| Federative Republic of Brazil
República Federativa do Brasil (Portuguese)
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| Motto: “Ordem e Progresso” (Portuguese) “Order and Progress” |
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| Anthem: Hino Nacional Brasileiro (Portuguese) “Brazilian National Anthem” |
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| National seal Selo Nacional do Brasil  (Portuguese) “National Seal of Brazil” |
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| Capital | Brasília 15°45′S 47°57′W / 15.75°S 47.95°W / -15.75; -47.95 |
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| Largest city | São Paulo | |||||
| Official languages | Portuguese | |||||
| Demonym | Brazilian | |||||
| Government | Presidential Federal republic | |||||
| - | President | Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Worker’s Party) | ||||
| - | Vice-President | José Alencar (Brazilian Republican Party) | ||||
| - | President of the Chamber of Deputies | Michel Temer (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party) | ||||
| - | President of the Senate | José Sarney (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party) | ||||
| - | Chief Justice | Gilmar Mendes | ||||
| Legislature | National Congress | |||||
| - | Upper House | Federal Senate | ||||
| - | Lower House | Chamber of Deputies | ||||
| Independence | from Portugal | |||||
| - | Declared | 7 September 1822 | ||||
| - | Recognized | 29 August 1825 | ||||
| - | Republic | 15 November 1889 | ||||
| - | Current constitution | 5 October 1988 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 8,514,877 km2 (5th) 3,287,597 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | 0.65 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2009 estimate | 192,272,890 (5th) | ||||
| - | 2007 census | 189,987,291 | ||||
| - | Density | 22/km2 (182nd) 57/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2008 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $1.984 trillion (9th) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $10,465 (77th) | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2008 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $1.612 trillion (2008) (8th) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $8,295 (63rd) | ||||
| Gini (2009) | 49.3 | |||||
| HDI (2007) | 0.813 (high) (75th) | |||||
| Currency | Real (R$) (BRL) |
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| Time zone | BRT (UTC-2 to -4) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | BRST (UTC-2 to -4) | ||||
| Date formats | dd/mm/yyyy (CE) | |||||
| Drives on the | right | |||||
| Internet TLD | .br | |||||
| Calling code | +55 | |||||
Brazil ,officially the Federative Republic of Brazil[, is the largest country and the only Portuguese-speaking country in South America.
Brazil was a Portuguese colony from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815 when it became a united kingdom with Portugal. In 1822 the country became independent as the Brazilian Empire, but has been a republic since 1889, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824.
Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, G20 Group, Mercosul and the Union of South American Nations, and is one of the BRIC Countries. Brazil is also home to a diversity of wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.
Portuguese colonization and territorial expansion
The land now called Brazil (the origin of whose name is disputed), was claimed by Portugal in April 1500, on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral. The Portuguese encountered stone age natives divided into several tribes, most of whom shared the same Tupi-Guarani linguistic family, but who fought among themselves. Colonization was effectively begun in 1534, when Dom João III divided the territory into twelve hereditary captaincies, but this arrangement proved problematic and in 1549 the king assigned a Governor-General to administer the entire colony. The Portuguese assimilated some of the native tribes while others were enslaved or exterminated in long wars or by European diseases to which they had no immunity. By the mid 16th century, sugar had become Brazil's most important export and the Portuguese imported African slaves to cope with the increasing international demand.
The first Christian mass in Brazil, 1500.
Through wars against the French, the Portuguese slowly expanded their territory to the southeast, taking Rio de Janeiro in 1567, and to the northwest, taking São Luís in 1615. They sent military expeditions to the Amazon rainforest and conquered British and Dutch strongholds, founding villages and forts from 1669. In 1680 they reached the far south and founded Sacramento on the bank of the Rio de la Plata, in the Eastern Strip region (present-day Uruguay). At the end of the 17th century sugar exports started to decline but the discovery of gold by explorers in the region that would later be called Minas Gerais (General Mines) around 1693, and in the following decades in current Mato Grosso and Goiás, saved the colony from imminent collapse. From all over Brazil, as well as from Portugal, thousands of immigrants came to the mines.
The Spanish tried to prevent Portuguese expansion into the territory that belonged to them according to the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, and succeeded in conquering the Eastern Strip in 1777. However, this was in vain as the Treaty of San Ildefonso, signed in the same year, confirmed Portuguese sovereignty over all lands proceeding from its territorial expansion, thus creating most of the current Brazilian borders. In 1808, the Portuguese royal family, fleeing the troops of the French Emperor Napoleon I that were invading Portugal and most of Central Europe, established themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which thus became the seat of the entire Portuguese Empire. In 1815 Dom João VI, then regent on behalf of his incapacitated mother, elevated Brazil from colony to sovereign Kingdom united with Portugal. In 1809 the Portuguese invaded French Guiana (which was returned to France in 1817) and in 1816 the Eastern Strip, subsequently renamed Cisplatina.
Independence and empire
Declaration of the Brazilian independence by Emperor Pedro I on 7 September 1822.
King João VI returned to Europe on 26 April 1821, leaving his elder son Prince Pedro de Alcântara as regent to rule Brazil. The Portuguese government attempted to turn Brazil into a colony once again, thus depriving it of its achievements since 1808. The Brazilians refused to yield and Prince Pedro stood by them declaring the country's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822.] On 12 October 1822, Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil and crowned Dom Pedro I on 1 December 1822. At that time almost all Brazilians were in favor of a monarchy and republicanism had little support. The subsequent Brazilian War of Independence spread through almost the entire territory, with battles in the northern, northeastern, and southern regions. The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824 and independence was recognized by Portugal on 29 August 1825.
Emperor Dom Pedro II. For “the longevity of his government and the transformations that occurred in its course, no other Head of State has marked more deeply the history of the country.”
The first Brazilian constitution was promulgated on 25 March 1824, after its acceptance by the municipal councils across the country. Pedro I abdicated on 7 April 1831 and went to Europe to reclaim his daughter’s crown, leaving behind his five year old son and heir, who was to become Dom Pedro II. As the new emperor could not exert his constitutional prerogatives until he reached maturity, a regency was created. Disputes between political factions led to rebellions and an unstable, almost anarchical, regency. The rebellious factions, however, were not in revolt against the monarchy, even though some declared the secession of the provinces as independent republics, but only so long as Pedro II was a minor. Because of this, Pedro II was prematurely declared of age and “Brazil was to enjoy nearly half a century of internal peace and rapid material progress.”
Brazil won three international wars during the 58-year reign of Pedro II (the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the War of the Triple Alliance) and witnessed the consolidation of representative democracy, mainly due to successive elections and unrestricted freedom of the press. Most importantly, slavery was extinguished after a slow but steady process that began with the end of the international traffic in slaves in 1850 and ended with the complete abolition of slavery in 1888. The slave population had been in decline since Brazil’s independence: in 1823, 29% of the Brazilian population were slaves but by 1887 this had fallen to 5%.
When the monarchy was overthrown on 15 November 1889 there was little desire in Brazil to change the form of government and Pedro II was at the height of his popularity among his subjects. However, he “bore prime, perhaps sole, responsibility for his own overthrow.” After the death of his two sons, Pedro believed that “the imperial regime was destined to end with him.” He cared little for the regime’s fate and so neither did anything, nor allowed anyone else to do anything, to prevent the military coup, backed by former slave owners who resented the abolition of slavery.
Old republic and Vargas era
The Brazilian coup d’état of 1930 raised Getúlio Vargas (center with military uniform but no hat) to power. He would rule the country for fifteen years.
The “early republican government was little more than a military dictatorship. The army dominated affairs both at Rio de Janeiro and in the states. Freedom of the press disappeared and elections were controlled by those in power”. In 1894 the republican civilians rose to power, opening a “prolonged cycle of civil war, financial disaster, and government incompetence.” By 1902, the government began a return to the policies pursued during the Empire, policies that promised peace and order at home and a restoration of Brazil’s prestige abroad and was successful in negotiating several treaties that expanded (with the purchase of Acre) and secured the Brazilian boundaries. In the 1920s the country was plagued by several rebellions caused by young military officers. By 1930, the regime was weakened and demoralized, which allowed the defeated presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas to lead a coup d’état and assume the presidency. Vargas was supposed to assume the presidency temporarily but instead, he closed the National Congress, extinguished the Constitution, ruled with emergency powers and replaced the states’ governors with his supporters.
In 1935 Communists rebelled across the country and made an unsuccessful bid for power. The communist threat, however, served as an excuse for Vargas to launch another coup d’état in 1937 and Brazil became a full dictatorship.The repression of the opposition was brutal with more than 20,000 people imprisoned, internment camps created for political prisoners in distant regions of the country, widespread torture by the government agents of repression, and censorship of the press.
Brazil remained neutral during the early years of World War II until the government declared war against the Axis powers in 1942. Vargas then forced German, Japanese and Italian immigrants into concentration camps, and, in 1944, sent troops to the battlefields in Italy. With the allied victory in 1945 and the end of the Nazi-fascist regimes in Europe, Vargas’s position became unsustainable and he was swiftly overthrown in a military coup. Democracy was reinstated and General Eurico Gaspar Dutra was elected president and took office in 1946. Vargas returned to power in 1951, this time democratically elected, but he was incapable of either governing under a democracy or of dealing with an active opposition, and he committed suicide in 1954.
Contemporary era
Several brief interim governments succeeded after Vargas’s suicide. Juscelino Kubitscheck became president in 1956 and assumed a conciliatory posture towards the political opposition that allowed him to govern without major crises. The economy and industrial sector grew remarkably, but his greatest achievement was the construction of the new capital city of Brasília, inaugurated in 1960. His successor was Jânio Quadros, who resigned in 1961 less than a year after taking office. His vice-president, João Goulart, assumed the presidency, but aroused strong opposition and was deposed in April 1964 by a coup that resulted in a military regime. The new regime was intended to be transitory but it gradually closed in on itself and became a full dictatorship with the promulgation of the Fifth Institutional Act in 1968. The repression of the dictatorship’s opponents, including the communist terrorists, was harsh, but not nearly as brutal as in other Latin American countries. Due to the extraordinary economic growth, known as an “economic miracle”, the regime reached its highest level of popularity in the years of repression.]
The transition from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva revealed that Brazil had finally succeeded in achieving its long-sought political stability.
General Ernesto Geisel became president in 1974 and began his project of re-democratization through a process that he said would be “slow, gradual and safe.” Geisel ended the military indiscipline that had plagued the country since 1889, as well as the torture of political prisoners, censorship of the press, and finally, the dictatorship itself, after he extinguished the Fifth Institutional Act. However, the military regime continued, under his chosen successor General João Figueiredo, to complete the transition to full democracy,.
The civilians fully returned to power in 1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency but, by the end of his term, he had become extremely unpopular due to the uncontrollable economic crisis and unusually high inflation. Sarney’s defeat allowed the election in 1989 of the almost unknown Fernando Collor, who was subsequently impeached by the National Congress in 1992. Collor was succeeded by his Vice-President Itamar Franco, who appointed Fernando Henrique Cardoso as Minister of Finance. Cardoso produced a highly successful Plano Real (Royal Plan) that granted stability to the Brazilian economy and he was elected as president in 1994 and again in 1998. The peaceful transition of power to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, who was elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, proved that Brazil had finally succeeded in achieving its long-sought political stability.
