gas extraction, over-fishing,
wildlife trade, dams and infrastructure, water pollution, climate change, fire, and
invasive species. In many areas of the country, the natural environment is
threatened by development. Construction of highways has opened up
previously remote areas for agriculture and settlement; dams have flooded
valleys and inundated wildlife habitats; and mines have scarred and polluted the
landscape. At least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region,
including controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.

Government and politics

The Brazilian Federation is the "indissoluble union" of three distinct political
entities: the States, the Municipalities and the Federal District. The Union, the
states and the Federal District, and the municipalities, are the "spheres of
government." The Federation is set on five fundamental principles:sovereignty,
citizenship, dignity of human beings, the social values of labour and freedom of
enterprise, and political pluralism. The classic tripartite branches of government
(executive, legislative, and judicial under a checks and balances system), is
formally established by the Constitution. The executive and legislative are
organized independently in all three spheres of government, while the judiciary
is organized only at the federal and state/Federal District spheres.
All members of the executive and legislative branches are directly elected.
Judges and other judicial officials are appointed after passing entry exams. For
most of its democratic history, Brazil has had a multi-party system, proportional
representation. Voting is compulsory for the literate between 18 and 70 years
old and optional for illiterates and those between 16 and 18 or beyond 70.
Together with several smaller parties, four political parties stand out: Workers'
Party (PT), Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), Brazilian Democratic

Movement Party (PMDB), and Democrats (DEM). Fifteen political parties are
represented in Congress. It is common for politicians to switch parties, and thus
the proportion of congressional seats held by particular parties changes
regularly. Almost all governmental and administrative functions are exercised by
authorities and agencies affiliated to the Executive.
The form of government is that of a democratic republic, with a presidential
system.The president is both head of state and head of government of the
Union and is elected for a four-year term, with the possibility of re-election for a
second successive term. The current president is Dilma Rousseff who was
inaugurated on 1 January 2011. The President appoints the Ministers of State,
who assist in government.Legislative houses in each political entity are the
main source of law in Brazil. The National Congress is the Federation's
bicameral legislature, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal
Senate. Judiciary authorities exercise jurisdictional duties almost exclusively.

Law
Inside the Supreme Federal Court building at the Three Powers Plaza.
Brazilian law is based on Roman-Germanic traditions and civil law
concepts prevail over common law practice. Most of Brazilian law is
codified, although non-codified statutes also represent a substantial
part, playing a complementary role. Court decisions set out
interpretive guidelines; however, they are seldom binding on other
specific cases. Doctrinal works and the works of academic jurists have
strong influence in law creation and in law cases.
The legal system is based on the Federal Constitution, which was
promulgated on 5 October 1988, and is the fundamental law of Brazil.
All other legislation and court decisions must conform to its rules. As
of April 2007, there have been 53 amendments. States have their
own constitutions, which must not contradict the Federal Constitution.
Municipalities and the Federal District have "organic laws" (leis
orgnicas), which act in a similar way to constitutions. Legislative
entities are the main source of statutes, although in certain matters
judiciary and executive bodies may enact legal norms. Jurisdiction is
administered by the judiciary entities, although in rare situations the
Federal Constitution allows the Federal Senate to pass on legal
judgments. There are also specialized military, labor, and electoral
courts. The highest court is the Supreme Federal Court.
This system has been criticised over the last few decades for the slow
pace of decision making. Lawsuits on appeal may take several years
to resolve, and in some cases more than a decade elapses before
definitive rulings. Nevertheless, the Supreme Federal Tribunal was the
first court in the world to transmit its sessions on television, and also

via YouTube. More recently, in December 2009, the Supreme Court

adopted Twitter to display items on the day planner of the ministers,
to inform the daily actions of the Court and the most important
decisions made by them.
Brazil continues to have high crime rates in a number of statistics,
despite recent improvements. More than 500,000 people have been
killed by firearms in Brazil between 1979 and 2003, according to a
new report by the United Nations. In 2010, there were 473,600 people
incarcerated in Brazilian prisons and jails.

Foreign Policy
Although some social and economic problems prevent Brazil from exercising
effective global power, the country is now a political and economic leader in
Latin America. This claim, however, is partially challenged by other countries,
such as Argentina and Mexico, who oppose the Brazilian goal of obtaining a
permanent seat as representative of the region in the Security Council of the
United Nations. Between World War II and the 1990s, democratic and military
governments sought to expand Brazil's influence in the world, pursuing a
common foreign and independent industry. Currently the country has aimed to
strengthen ties with other South American countries and pursue multilateral
diplomacy through the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
The current Brazil's foreign policy is based on the country's position as a
regional power in Latin America, a leader among developing countries and an
emerging world superpower. Brazilian foreign policy has generally reflected
multilateralism, resolving disputes peacefully and non-intervention in the affairs
of other countries. The Brazilian Constitution also determines that the country
shall seek an economic, political, social and cultural ties with the nations of
Latin America.

Military
An increasingly well-developed tool of Brazil's foreign policy is providing aid as
a donor to other developing countries. Brazil does not just use its growing
economic strength to provide financial aid, but it also provides high levels of
expertise and most importantly of all, a quiet non-confrontational diplomacy to
improve governance levels. Total aid is estimated to be around $1 billion per
year that includes:
technical cooperation of around $480 million ($30 million in 2010 provided
directly by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC))

an estimated $450 million for in-kind expertise provided by Brazilian institutions

specialising in technical cooperation
In addition, Brazil manages a peacekeeping mission in Haiti ($350 million) and
makes in-kind contributions to the World Food Programme ($300 million). This
is in addition to humanitarian assistance and contributions to multilateral
development agencies. The scale of this aid places it on par with China and
India and ahead of many western donors.[160] The Brazilian South-South aid
has been described as a "global model in waiting."
The armed forces of Brazil consist of the Brazilian Army, the Brazilian Navy, and
the Brazilian Air Force. With a total of 371,199 active personnel, they constitute
the largest armed force in Latin America. The Army is responsible for landbased military operations and has 235,978 active personnel.
The Military Police (States' Military Police) is described as an ancillary force of
the Army by the constitution, but is under the control of each state's governor.
The Navy is responsible for naval operations and for guarding Brazilian
territorial waters. It is the oldest of the Brazilian armed forces and the only navy
in Latin America to operate an aircraft carrier, the NAe So Paulo (formerly FS
Foch of the French Navy). The Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the
Brazilian armed forces, and the largest air force in Latin America, with about
700 manned aircraft in service.

Administrative divisions
Brazil is a federation composed of 26 States, one Federal district (which
contains the capital city, Braslia) and Municipalities. States have autonomous
administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected
by the Federal government. They have a governor and a unicameral legislative
body elected directly by their voters. They also have independent Courts of Law
for common justice. Despite this, states have much less autonomy to create
their own laws than in the United States. For example, criminal and civil laws
can only be voted by the federal bicameral Congress and are uniform
throughout the country.
The states and the federal district may be grouped into regions: Northern,
Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and Southern. The Brazilian regions are
merely geographical, not political or administrative divisions, and they do not
have any specific form of government. Although defined by law, Brazilian
regions are useful mainly for statistical purposes, and also to define the
distribution of federal funds in development projects.
Municipalities, as the states, have autonomous administrations, collect their
own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected by the Union and state
government. Each has a mayor and an elected legislative body, but no separate
Court of Law. Indeed, a Court of Law organized by the state can encompass

many municipalities in a single justice administrative division called comarca

(county).

Economy
Brazil is the largest national economy in Latin America, the world's sixth largest
economy at market exchange rates and the seventh largest in purchasing
power parity (PPP), according to the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank. Brazil has a mixed economy with abundant natural resources. The
Brazilian economy has been predicted to become one of the five largest in the
world in the decades to come, the GDP per capita following and growing. Its
current GDP (PPP) per capita is $10,200, putting Brazil in the 64th position
according to World Bank data. It has large and developed agricultural, mining,
manufacturing and service sectors, as well as a large labor pool.

An Embraer ERJ-135 commercial jet. Brazil is the third-largest commercial

aircraft manufacturer in the world, and the fourth-largest aircraft producer when
including business jets into account.
Brazilian exports are booming, creating a new generation of tycoons. Major
export products include aircraft, electrical equipment, automobiles, ethanol,
textiles, footwear, iron ore, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans and corned
beef. The country has been expanding its presence in international financial
and commodities markets, and is one of a group of four emerging economies
called the BRIC countries.
Brazil pegged its currency, the real, to the U.S. dollar in 1994. However, after
the East Asian financial crisis, the Russian default in 1998 and the series of
adverse financial events that followed it, the Central Bank of Brazil temporarily
changed its monetary policy to a managed-float scheme while undergoing a
currency crisis, until definitively changing the exchange regime to free-float in
January 1999.
Brazil received an International Monetary Fund rescue package in mid-2002 of
$30.4 billion, then a record sum. Brazil's central bank paid back the IMF loan in
2005, although it was not due to be repaid until 2006. One of the issues the
Central Bank of Brazil recently dealt with was an excess of speculative shortterm capital inflows to the country, which may have contributed to a fall in the
value of the U.S. dollar against the real during that period. Nonetheless, foreign
direct investment (FDI), related to long-term, less speculative investment in
production, is estimated to be $193.8 billion for 2007. Inflation monitoring and

control currently plays a major part in the Central bank's role of setting out
short-term interest rates as a monetary policy measure.
Between 1993 and 2010, 7012 mergers & acquisitions with a total known value
of $707 billion with the involvement of Brazlian firms have been announced.
[181] The year 2010 was a new record in terms of value with 115 billion USD of
transactions. The largest transaction with involvement of Brazilian companies
has been: Cia Vale do Rio Doce acquired Inco in a tender offer valued at $18.9
billion USD.
The purchasing power in Brazil is eroded by the so-called Brazil cost.

Tourism
The Tourism is an important economic activity in various regions of the country.
With five million foreign visitors in 2008, Brazil is the main destination for
international tourism market in South America, and ranks second in Latin
America in terms of flow of international tourists.
Spending by foreign tourists visiting Brazil reached 5.8 billion dollars in 2008,
16.8% more than in 2007 and the country encompassed 3.4% of international
tourist flow in the Americas in 2008. In 2005, tourism contributed 3.2% of
national income arising from the export of goods and services, responsible for
the creation of 7% of direct and indirect jobs in the economy. In 2006, an
estimated 1.87 million people were employed in the sector, with 768 thousand
formal jobs (41%) and 1.1 million informal occupations (59%).
The Domestic tourism represents a vital part of the industry, accounting for over
50 million trips annually, the direct revenues generated by domestic tourism in
2010 was $ 33 billion - nearly six times more than is captured by the country in
relation to foreign tourism .

Infrastructure
Components and energy
Itaipu Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric plant by energy generation and
second-largest by installed capacity.

Brazil's economy is diverse, encompassing agriculture, industry, and many

services. The recent economic strength has been due in part to a global boom
in commodities prices with exports from beef to soybeans soaring. Agriculture
and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted for 5.1% of the
gross domestic product in 2007, a performance that puts agribusiness in a
position of distinction in terms of Brazil's trade balance, in spite of trade barriers
and subsidizing policies adopted by the developed countries.
The industry from automobiles, steel and petrochemicals to computers,
aircraft, and consumer durables accounted for 30.8% of the gross domestic
product.Industry, which is often technologically advanced, is highly
concentrated in metropolitan So Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Porto
Alegre, and Belo Horizonte.
Brazil is the world's tenth largest energy consumer with much of its energy
coming from renewable sources, particularly hydroelectricity and ethanol;
nonrenewable energy is mainly produced from oil and natural gas. A global
power in agriculture and natural resources, Brazil experienced tremendous
economic growth over the past three decades. It is expected to become a major
oil producer and exporter, having recently made huge oil discoveries. The
governmental agencies responsible for the energy policy are the Ministry of
Mines and Energy, the National Council for Energy Policy, the National Agency
of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, and the National Agency of Electricity.

Science and technology

Brazilian National Laboratory of Synchrotron Light in Campinas.
Technological research in Brazil is largely carried out in public universities and
research institutes, and more than 73% of funding for basic research comes
from government sources. Some of Brazil's most notable technological hubs are
the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, the Butantan Institute, the Air Force's Aerospace
Technical Center, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation and the INPE.
The Brazilian Space Agency has the most advanced space program in Latin
America.
Uranium is enriched at the Resende Nuclear Fuel Factory to fuel the country's
energy demands and plans are underway to build the country's first nuclear
submarine.Brazil is one of the three countries in Latin America with an
operational Synchrotron Laboratory, a research facility on physics, chemistry,
material science and life sciences. And Brazil is the only Latin American country
to have a semiconductor company with its own fab, the CEITEC.

Transport
Brazil has a large and diverse transport network. Roads are the primary carriers
of freight and passenger traffic. The road system totalled 1.98 million km (1.23
million mi) in 2002. The total of paved roads increased from 35,496 km (22,056
mi) in 1967 to 184,140 km (114,425 mi) in 2002.

Recife Airport.
Brazil's railway system has been declining since 1945, when emphasis shifted
to highway construction. The total length of railway track was 30,875 km
(19,186 mi) in 2002, as compared with 31,848 km (19,789 mi) in 1970. Most of
the railway system belongs to the Federal Railroad Corp., with a majority
government interest. The government also privatized seven lines in 1997.The
So Paulo Metro was the first underground transit system in Brazil. The other
metro systems are in Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Recife, Belo Horizonte,
Braslia, Teresina, Fortaleza, and Salvador.
There are about 2,500 airports in Brazil, including landing fields: the second
largest number in the world, after the United States. So Paulo-Guarulhos
International Airport, near So Paulo, is the largest and busiest airport, handling
the vast majority of popular and commercial traffic of the country and
connecting the city with virtually all major cities across the world.
Coastal shipping links widely separated parts of the country. Bolivia and
Paraguay have been given free ports at Santos. Of the 36 deep-water ports,
Santos, Itaja, Rio Grande, Paranagu, Rio de Janeiro, Sepetiba, Vitria,
Suape, Manaus and So Francisco do Sul are the most important.

Health
The Brazilian public health system, the National Health System (SUS), is
managed and provided by all levels of government, the largest type system in
the world. Have private health systems serve a complementary role. The public
health services are universal and available to all citizens of the country for free.
However, the construction and maintenance of health centers and hospitals are
financed by taxes, and the country spends about 9% of its GDP on spending in

the area. In 2009, Brazil had 1.72 doctors and 2.4 hospital beds per 1000
inhabitants.
Despite all the progress made since the establishment of universal health care
in 1988, there are still several problems of public health in Brazil. In 2006, the
main points to be resolved were the high infant mortality rates (2.51%) and
mothers (73.1 deaths per 1000 births). The number of deaths from
noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease (151.7 deaths per
100 000 inhabitants) and cancer (72.7 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants) also
have a considerable impact on the health of the population. Finally, external
factors, but preventable, such as car accidents, suicide and violence caused
14.9% of all deaths in the country.

Education
The Federal Constitution and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National
Education determine that the Federal Government, States, Federal District and
municipalities must manage and organize their respective education systems.
Each of these public educational systems is responsible for its own
maintenance, which manages funds as well as the mechanisms and funding
sources. The new constitution reserves 25% of the state budget and 18% of
federal taxes and municipal taxes for education.
According to the IBGE, in 2011, the literacy rate of the population was 90.4%,
meaning that 13 million (9.6% of population) people are still illiterate in the
country; functional illiteracy has reached 21.6% of the population. Illiteracy is
highest in the Northeast, where 19.9% of the population is illiterate. Also
according to the National Household Survey, the percentage of people at
school, in 2007, was 97% in the age group 614 years and 82.1% among
people 15 to 17 years, while the average total time of study among those over
10 years was on average 6.9 years.
Higher education starts with undergraduate or sequential courses, which may
offer different options of specialization in academic or professional careers.
Depending on the choice, students can improve their educational background
with courses of post-graduate studies or broad sense. To attend a higher
education institution is required, by Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education,
completing all levels of education suited to the needs of all students of teaching
kindergarten, elementary and medium, provided the student does not hold any
disability, whether physical, mental, visual or hearing.

Communication

The Brazilian press has its beginnings in 1808 with the arrival of the Portuguese
royal family to Brazil, hitherto forbidden any activity of the press - was the
publication of newspapers or books. The Brazilian press was officially born in
Rio de Janeiro on May 13, 1808, with the creation of the Royal Printing,
NationalPress today, the Prince RegentDom Joo.
The Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, the first newspaper published in the country,
begins to circulate on September 10, 1808. Currently the press has established
itself as a means of mass communication and produced major newspapers
today are among the largest in the country and the world as Folha de S. Paulo,
O Globo and Estado de S. Paul, publications and publishers of April and Globe.
The broadcast came on September 7, 1922, being the first broadcast a speech
by then President Pessoa, but installing the radio actually occurred only on 20
April 1923 with the creation of "Radio Society of Rio de Janeiro." In the 1930s
the era of commercialradio, with the permission of commercial programming,
bringing hiring artists and technical development for the sector. With the rise of
popularity of soap operas and programming in the 1940s, began to call the
golden age of Brazilian radio, which brought an impact on Brazilian society
similar to that television produces today. With the creation of television, the
radio goes through transformations, the humor programs, artists, soap operas
and talk shows are replaced with songs and utilities. In the 1960s came the
radio FMs that bring more music to the listener.
Television in Brazil began officially on September 18, 1950, brought by Assis
Chateaubriand who founded the first television channel in the country, TV Tupi.
Since then television has grown in the country, creating large networks such as
Globo, Record, SBT and Bandeirantes. Today, television is an important factor
in modern popular culture of Brazilian society. Digital TV in Brazil started at
20:30, 2 December 2007, initially in the city of So Paulo, the Japanese
standard.

Demographics
The population of Brazil, as recorded by the 2008 PNAD, was approximately
190 million (22.31 inhabitants per square kilometer), with a ratio of men to
women of 0.95:1 and 83.75% of the population defined as urban.The population
is heavily concentrated in the Southeastern (79.8 million inhabitants) and
Northeastern (53.5 million inhabitants) regions, while the two most extensive
regions, the Center-West and the North, which together make up 64.12% of the
Brazilian territory, have a total of only 29.1 million inhabitants.

The first census in Brazil was carried out in 1872 and recorded a population of
9,930,478. From 1880 to 1930, 4 million Europeans arrived. Brazil's population
increased significantly between 1940 and 1970, due to a decline in the mortality
rate, even though the birth rate underwent a slight decline. In the 1940s the
annual population growth rate was 2.4%, rising to 3.0% in the 1950s and
remaining at 2.9% in the 1960s, as life expectancy rose from 44 to 54 years and
to 72.6 years in 2007. It has been steadily falling since the 1960s, from 3.04%
per year between 1950 and 1960 to 1.05% in 2008 and is expected to fall to a
negative value of 0.29% by 2050 thus completing the demographic transition.
In 2008, the illiteracy rate was 11.48% and among the youth (ages 1519)
1.74%. It was highest (20.30%) in the Northeast, which had a large proportion
of rural poor. Illiteracy was high (24.18%) among the rural population and lower
(9.05%) among the urban population.

Race and ethnicity

According to the National Research by Household Sample (PNAD) of 2008,
48.43% of the population (about 92 million) described themselves as White;
43.80% (about 83 million) as Brown (Multiracial), 6.84% (about 13 million) as
Black; 0.58% (about 1.1 million) as Asian; and 0.28% (about 536 thousand) as
Amerindian (officially called indgena, Indigenous), while 0.07% (about 130
thousand) did not declare their race.
In 2007, the National Indian Foundation reported the existence of 67 different
uncontacted tribes, up from 40 in 2005. Brazil is believed to have the largest
number of uncontacted peoples in the world.
Since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, considerable miscegenation
between these groups has taken place, in all regions of the country (with
European ancestry being dominant nationwide according to the vast majority of
all autosomal studies undertaken covering the entire population, accounting for
between 65% to 77%).
Brazilian society is more markedly divided by social class lines, although a high
income disparity is found between race groups, so racism and classism can be
conflated. Socially significant closeness to one racial group is taken in account
more in the basis of appearance (phenotypes) rather than ancestry, to the
extent that full siblings can pertain to different "racial" groups. Socioeconomic
factors are also significant, because a minority of pardos are likely to start
declaring themselves White or Black if socially upward. Skin color and facial
features do not line quite well with ancestry (usually, Afro-Brazilians are evenly
mixed and European ancestry is dominant in Whites and pardos with a
significant non-European contribution, but the individual variation is great).

The brown population (as multiracial Brazilians are officially called; pardo in
Portuguese, also colloquially moreno, or swarthy) is a broad category that
includes caboclos (assimilated Amerindians in general, and descendants of
Whites and Natives), mulatos (descendants of primarily Whites and AfroBrazilians) and cafuzos (descendants of Afro-Brazilians and Natives). People of
considerable Amerindian ancestry form the majority of the population in the
Northern, Northeastern and Center-Western regions.
Higher percents of Blacks, mulattoes and tri-racials can be found in the eastern
coast of the Northeastern region from Bahia to Paraba and also in northern
Maranho, southern Minas Gerais and in eastern Rio de Janeiro. From the 19th
century, Brazil opened its borders to immigration. About five million people from
over 60 countries migrated to Brazil between 1808 and 1972, most of them of
Portuguese, Italian, Spaniard, German, Japanese and Middle Eastern origin.

Religion
Brazil possesses a richly spiritual society formed from the meeting of the
Roman Catholic Church with the religious traditions of African slaves and
indigenous peoples. This confluence of faiths during the Portuguese
colonization of Brazil led to the development of a diverse array of syncretistic
practices within the overarching umbrella of Brazilian Roman Catholicism,
characterized by traditional Portuguese festivities, and in some instances, Allan
Kardec's Spiritism (most Brazilian Spiritists are also Christians). Religious
pluralism increased during the 20th century, and a Protestant community has
grown to include over 15% of the population. The most common Protestant
denominations are Pentecostal, Evangelical, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist,
Lutheran and the reformed churches.
Roman Catholicism is the country's predominant faith. Brazil has the world's
largest Catholic population. According to the 2000 Demographic Census (the
PNAD survey does not inquire about religion), 73.57% of the population
followed Roman Catholicism; 15.41% Protestantism; 1.33% Kardecist spiritism;
1.22% other Christian denominations; 0.31% Afro-Brazilian religions; 0.13%
Buddhism; 0.05% Judaism; 0.02% Islam; 0.01% Amerindian religions; 0.59%
other religions, undeclared or undetermined; while 7.35% have no religion.
However, in the last ten years Protestantism, particularly Pentecostal and/or
Evangelical Protestantism, has spread in Brazil, while the proportion of
Catholics has dropped significantly. After Protestantism, individuals professing
no religion are also a significant group, exceeding 7% of the population in the
2000 census. The cities of Boa Vista, Salvador and Porto Velho have the
greatest proportion of Irreligious residents in Brazil. Teresina, Fortaleza, and
Florianpolis were the most Roman Catholic in the country. Greater Rio de

Janeiro, not including the city proper, is the most Irreligious and least Roman
Catholic Brazilian periphery, while Greater Porto Alegre and Greater Fortaleza
are in the opposite sides of the lists respectively.

Urbanization
According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) urban areas
already concentrate 84.35% of the population, while the Southeast region
remains the most populated one, with over 80 million inhabitants. The largest
metropolitan areas in Brazil are So Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte
all in the Southeastern Region with 19.5, 11.5, and 5.1 million inhabitants
respectively.
Almost all of the state capitals are the largest cities in their states, except for
Vitria, the capital of Esprito Santo, and Florianpolis, the capital of Santa
Catarina. There are also non-capital metropolitan areas in the states of So
Paulo (Campinas, Santos and the Paraba Valley), Minas Gerais (Steel Valley),
Rio Grande do Sul (Sinos Valley) and Santa Catarina (Itaja Valley).

Language
The official language of Brazil is Portuguese (Article 13 of the Constitution of
the Federative Republic of Brazil), which almost all of the population speaks
and is virtually the only language used in newspapers, radio, television, and for
business and administrative purposes. The most famous exception to this is a
strong sign language law that was passed by the National Congress of Brazil.
Legally recognized in 2002, the law was regulated in 2005.The law mandates
the use of the Brazilian Sign Language, more commonly known by its
Portuguese acronym LIBRAS, in education and government services. The
language must be taught as a part of the education and speech and language
pathology curricula. LIBRAS teachers, instructors and translators are
recognized professionals. Schools and health services must provide access
("inclusion") to deaf people.
Brazilian Portuguese has had its own development, mostly similar to 16th
century Central and Southern dialects of European Portuguese (despite a very
substantial number of Portuguese colonial settlers, and more recent
immigrants, coming from Northern regions, and in minor degree Portuguese
Macaronesia), with some influences from the Amerindian and African
languages, especially West African and Bantu.As a result, the language is
somewhat different, mostly in phonology, from the language of Portugal and
other Portuguese-speaking countries (the dialects of the other countries, partly
due to the more recent end of Portuguese colonialism in these regions, have a

closer connexion to contemporary European Portuguese). These differences

are comparable to those between American and British English.
Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in the Americas, making the
language an important part of Brazilian national identity and giving it a national
culture distinct from those of its Spanish-speaking neighbors.
In 1990, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which
included representatives from all countries with Portuguese as the official
language, reached an agreement on the reform of the Portuguese orthography
to unify the two standards then in use by Brazil on one side and the remaining
lusophone countries on the other. This spelling reform went into effect in Brazil
on 1 January 2009. In Portugal, the reform was signed into law by the President
on 21 July 2008 allowing for a 6-year adaptation period, during which both
orthographies will co-exist. The remaining CPLP countries are free to establish
their own transition timetables.
Minority languages are spoken throughout the nation. One hundred and eighty
Amerindian languages are spoken in remote areas and a significant number of
other languages are spoken by immigrants and their descendants. In the
municipality of So Gabriel da Cachoeira, Nheengatu (a currently endangered
South American creole language or an 'anti-creole', according to some
linguists with mostly Indigenous Brazilian languages lexicon and Portuguesebased grammar that, together with its southern relative lngua geral paulista,
once was a major lingua franca in Brazil, being replaced by Portuguese only
after governmental prohibition led by major political changes), Baniwa and
Tucano languages had been granted co-official status with Portuguese.
There are significant communities of German (mostly the Brazilian
Hunsrckisch, a High German language dialect) and Italian (mostly the Talian, a
Venetian dialect) origins in the Southern and Southeastern regions, whose
ancestors' native languages were carried along to Brazil, and which, still alive
there, are influenced by the Portuguese language. Talian is officially a historic
patrimony of Rio Grande do Sul, and two German dialects possess co-official
status in a few municipalities.
Learning at least one second language (generally English and/or Spanish) is
mandatory for all the 12 grades of the mandatory education system (primary
and secondary education, there called ensino fundamental and ensino mdio
respectively). Brazil is the first country in South America to offer Esperanto to
secondary students.

Culture
The core culture of Brazil is derived from Portuguese culture, because of its
strong colonial ties with the Portuguese empire. Among other influences, the

Portuguese introduced the Portuguese language, Roman Catholicism and

colonial architectural styles. The culture was, however, also strongly influenced
by African, indigenous and non-Portuguese European cultures and traditions.
Some aspects of Brazilian culture were influenced by the contributions of
Italian, German and other European as well Japanese and Arab immigrants
who arrived in large numbers in the South and Southeast of Brazil. The
indigenous Amerindians influenced Brazil's language and cuisine; and the
Africans influenced language, cuisine, music, dance and religion.
Brazilian art has developed since the 16th century into different styles that
range from Baroque (the dominant style in Brazil until the early 19th century) to
Romanticism, Modernism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and
Abstractionism.
Brazilian cinema dates back to the birth of the medium in the late 19th century
and has gained a new level of international acclaim in recent years.

Music
The music of Brazil was formed mainly from the fusion of European and African
elements, respectively brought by Portuguese colonists and slaves. Until the
nineteenth century Portugal was the gateway to most of the influences that built
Brazilian music, classical and popular, introducing most of the instruments, the
harmonic system, literature and musical good share of musical forms cultivated
in the country along the centuries, although many of these elements were not of
Portuguese origin, but generally European. The first was great Brazilian
composer Jos Maurcio Nunes Garcia, author of sacred pieces with
remarkable influence of Viennese classicism. The major contribution of the
African element was the rhythmic diversity and some dances and instruments
that had a bigger role in the development of popular music and folk, flourishing
especially from the twentieth century. The indigenous hardly left their traces in
the mainstream, except in some genres of folklore, being mostly a passive
participant in the impositions of colonial culture.
With big black participation, popular music since the late eighteenth century
began to show signs of forming a characteristically Brazilian sound. In classical
music, however, that diversity of elements presented until late in feature rather
undifferentiated, following closely - within the local technical possibilities, quite
modest compared with major European centers or as Mexico and Peru - what
happened in Europe and to a lesser degree in Spanish America in each period,
and a character specifically Brazilian national production would only become
clear after the great synthesis performed by Villa Lobos, back in the midtwentieth century.
Brazilian music encompasses various regional styles influenced by African
forms, European and Amerindian. It developed in different styles, including

samba, MPB, nativist music, country music, choro, ax, tacky, forr, frevo,
balloon, lambada, maracatu, Brazilian bossa nova and rock.

Literature
Brazilian literature dates back to the 16th century, to the writings of the first
Portuguese explorers in Brazil, such as Pro Vaz de Caminha, filled with
descriptions of fauna, flora and natives that amazed Europeans that arrived in
Brazil. Brazil produced significant works in Romanticism novelists like
Joaquim Manuel de Macedo and Jos de Alencar wrote novels about love and
pain. Alencar, in his long career, also treated Indigenous people as heroes in
the Indigenist novels O Guarany, Iracema, Ubirajara. Machado de Assis, one of
his contemporaries, wrote in virtually all genres and continues to gain
international prestige from critics worldwide. The Brazilian Modernism,
evidenced by the Week of Modern Art in 1922, was concerned with a nationalist
avant-garde literature while Post-Modernism brought a generation of distinct
poets like Joo Cabral de Melo Neto, Carlos Drummond de Andrade and
Vinicius de Moraes and internationally known writers dealing with universal and
regional subjects like Jorge Amado, Joo Guimares Rosa and Clarice
Lispector.

Cuisine
Feijoada, a dish made with black beans, pork, rice, collard greens, cassava
flour and orange.
Brazilian cuisine varies greatly by region, reflecting the country's mix of native
and immigrant populations. This has created a national cuisine marked by the
preservation of regional differences.Examples are Feijoada, considered the
country's national dish; and regional foods such as vatap, moqueca, polenta
and acaraj.
Brazil has a variety of candies such as brigadeiros (chocolate fudge balls),
cocada (a coconut sweet), beijinhos (coconut truffles and clove) and romeu e
julieta (cheese with a guava jam known as goiabada). Peanut is used to make
paoca, rapadura and p-de-moleque. Local common fruits like aa, cupuau,
mango, papaya, cocoa, cashew, guava, orange, passionfruit, pineapple, and
hog plum are turned in juices and used to make chocolates, popsicles and ice
cream.
Popular snacks are pastel (a pastry), coxinha (chicken croquete), po de queijo
(cheese bread and cassava flour / tapioca), pamonha (corn and milk paste),
esfirra (Lebanese pastry), kibbeh (from Arabic cuisine), empanada (pastry) and
empada little salt pies filled with shrimps or hearth of palm.

But the everyday meal consist mosty of rice and beans with beef and salad. Its
common to mix it with cassava flour (farofa). Fried potatoes, fried cassava, fried
banana, fried meat and fried cheese are very often eaten in lunch and served in
most typical restaurants.
The national beverage is coffee and cachaa is Brazil's native liquor. Cachaa
is distilled from sugar cane and is the main ingredient in the national cocktail,
Caipirinha.

Sports
Football is the most popular sport in Brazil.
The most popular sport in Brazil is football. The Brazilian national football team
is ranked among the best in the world according to the FIFA World Rankings,
and has won the World Cup tournament a record five times.
Volleyball, basketball, auto racing, and martial arts also attract large audiences.
Brazil men's national volleyball team, for example, currently holds the titles of
the World League, World Grand Champions Cup, World Championship and the
World Cup.
Others sports practiced in Brazil are tennis, team handball, swimming, and
gymnastics have found a growing number of enthusiasts over the last decades.
Some sport variations have their origins in Brazil: beach football, futsal (indoor
football)and footvolley emerged in Brazil as variations of football. In martial arts,
Brazilians developed Capoeira, Vale tudo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In auto
racing, three Brazilian drivers have won the Formula One world championship
eight times.
Brazil has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including
UFC 134, the 1950 FIFA World Cup and has been chosen to host the 2014
FIFA World Cup.The So Paulo circuit, Autdromo Jos Carlos Pace, hosts the
annual Grand Prix of Brazil.
So Paulo organized the IV Pan American Games in 1963,[308] and Rio de
Janeiro hosted the XV Pan American Games in 2007. On 2 October 2009, Rio
de Janeiro was selected to host the 2016 Olympic Games and 2016 Paralympic
Games, the first to be held in South America and second in Latin America after
Mexico City. Further, the country hosted the FIBA Basketball World Cups in
1954 and 1963. At the 1963 event, the Brazil national basketball team won one
of its two world championship titles.
In May 2010 Brazil launched TV Brasil Internacional, an international television
station, initially broadcasting to 49 countries. Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, former
President of Brazil, described its aim as "presenting Brazil to the world."