Brazil is the largest country in South America and the fifth-largest in the world. It has over 203 million people, making it the seventh most populous country. The country is made up of 26 states and a Federal District, where the capital, Brasília, is located. Its most populous cities are São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is unique in the Americas because it is the only country where Portuguese is the official language. The country has a diverse range of landscapes, including the Amazon Rainforest, which is the largest tropical forest in the world. Brazil also has a long coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and shares borders with nearly every South American country.
On the global stage, Brazil is an important player. It is a member o Brazil’s history began with the arrival of Portuguese explorers in 1500. It was a Portuguese colony until
Federative Republic of Brazil República Federativa do Brasil | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Motto: Ordem e Progresso,"Order and Progress" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Anthem: Hino Nacional Brasileiro | "Brazilian National Anthem" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1822, when it gained independence and became an empire. In 1889, a military coup turned Brazil into a republic. After a period of military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, Brazil returned to democracy with a new constitution in 1988. Today, it is a democratic federal republic. The country has one of the world’s largest economies, with industries such as agriculture, mining, and manufacturing playing a key role. Brazil is a major producer of coffee, soybeans, and iron ore. Despite its economic power, the country faces challenges such as poverty, crime, and corruption.f international organizations like the United Nations, BRICS, and the G20. Brazil also plays a crucial role in environmental issues, especially concerning deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. Culturally, Brazil is known for its rich heritage, which includes influences from Europe, Africa, and indigenous peoples. The country’s music, dance (like Samba), and festivals (especially Carnival) are famous worldwide. Additionally, Brazil has many UNESCO World Heritage Sites, highlighting its cultural and historical significance.
Etymology
The name "Brazil" is believed to come from the Portuguese word pau-brasil, meaning brazilwood, a tree that once grew abundantly along the country's coastline. The word brasil is thought to be derived from brasa, meaning "ember," combined with the suffix -il, which gives the meaning "red like an ember." Brazilwood, which produces a rich red dye, was highly valued in Europe, especially by the textile industry, and became the first commercially exploited product from Brazil. In the 16th century, indigenous peoples, particularly the Tupi, harvested large amounts of brazilwood and traded it with European merchants, mainly Portuguese, in exchange for goods.
Initially, the official name given by the Portuguese was "Terra da Santa Cruz" (Land of the Holy Cross), but because of the importance of the brazilwood trade, European sailors and merchants began referring to it as "Terra do Brasil" (Land of Brazil), and this name eventually replaced the official one. Some early sailors also called the land the "Land of Parrots" due to the abundance of parrots in the region.
In the Guaraní language, spoken in Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama," which translates to "land of the palm trees.".
History
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| Portuguese: Rock Paintings at one of the sites in the Serra da Capivara National Park, Piauí. |
Some of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, known as Luzia Woman, were discovered in Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais, Brazil. These remains provide evidence of human habitation in the region going back at least 11,000 years. Additionally, the earliest pottery found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil, near Santarém. This pottery, which dates back to about 8,000 years ago (around 6,000 BC), suggests that the region supported a complex prehistoric culture.
One notable ancient culture in Brazil was the Marajoara culture, which flourished on the island of Marajó in the Amazon delta from AD 400 to 1400. The Marajoara people developed advanced pottery, large settlements, social hierarchies, and mound-building. They also created complex social structures, including chiefdoms.
At the time of the Portuguese arrival in the early 1500s, Brazil was home to an estimated indigenous population of around 7 million people. These people were mostly semi-nomadic, relying on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture for survival. The indigenous population included several large groups, such as the Tupis, Guaranis, Gês, and Arawaks. The Tupi people, for example, were divided into subgroups, such as the Tupiniquins and Tupinambás.
Before European contact, these groups often engaged in wars with one another, driven by differences in culture, language, and moral beliefs. These conflicts involved large-scale battles both on land and water, sometimes including cannibalistic rituals involving prisoners of war. Leadership among these indigenous groups was not strictly hereditary; instead, it was often earned through actions and status over time. Additionally, slavery among these groups had a different meaning than it did in European societies. It was rooted in a complex socioeconomic system, where differences in status and power were understood through kinship relations, rather than through the race-based slavery systems that would later develop in the Americas.
Portuguese colonization
Following the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which divided the New World between Spain and Portugal, the land that would become Brazil was officially claimed for the Portuguese Empire on April 22, 1500, with the arrival of a Portuguese fleet led by Pedro Álvares Cabral. Upon their arrival, the Portuguese encountered a variety of indigenous groups, most of whom spoke languages from the Tupi–Guarani language family and were involved in frequent conflicts with each other. While the first settlement was founded in 1532, true colonization began in 1534 when King John III of Portugal divided the territory into fifteen captaincies. These were private, autonomous regions meant to encourage settlement, but the decentralized nature of this system caused issues.
In 1549, the Portuguese king restructured the captaincies, creating the Governorate General of Brazil, with its capital in Salvador. This marked the establishment of a more centralized colonial administration. Over the first two centuries of colonization, Portuguese settlers and indigenous groups were in constant conflict, often forming temporary alliances for strategic advantage.
By the mid-16th century, sugarcane became Brazil's most important export, driving the need for a large labor force. This led to the importation of African slaves. The Portuguese began purchasing slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from Portuguese colonies in Angola and Mozambique, to work on sugar plantations due to growing international demand for Brazilian sugar. Between 1500 and 1800, over 2.8 million African slaves were brought to Brazil.
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