Know About Your Brazil
Federative Republic of Brazil
República Federativa do Brasil (Portuguese)
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Flag
Coat of
arms
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Motto: Ordem e Progresso (Portuguese)
"Order and Progress" |
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Anthem: "Hino Nacional Brasileiro"
(Portuguese)
"Brazilian National Anthem"
Flag anthem: "Hino à Bandeira Nacional"
(Portuguese)[1]
"National Flag Anthem" |
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National seal
·
Selo Nacional do Brasil
National Seal of Brazil |
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Location of Brazil (dark green)
in South America (grey)
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Capital
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Brasília
15°47′S 47°52′W |
Largest
city
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São
Paulo
23°33′S 46°38′W |
Official
language
and national language |
Portuguese[2]
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Ethnic groups
(2010)[3]
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·
47.73% White
·
43.13% Mixed
·
7.61% Black
·
1.09% Asian
·
0.43% Amerindian
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Religion
(2010)[4]
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·
64.6% Catholic
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22.2% Protestant
·
8.0% Irreligion
·
2.0% Spiritism
·
3.2%
Others
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Demonym(s)
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Brazilian
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Government
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Federal presidential constitutional republic
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• President
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Jair
Bolsonaro
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• Vice
President
|
Hamilton
Mourão
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• President
of the
Chamber of Deputies |
Rodrigo
Maia
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• President
of the
Federal Senate |
Davi
Alcolumbre
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• President
of the
Supreme Federal Court |
Dias
Toffoli
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Legislature
|
National
Congress
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• Upper
house
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Federal
Senate
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• Lower
house
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Chamber
of Deputies
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Independence
from
the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
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• Declared
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7
September 1822
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• Recognized
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29
August 1825
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• Republic
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15 November
1889
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• Treaty
of Petrópolis
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11
November 1903
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• Current
constitution
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5
October 1988
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Area
|
|
• Total
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8,515,767 km2 (3,287,956 sq mi)
(5th)
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• Water (%)
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0.65
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Population
|
|
• 2019
estimate
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210,147,125[5] (5th)
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• Density
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25/km2 (64.7/sq mi) (200th)
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GDP (PPP)
|
2019 estimate
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• Total
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$3.456
trillion[6] (8th)
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• Per
capita
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$16,462[6] (80th)
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GDP (nominal)
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2019 estimate
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• Total
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$1.847
trillion[6] (9th)
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• Per
capita
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$8,797[6] (73rd)
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Gini (2017)
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53.3[7]
high · 10th |
HDI (2017)
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0.759[8]
high · 79th |
Currency
|
Real (R$)
(BRL)
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Time
zone
|
UTC−2
to −5 (BRT)
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Date
format
|
dd/mm/yyyy
(CE)
|
Driving
side
|
right
|
Calling
code
|
+55
|
ISO
3166 code
|
BR
|
Internet
TLD
|
.br
|
Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil; Portuguese
pronunciation: [bɾaˈziw]),[nt 1] officially
the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República
Federativa do Brasil, (help·info)),[9] is the
largest country in both South America and Latin America. At
8.5 million square kilometers (3.2 million square miles)[10] and
with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country
by area and the fifth most populous. Its capital is Brasília,
and its most populated city is São Paulo. The federation is
composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, and the
5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as
an official language and the only one in the Americas;[11][12] it is
also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations,
due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world.[13]
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean
on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers
(4,655 mi).[14] It borders all other
countries in South America except Ecuador and Chile and
covers 47.3% of the continent's land area.[15] Its Amazon
River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife,
a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning
numerous protected habitats.[14] This
unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries,
and is the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding
deforestation and environmental protection.
Brazil was inhabited by numerous
tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares
Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained
a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire
was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. In 1815, the colony was
elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom
of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in
1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed
under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The ratification of
the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature,
now called the National Congress. The country became a presidential
republic in 1889 following a military coup d'état. An
authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and
ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's
current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal
republic.[16] Due to its rich culture and history, the country ranks thirteenth
in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[17]
Brazil is considered an
advanced emerging economy.[18] It has
the ninth largest GDP in the world by nominal, and eight by PPP measures.[19][20] It is
one of the world's major breadbaskets, being the largest producer of
coffee for the last 150 years.[21] It is
classified as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank[22] and
a newly industrialized country,[23][24] with the
largest share of global wealth in Latin America. Brazil is a regional
power and sometimes considered a great[25][26][27] or
a middle power in international affairs.[27][28][29][30][31][26] On
account of its international recognition and influence, the country is
subsequently classified as an emerging power[32] and
a potential superpower by several analysts.[33][34][35] Brazil
is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Union
of South American Nations, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization
of Ibero-American States and the Community of Portuguese Language
Countries.
Contents
·
Etymology
·
History
o
Pre-Cabraline era
o
Portuguese colonization
o The United Kingdom with
Portugal
o
Independent empire
o
Early republic
o
Contemporary era
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Geography
o
Climate
o
Biodiversity and
environment
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Government and politics
o
Law
o
Military
o
Foreign policy
o
Law enforcement and crime
o
Administrative divisions
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Economy
o
Energy
o
Tourism
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Infrastructure
o
Science and technology
o
Transport
o
Health
o
Education
o
Media and communication
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Demographics
o
Race and ethnicity
o
Religion
o
Urbanization
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Language
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Culture
o
Architecture
o
Music
o
Literature
o
Cuisine
o
Cinema
o
Theatre
o
Visual arts
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Sports
o
National holidays
Etymology
Main
article: Name of Brazil
It is likely that the word
"Brazil" comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree
that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast.[36] In
Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly
given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from brasa ("ember")
and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium).[37] As
brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was highly valued by the European
textile industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from
Brazil.[38] Throughout 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.[39]
The official Portuguese name
of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy
Cross" (Terra da Santa Cruz),[40] but
European sailors and merchants commonly called it simply the "Land of
Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) because of the brazilwood trade.[41] The
popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese
name. Some early sailors called it the "Land of Parrots".[42]
In the Guarani language,
an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama".
This was the name the indigenous population gave to the region, meaning
"land of the palm trees".[43]
History
Main
articles: History of Brazil and Timeline of Brazilian history
Pre-Cabraline era
Cave
painting at Serra da Capivara National Park, one of the largest and
oldest concentrations of prehistoric sites in the Americas.[44]
Burial urn, Marajoara
culture, American Museum of Natural History. That culture appeared to
flourish between 800 AD and 1400 AD, based on archeological studies.[45]
Some of the earliest human
remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, were found in the area
of Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais and provide evidence of human habitation
going back at least 11,000 years.[46][47]
The earliest pottery ever
found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of
Brazil and radiocarbon dated to 8,000 years ago (6000 BC). The
pottery was found near Santarém and provides evidence that the
tropical forest region supported a complex prehistoric culture.[48] The Marajoara
culture flourished on Marajó in the Amazon delta from 800 CE to
1400 CE, developing sophisticated pottery, social stratification, large
populations, mound building, and complex social formations such as chiefdoms.[45]
Around the time of the
Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated
indigenous population of 7 million people,[49] mostly
semi-nomadic, who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant
agriculture. The indigenous population of Brazil comprised several large
indigenous ethnic groups (e.g. the Tupis, Guaranis, Gês and Arawaks).
The Tupí people were subdivided into the Tupiniquins and Tupinambás,
and there were also many subdivisions of the other groups.[50]
Before the arrival of the
Europeans, the boundaries between these groups and their subgroups were marked
by wars that arose from differences in culture, language and moral beliefs.[51] These
wars also involved large-scale military actions on land and water, with cannibalistic rituals
on prisoners of war.[52][53] While
heredity had some weight, leadership status was more subdued over time, than
allocated in succession ceremonies and conventions.[51] Slavery among
the Indians had a different meaning than it had for Europeans, since it
originated from a diverse socioeconomic organization, in which asymmetries were
translated into kinship relations.[54]
Portuguese colonization
Main
articles: Colonial Brazil, War of the Emboabas, and Inconfidência
Mineira
Representation
of the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in Porto Seguro, 1500.
Painting of 1922.
The land now called Brazil was
claimed for the Portuguese Empire on 22 April 1500, with the arrival
of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral.[55] The
Portuguese encountered indigenous peoples divided into several tribes, most of
whom spoke languages of the Tupi–Guarani family, and fought among
themselves.[56] Though the first settlement was founded in 1532, colonization effectively
began in 1534, when King John III of Portugal divided the
territory into the fifteen private and autonomous Captaincy Colonies of
Brazil.[57][58]
However, the decentralized and
unorganized tendencies of the captaincy colonies proved problematic, and in
1549 the Portuguese king restructured them into the Governorate General of
Brazil, a single and centralized Portuguese colony in South America.[58][59] In the
first two centuries of colonization, Indigenous and European groups lived in
constant war, establishing opportunistic alliances in order to gain
advantages against each other.[60][61][62][63] By the
mid-16th century, cane sugar had become Brazil's most important
export,[56][64] and slaves purchased in Sub-Saharan
Africa, in the slave market of Western Africa[65] (not
only those from Portuguese allies of their colonies in Angola and Mozambique),
had become its largest import,[66][67] to
cope with plantations of sugarcane, due to increasing international
demand for Brazilian sugar.[68][69]
Painting
showing the arrest of Tiradentes; he was sentenced to death for his
involvement in the best known movement for independence in Colonial
Brazil. Painting of 1914.
By the end of the 17th
century, sugarcane exports began to decline,[70] and
the discovery of gold by bandeirantes in the 1690s would become the
new backbone of the colony's economy, fostering a Brazilian Gold Rush[71] which
attracted thousands of new settlers to Brazil from Portugal and all
Portuguese colonies around the world.[72] This
increased level of immigration in turn caused some conflicts between
newcomers and old settlers.[73]
Portuguese expeditions known
as Bandeiras gradually advanced the Portugal colonial original
frontiers in South America to approximately the current Brazilian borders.[74][75] In
this era other European powers tried to colonize parts of Brazil, in incursions
that the Portuguese had to fight, notably the French in Rio during the
1560s, in Maranhão during the 1610s, and the Dutch in Bahia and
Pernambuco, during the Dutch–Portuguese War, after the end of Iberian
Union.[76]
The Portuguese colonial
administration in Brazil had two objectives that would ensure colonial order
and the monopoly of Portugal's wealthiest and largest colony: to keep
under control and eradicate all forms of slave rebellion and
resistance, such as the Quilombo of Palmares,[77] and to
repress all movements for autonomy or independence, such as
the Minas Conspiracy.[78]
United Kingdom with Portugal
Main
article: United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
The
Acclamation of King João VI of the United Kingdom of Portugal,
Brazil and the Algarves in Rio de Janeiro, 6 February 1818
In late 1807, Spanish and
Napoleonic forces threatened the security of continental Portugal,
causing Prince Regent João, in the name of Queen Maria I, to move the
royal court from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro.[79] There
they established some of Brazil's first financial institutions, such as its
local stock exchanges,[80] and
its National Bank, additionally ending the Portuguese monopoly on
Brazilian trade and opening Brazil to other nations. In 1809, in retaliation
for being forced into exile, the Prince Regent ordered the Portuguese
conquest of French Guiana.[81]
With the end of the Peninsular
War in 1814, the courts of Europe demanded that Queen Maria I and Prince
Regent João return to Portugal, deeming it unfit for the head of an ancient
European monarchy to reside in a colony. In 1815, to justify continuing to
live in Brazil, where the royal court had thrived for the prior six years, the
Crown established the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves,
thus creating a pluricontinental transatlantic monarchic state.[82] However,
such a ploy did not last long, since the leadership in Portugal, resentful of
the new status of its larger colony, continued to require the return of court
to Lisbon (as postulated by the Liberal Revolution of 1820), and also
groups of Brazilians, impatient for practical and real changes, still demanded
independence and a republic, as demonstrated by the 1817 Pernambucan
Revolt.[82] In 1821, as a demand of revolutionaries who had taken the city
of Porto,[83] D. João VI was unable to
hold out any longer, and departed for Lisbon. There he swore an oath to the new
constitution, leaving his son, Prince Pedro de Alcântara, as Regent of
the Kingdom of Brazil.[84]
Independent empire
Main articles: Independence
of Brazil and Empire of Brazil
Declaration
of the Brazilian independence by Prince Pedro (later Emperor Pedro I)
on 7 September 1822.
Tensions between Portuguese
and Brazilians increased, and the Portuguese Cortes, guided by the new
political regime imposed by the 1820 Liberal Revolution, tried to re-establish
Brazil as a colony.[85] The Brazilians refused
to yield, and Prince Pedro decided to stand with them, declaring the
country's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822.[86] A
month later, Prince Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil, with
the royal title of Dom Pedro I, resulting in the foundation of
the Empire of Brazil.[87]
The Brazilian War of
Independence, which had already begun along this process, spread through the
northern, northeastern regions and in Cisplatina province.[88] The
last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824;[89] Portugal
officially recognized Brazil on 29 August 1825.[90]
On 7 April 1831, worn down by
years of administrative turmoil and political dissent with both liberal and
conservative sides of politics, including an attempt of republican
secession,[91] and unreconciled to the way that absolutists in Portugal had given
in the succession of King John VI, Pedro I went to Portugal to reclaim
his daughter's crown, abdicating the Brazilian throne in favor of his
five-year-old son and heir (who thus became the Empire's second monarch, with
the royal title of Dom Pedro II).[92]
Pedro II, Emperor
of Brazil between 1831 and 1889.
As the new Emperor could not
exert his constitutional powers until he came of age, a regency was
set up by the National Assembly.[93] In the
absence of a charismatic figure who could represent a moderate face of power,
during this period a series of localized rebellions took place, such as
the Cabanagem in Grão-Pará Province, the Malê Revolt in Salvador
da Bahia, the Balaiada (Maranhão), the Sabinada (Bahia),
and the Ragamuffin War, which began in Rio Grande do Sul and was
supported by Giuseppe Garibaldi. These emerged from the dissatisfaction of
the provinces with the central power, coupled with old and latent social
tensions peculiar to a vast, slaveholding and newly independent nation
state.[94] This period of internal political and social upheaval, which
included the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco, was overcome only at
the end of the 1840s, years after the end of the regency, which occurred with
the premature coronation of Pedro II in 1841.[95]
During the last phase of the
monarchy, internal political debate centered on the issue of slavery. The Atlantic
slave trade was abandoned in 1850,[96] as a
result of the British Aberdeen Act, but only in May 1888 after
a long process of internal mobilization and debate for an ethical and legal
dismantling of slavery in the country, was the institution formally
abolished.[97]
The foreign-affairs policies
of the monarchy dealt with issues with the countries of the Southern Cone with
whom Brazil had borders. Long after the Cisplatine War that resulted
in independence for Uruguay,[98] Brazil
won three international wars during the 58-year reign of Pedro II. These
were the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the
devastating Paraguayan War, the largest war effort in Brazilian
history.[99][100]
Although there was no desire
among the majority of Brazilians to change the country's form of government,[101] on 15
November 1889, in attrition with the majority of Army officers,[clarification
needed] as well as with rural and financial elites (for different
reasons), the monarchy was overthrown by a military coup.[102] 15
November is now Republic Day, a national holiday.[103]
Early republic
Main
articles: First Brazilian Republic, Vargas Era § Estado Novo,
and Second Brazilian Republic
Proclamation
of the Republic, 1893, oil on canvas by Benedito Calixto.
The early republican
government was nothing more than a military dictatorship, with army dominating
affairs both in Rio de Janeiro and in the states. Freedom of the press
disappeared and elections were controlled by those in power.[104] Not
until 1894, following an economic crisis and a military one, did
civilians take power, remaining there until October 1930.[105][106][107]
If in relation to its foreign
policy, the country in this first republican period maintained a relative
balance characterized by a success in resolving border disputes with neighboring
countries,[108] only broken by the Acre War (1899–1902)
and its involvement in World War I (1914–1918),[109][110][111] followed
by a failed attempt to exert a prominent role in the League of Nations;[112] Internally,
from the crisis of Encilhamento[113][114][115] and
the Armada Revolts,[116] a
prolonged cycle of financial, political and social instability began until the
1920s, keeping the country besieged by various rebellions, both civilian[117][118][119] and
military.[120][121][122]
In half of
the first 100 years of republic, the Army exercised power directly or
through figures like Getúlio Vargas (center).
Soldiers of the Brazilian
Expeditionary Force greet Italian civilians in Massarosa,
during World War II. Brazil was the only independent Latin American
country to send ground troops to fight in WWII.
Little by little, a cycle
of general instability sparked by these crises undermined the regime to
such an extent that in the wake of the murder of his running mate, the defeated
opposition presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas, supported by most of the
military, successfully led the October 1930 Coup.[123][124] Vargas
and the military were supposed to assume power temporarily, but instead closed
the Congress, extinguished the Constitution, ruled with emergency powers and
replaced the states' governors with their own supporters.[125][126]
In the 1930s, three failed
attempts to remove Vargas and his supporters from power occurred. The first was
the Constitutionalist Revolution in 1932, led by the Paulista oligarchy.
The second was a Communist uprising in November 1935, and the last
one a putsch attempt by local fascists in May 1938.[127][128][129] The
1935 uprising created a security crisis in which the Congress transferred more
power to the executive. The 1937 coup d'état resulted in the
cancellation of the 1938 election, formalized Vargas as dictator, beginning
the Estado Novo era, which was noted for government brutality and
censorship of the press.[130]
Foreign policy during Vargas
years was marked by the antecedents[clarification needed] and World
War II. Brazil remained neutral until August 1942, when the country entered on
the allied side,[131][132] after
suffering retaliation by Nazi Germany and Fascist
Italy, in a strategic dispute over the South Atlantic.[133] In
addition to its participation in the battle of the Atlantic, Brazil also
sent an expeditionary force to fight in the Italian campaign.[134]
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 another military coup,
with democracy "reinstated" by the same army that had ended it 15 years
earlier.[135] Vargas committed suicide in August 1954
amid a political crisis, after having returned to power by election in 1950.[136][137]
Contemporary era
Main
articles: Military dictatorship in Brazil and History of Brazil
since 1985
Several brief interim
governments followed Vargas's suicide.[138] Juscelino
Kubitschek became president in 1956 and assumed a conciliatory posture
towards the political opposition that allowed him to govern without
major crises.[139] The economy and industrial sector grew
remarkably,[140] but his greatest achievement was the
construction of the new capital city of Brasília, inaugurated in 1960.[141]
Construction
of Brasília, the new capital, in 1959.
M41s along the Avenida
Presidente Vargas during the military government.
Kubitschek's successor, Jânio
Quadros, resigned in 1961 less than a year after taking office.[142] His
vice-president, João Goulart, assumed the presidency, but aroused strong
political opposition[143] and
was deposed in April 1964 by a coup that resulted in a military
regime.[144]
The new regime was intended to
be transitory[145] but gradually closed in on itself and
became a full dictatorship with the promulgation of the Fifth
Institutional Act in 1968.[146] Oppression
was not limited to those who resorted to guerrilla tactics to fight the regime,
but also reached institutional opponents, artists, journalists and other
members of civil society,[147][148] inside
and outside the country through the infamous "Operation Condor".[149][150] Despite
its brutality, like other authoritarian regimes, due to an economic boom,
known as an "economic miracle", the regime reached a peak in
popularity in the early 1970s.[151]
Slowly however, the wear and
tear of years of dictatorial power that had not slowed the repression, even
after the defeat of the leftist guerrillas,[152] plus
the inability to deal with the economic crises of the period and popular
pressure, made an opening policy inevitable, which from the regime side was led
by Generals Ernesto Geisel and Golbery do Couto e Silva.[153] With
the enactment of the Amnesty Law in 1979, Brazil began a slow return
to democracy, which was completed during the 1980s.[95]
Civilians returned to power in
1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency. He became unpopular
during his tenure through failure to control the economic crisis and hyperinflation he
inherited from the military regime.[154] Sarney's
unsuccessful government led to the election in 1989 of the
almost-unknown Fernando Collor, subsequently impeached by the National
Congress in 1992.[155]
Collor was succeeded by his
vice-president, Itamar Franco, who appointed Fernando Henrique
Cardoso Minister of Finance. In 1994, Cardoso produced a highly
successful Plano Real,[156] that,
after decades of failed economic plans made by previous governments attempting
to curb hyperinflation, finally stabilized the Brazilian economy.[157][158] Cardoso
won the 1994 election, and again in 1998.[159]
Ulysses
Guimarães holding the Constitution of 1988 in his hands.
The peaceful transition of
power from Cardoso to his main opposition leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva (elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006), was seen as
proof that Brazil had achieved a long-sought political stability.[160][161] However,
sparked by indignation and frustrations accumulated over decades from
corruption, police brutality, inefficiencies of the political establishment and public
service, numerous peaceful protests erupted in Brazil from the middle
of first term of Dilma Rousseff, who had succeeded Lula after winning
election in 2010.[162][163]
Enhanced by political and
economic crises with evidence of involvement by politicians from all the
primary political parties in several bribery and tax evasion schemes,[164][165] with large
street protests for and against her,[166] Rousseff was
impeached by the Brazilian Congress in 2016.[167][168] In
2017, the Supreme Court asked for the investigation of 71 Brazilian lawmakers
and nine ministers in President Michel Temer's cabinet allegedly linked to
the Petrobras corruption scandal.[169] President
Temer is himself accused of corruption.[170] In
2018, 62% of the population on a poll claimed that corruption was Brazil's
biggest problem.[171]
Geography
Main
article: Geography of Brazil
Topographic
map of Brazil
Brazil occupies a large area
along the eastern coast of South America and includes much of the continent's
interior,[172] 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, Guyana, Suriname and France (French
overseas region of French Guiana) to the north. It shares a border with
every South American country except Ecuador and Chile.[14]
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.[14] Its
size, relief, climate, and natural resources make Brazil geographically
diverse.[172] Including its Atlantic islands,
Brazil lies between latitudes 6°N and 34°S, and longitudes 28° and 74°W.[14]
Brazil is the fifth
largest country in the world, and third largest in the Americas, with a
total area of 8,515,767.049 km2 (3,287,956 sq mi),[173] including
55,455 km2 (21,411 sq mi)
of water.[14] It spans four time zones; from UTC−5 comprising the
state of Acre and the westernmost portion of Amazonas, to UTC−4 in
the western states, to UTC−3 in the eastern states (the national
time) and UTC−2 in the Atlantic islands.[174]
Brazil is the only country in
the world that has the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn running
through it. 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.[175] The
main upland area occupies most of the southern half of the country.[175] The
northwestern parts of the plateau consist of broad, rolling terrain broken by
low, rounded hills.[175]
Rocks
formations and the Dedo de Deus (God's Finger) peak in
the background, Serra dos Órgãos National Park, Rio de Janeiro state
Canion of Canindé de São
Francisco, Sergipe, a geological accident carved by the São Francisco
River.
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).[175] These
ranges include the Mantiqueira and Espinhaço mountains and
the Serra do Mar.[175]
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.[14]
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.[176] Major
rivers include the Amazon (the world's second-longest river and the
largest in terms of volume of water), the Paraná and its major
tributary the Iguaçu (which includes the Iguazu Falls),
the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu, Madeira and Tapajós rivers.[176]
Chapada
Diamantina, in the Chapada Diamantina National Park, Bahia.
Climate
Main
article: Climate of Brazil
Brazil map
of Köppen climate classification zones
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.[14] According
to the Köppen system, Brazil hosts six major climatic subtypes: desert, equatorial, tropical, semiarid, oceanic 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.[177] Many regions have starkly different microclimates.[178][179]
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.[177] Temperatures
average 25 °C (77 °F),[179] with
more significant temperature variation between night and day than between
seasons.[178]
Over central Brazil rainfall
is more seasonal, characteristic of a savanna climate.[178] This
region is as extensive as the Amazon basin but has a very different climate as
it lies farther south at a higher altitude.[177] In the
interior northeast, seasonal rainfall is even more extreme.[180]
The semiarid climatic region
generally receives less than 800 millimetres (31.5 in) of rain,[180] most
of which generally falls in a period of three to five months of the year[181] and
occasionally less than this, creating long periods of drought.[178] Brazil's
1877–78 Grande Seca (Great Drought), the worst in Brazil's
history,[182] caused approximately half a million
deaths.[183] A similarly devastating drought occurred
in 1915.[184]
South of Bahia, near the
coasts, and more southerly most of the state of São Paulo, the distribution of
rainfall changes, with rain falling throughout the year.[177] The
south enjoys subtropical conditions, with cool winters and average annual
temperatures not exceeding 18 °C (64.4 °F);[179] winter
frosts and snowfall are not rare in the highest areas.[177][178]
Biodiversity and environment
Main
articles: Wildlife of Brazil, Deforestation in Brazil, and Conservation
in Brazil
Female pantanal
jaguar in Piquirí River, Pantanal.
Golden lion tamarin, an endemic animal
of Brazil, in the Poço das Antas Biological Reserve.
Brazil's large territory
comprises different ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest, recognized
as having the greatest biological diversity in the world,[185] with
the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, sustaining the greatest
biodiversity.[186] In the south, the Araucaria pine
forest grows under temperate conditions.[186] 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, mostly invertebrates.[186]
Larger mammals include
carnivores pumas, jaguars, ocelots, rare bush dogs,
and foxes, and herbivores peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, sloths, opossums,
and armadillos. Deer are plentiful in the south, and many
species of New World monkeys are found in the northern rain
forests.[186][187] Concern for the environment has grown in
response to global interest in environmental issues.[188] Brazil's
Amazon Basin is home to an extremely diverse array of fish species, including
the red-bellied piranha.
By 2013, Brazil's
"dramatic policy-driven reduction in Amazon Basin deforestation" was
a "global exception in terms of forest change", according to
scientific journal Science.[189]:852 From
2003 to 2011, compared to all other countries in the world, Brazil had the
"largest decline in annual forest loss", as indicated in the study
using high-resolution satellite maps showing global forest cover changes.[189]:850 The
annual loss of forest cover decreased from a 2003/2004 record high of more than
40,000 square kilometres (4,000×103 ha;
9.9×106 acres; 15,000 sq mi) to a 2010/2011 low of under 20,000
square kilometres (2,000×103 ha;
4.9×106 acres; 7,700 sq mi),[189]:850 reversing
widespread deforestation[189]:852 from
the 1970s to 2003.
Lear's macaw, endemic to Raso
da Catarina, Bahia.
The Amazon rainforest,
the most biodiverse rainforest in the world.
However, in 2019, when
the Bolsonaro government came to power, the rate of deforestation
of the Amazon rainforest increased sharply threatening to reach a tipping
point after it the forest will collapse what will have severe consequences for
the world. (see Tipping points in the climate system) This can also
complicate the trade agreement with the European Union[190] Speaking
at the UN General Assembly, Bolsonaro criticised what he described as
sensational reporting in the international media. "It is a fallacy to say
that the Amazon is the heritage of humankind, and a misconception, as
confirmed by scientists, to say that our Amazonian forests are the lungs of
world. Using these fallacies, certain countries instead of helping, embarked on
the media lies and behaved in a disrespectful manner and with a colonialist spirit."
he said. President Jair Bolsonaro asserted Brazil's sovereignty over
the Amazon.[191]
According to a 2008 GreenPeace
article, 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.[185] In many
areas of the country, the natural environment is threatened by development.[192] The
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.[188][193] At
least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region, including the
controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.[194] In
summer 2019, 2 states in Brazil Paraná and Santa Catarina banned fracking,
what will have positive effects on the climate and water quality, because
the shale gas and shale oil reserves in the state of Parana
are the larger in the southern hemisphere.[195][196]
Government and politics
Main
articles: Politics of Brazil, Federal government of Brazil, and Elections
in Brazil
Palácio do
Planalto ("Plateau Palace"), the official workplace of the President
of Brazil.
The form of government is
a democratic federative republic, with a presidential system.[16] The
president is both head of state and head of government of the Union and is
elected for a four-year term,[16] with
the possibility of re-election for a second successive term. The current
president is Jair Bolsonaro. The previous president, Michel Temer,
replaced Dilma Rousseff after her impeachment.[197] The
President appoints the Ministers of State, who assist in government.[16] 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. Brazil is
a democracy, according to the Democracy Index 2010.[198]
The political-administrative
organization of the Federative Republic of Brazil comprises the Union, the
states, the Federal District, and the municipalities.[16] The
Union, the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities, are the
"spheres of government". The federation is set on five
fundamental principles:[16] sovereignty,
citizenship, dignity of human beings, the social values of labor and freedom of
enterprise, and political pluralism. The classic tripartite branches of
government (executive, legislative and judicial under a checks and balances
system) are formally established by the Constitution.[16] The
executive and legislative are organized independently in all three spheres
of government, while the judiciary is organized only at the federal and state
and Federal District spheres.
National
Congress, seat of the legislative branch.
All members of the executive
and legislative branches are directly elected.[199][200][201] Judges
and other judicial officials are appointed after passing entry exams.[199] 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.[16]
Together with several smaller
parties, four political parties stand out: Workers' Party (PT), Brazilian
Social Democracy Party (PSDB), Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB)
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.[202] Almost
all governmental and administrative functions are exercised by authorities and
agencies affiliated to the Executive.
Law
Main
articles: Law of Brazil, Law enforcement in Brazil, and Crime in
Brazil
Supreme
Federal Court of Brazil serves primarily as the Constitutional Court of
the country
Brazilian law is based on
the civil law legal system[203] 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, promulgated on 5 October 1988, and the
fundamental law of Brazil. All other legislation and court decisions must
conform to its rules.[204] As of
April 2007, there have been 53 amendments. States have their own
constitutions, which must not contradict the Federal Constitution.[205] Municipalities
and the Federal District have "organic laws" (leis
orgânicas), which act in a similar way to constitutions.[206] Legislative
entities are the main source of statutes, although in certain matters judiciary
and executive bodies may enact legal norms.[16] Jurisdiction
is administered by the judiciary entities, although in rare situations
the Federal Constitution allows the Federal Senate to pass on legal
judgments.[16] There are also specialized military, labor, and electoral courts.[16] The
highest court is the Supreme Federal Court.
This system has been
criticized 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.[207] Nevertheless,
the Supreme Federal Tribunal was the first court in the world to transmit its
sessions on television, and also via YouTube.[208][209] 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.[210]
Military
Main
article: Brazilian Armed Forces
Brazilian
Air Force Saab Gripen NG
Brazilian
Army Astros 2020
Brazilian Navy's flagship PHM Atlântico
The armed forces of Brazil are
the largest in Latin America by active personnel and the largest in
terms of military equipment.[211] It
consists of the Brazilian Army (including the Army Aviation
Command), the Brazilian Navy (including the Marine Corps and Naval
Aviation), and the Brazilian Air Force. Brazil's conscription policy
gives it one of the world's largest military forces, estimated at more than
1.6 million reservists annually.[212]
Numbering close to 236,000
active personnel,[213] the
Brazilian Army has the largest number of armored vehicles in South America,
including armored transports and tanks.[214] It is
also unique in Latin America for its large, elite forces specializing in
unconventional missions, the Brazilian Special Operations Command,[215][216][217] and
the versatile Strategic Rapid Action Force, made up of highly mobilized and
prepared Special Operations Brigade, Infantry Brigade Parachutist,[218][219] 1st
Jungle Infantry Battalion (Airmobile)[220] and
12th Brigade Light Infantry (Airmobile)[221] able
to act anywhere in the country, on short notice, to counter external
aggression.[222] The states' Military Police and
the Military Firefighters Corps are described as an ancillary forces
of the Army by the constitution, but are under the control of each state's
governor.[16]
Brazil's navy, the
second-largest in the Americas, once operated some of the most powerful
warships in the world with the two Minas Geraes-class dreadnoughts,
which sparked a South American dreadnought race between Argentina,
Brazil, and Chile.[223] Today,
it is a green water force and has a group of specialized elite in
retaking ships and naval facilities, GRUMEC, unit specially trained to
protect Brazilian oil platforms along its coast.[224] It is
the only navy in Latin America that operates an aircraft carrier, NAe
São Paulo,[225] and one of the ten navies of the world to
operate one.[214]
The Air Force is the largest
in Latin America and has about 700 manned aircraft in service and effective
about 67,000 personnel.[226]
Brazil has not been invaded
since 1865 during the Paraguayan War.[227] Additionally,
Brazil has no contested territorial disputes with any of its neighbors[228] and
neither does it have rivalries, like Chile and Bolivia have with each other.[229][230] The
Brazilian military has also three times intervened militarily to overthrow
the Brazilian government.[231] It has
built a tradition of participating in UN peacekeeping missions such
as in Haiti, East Timor and Central African Republic.[232] Brazil
signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.[233]
Foreign policy
Main
article: Foreign relations of Brazil
Itamaraty
Palace, the seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Brazil's international
relations are based on Article 4 of the Federal Constitution, which
establishes non-intervention, self-determination, international
cooperation and the peaceful settlement of conflicts as the
guiding principles of Brazil's relationship with other countries and
multilateral organizations.[234]
According to the Constitution,
the President has ultimate authority over foreign policy, while
the Congress is tasked with reviewing and considering all diplomatic
nominations and international treaties, as well as legislation relating to
Brazilian foreign policy.[235]
Brazil's foreign policy is a
by-product of the country's unique position as a regional power in Latin
America, a leader among developing countries, and an emerging world
power.[236] Brazilian foreign policy has generally
been based on the principles of multilateralism, peaceful dispute
settlement, and non-intervention in the affairs of other countries.[237]
Brazil is a founding member
state of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), also
known as the Lusophone Commonwealth, and international organization and
political association of Lusophone nations across four continents,
where Portuguese is an official language.
An increasingly well-developed
tool of Brazil's foreign policy is providing aid as a donor to other developing
countries.[238] 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.[238] Total
aid is estimated to be around $1 billion per year, which includes:[238]
Diplomatic
missions of Brazil
·
technical cooperation of
around $480 million ($30 million in 2010 provided directly by the
Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC));
·
estimated $450 million
for in-kind expertise provided by Brazilian institutions specializing 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).[238] 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.[238] The Brazilian South-South aid has been
described as a "global model in waiting."[239]
Law enforcement and crime
Main
articles: Law enforcement in Brazil and Crime in Brazil
Field agents
of the Federal Police's Tactical Operations Command.
In Brazil, the Constitution establishes
five different police agencies for law enforcement: Federal Police
Department, Federal Highway Police, Federal Railroad Police, Military
Police and Civil Police. Of these, the first three are affiliated
with federal authorities and the last two are subordinate to state governments.
All police forces are the responsibility of the executive branch of any of the
federal or state powers.[16] The National
Public Security Force also can act in public disorder situations arising
anywhere in the country.[240]
The country still has
above-average levels of violent crime and particularly high levels of gun
violence and homicide. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO)
estimated the number of 32 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest
rates of homicide of the world.[241] The
number considered tolerable by the WHO is about 10 homicides per 100,000
inhabitants.[242] In 2018, Brazil had a record 63,880
murders.[243] However, there are differences between the
crime rates in the Brazilian states. While in São Paulo the
homicide rate registered in 2013 was 10.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants,
in Alagoas it was 64.7 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.[244]
Brazil also has high levels of
incarceration and the third largest prison population in the world (behind
only China and the United States), with an estimated total of
approximately 700,000 prisoners around the country (June 2014), an increase of
about 300% compared to the index registered in 1992.[245] The
high number of prisoners eventually overloaded the Brazilian prison system,
leading to a shortfall of about 200,000 accommodations.[246]
Administrative divisions
Main
articles: States of Brazil and Municipalities of Brazil
See
also: Regions of Brazil
Atlantic
Ocean
Pacific
Ocean
North
Region
Northeast
Region
Central-West
Region
Southeast
Region
South
Region
Acre
Amazonas
Pará
Roraima
Amapá
Rondônia
Tocantins
Maranhão
Bahia
Piauí
Ceará
Rio
Grande
do Norte
Paraíba
Pernambuco
Alagoas
Sergipe
Mato
Grosso
Mato
Grosso
do Sul
Federal
District
Goiás
Minas
Gerais
São
Paulo
Rio de
Janeiro
Espírito
Santo
Paraná
Santa
Catarina
Rio Grande
do Sul
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
French
Guiana
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
States of Brazil and Regions
of Brazil
|
Brazil is a federation
composed of 26 states, one federal district, and the 5570 municipalities.[16] 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 be voted by only the federal bicameral Congress and
are uniform throughout the country.[16]
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.[16] 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
Main
article: Economy of Brazil
See
also: Brazilian real, Agriculture in Brazil, Mining in Brazil,
and Industry in Brazil
Quotes panel
in the interior of B3, in São Paulo, one of the top 20 stock
exchanges by market capitalization.
São Paulo, the country's
main financial center
Brazil is the largest national
economy in Latin America, the world's ninth largest economy and
the eighth largest in purchasing power parity (PPP)
according to 2018 estimates. Brazil has a mixed economy with abundant
natural resources. After rapid growth in preceding decades, the country entered
an ongoing recession in 2014 amid a political corruption scandal and
nationwide protests.
Its Gross domestic
product (PPP) per capita was $15,919 in 2017[247] putting
Brazil in the 77th position according to IMF data. Active in agricultural, mining, manufacturing and service
sectors Brazil has a labor force of over 107 million (ranking 6th
worldwide) and unemployment of 6.2% (ranking 64th worldwide).[248]
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.[249] Brazil
has been the world's largest producer of coffee for the last 150
years.[21]
Soybean crop
in Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso. Brazil is the second largest
agricultural exporter in the world.[250]
The KC-390,
developed by Embraer.
P-51,
an oil platform of Petrobras
The Itaipu Dam on
the Paraná River, located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, is
the second largest of the world (the first is the Three Gorges Dam, in
China). Approximately 75% of the Brazilian energy matrix, one of the cleanest in
the world, comes from hydropower.
Brazil's diversified economy
includes agriculture, industry, and a wide range of services.[251] Agriculture and
allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted
for 5.1% of the GDP in 2007.[252] Brazil
is one of the largest producer of oranges, coffee, sugar cane, cassava and sisal,
soybeans and papayas.[253]
Industry in Brazil –
from automobiles, steel and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft and consumer
durables – accounted for 30.8% of the gross domestic product.[252] Industry
is highly concentrated in metropolitan São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Porto
Alegre, and Belo Horizonte.[254] Brazil
has become the fourth largest car market in the world.[255] Major
export products include aircraft, electrical equipment, automobiles, ethanol, textiles, footwear, iron
ore, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans and corned
beef.[256] In total, Brazil ranks 23rd worldwide
in value of exports.
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[257] and
the series of adverse financial events that followed it, the Central Bank
of Brazil temporarily changed its monetary policy to a managed
float regime[258] scheme while undergoing a currency
crisis, until definitively changing the exchange regime to free-float in
January 1999.[259]
Brazil received an International
Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue package in mid-2002 of $30.4 billion,[260] a
record sum at the time. Brazil's central bank repaid the IMF loan in 2005,
although it was not due to be repaid until 2006.[261] One of
the issues the Central Bank of Brazil recently dealt with was an
excess of speculative short-term 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.[262] Nonetheless, foreign
direct investment (FDI), related to long-term, less speculative investment
in production, is estimated to be $193.8 billion for 2007.[263] Inflation monitoring
and control currently plays a major part in the Central bank's role in setting
short-term interest rates as a monetary policy measure.[264]
Between 1993 and 2010,
7012 mergers and acquisitions with a total known value of
$707 billion with the involvement of Brazilian firms were announced.[265] The
year 2010 was a new record in terms of value with US$115 billion in
transactions. The largest transaction with involvement of Brazilian companies
was the Cia. Vale do Rio Doce acquisition of Inco in
a tender offer valued at US$18.9 billion.
Corruption costs Brazil
almost $41 billion a year alone in 2010, with 69.9% of the country's firms
identifying the issue as a major constraint in successfully penetrating the
global market.[266] Local
government corruption is so prevalent that voters perceive it as a problem only
if it surpasses certain levels, and only if a local media e.g. a radio station
is present to divulge the findings of corruption charges.[267] Initiatives,
like this exposure, strengthen awareness which is indicated by the Transparency
International's Corruption Perceptions Index; ranking Brazil 69th out of
178 countries in 2012.[268] The purchasing
power in Brazil is eroded by the so-called Brazil cost.[269]
Brazil also has a large cooperative sector
that provides 50% of the food in the country.[270] The
world's largest healthcare cooperative Unimed is also located in
Brazil, and accounts for 32% of the healthcare insurance market in the country.[271]
Energy
Main
article: Energy in Brazil
Brazil is the world's tenth
largest energy consumer with much of its energy coming from renewable
sources, particularly hydroelectricity and ethanol; the Itaipu
Dam is the world's largest hydroelectric plant by energy
generation.[272] The first car with an ethanol engine was
produced in 1978 and the first airplane engine running on ethanol in 2005.[273]
Recent oil discoveries in
the Pre-salt layer have opened the door for a large increase in oil
production.[274] 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.[275]
Tourism
Main
article: Tourism in Brazil
Sancho Bay
in Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Pernambuco, voted the most
beautiful beach in the world by TripAdvisor.[276]
Bonito, Mato Grosso do
Sul. The rivers in the region are known for their crystal clear
waters.
Tourism in Brazil is a growing
sector and key to the economy of several regions of the country. The country
had 6.36 million visitors in 2015, ranking in terms of the international
tourist arrivals as the main destination in South America and second
in Latin America after Mexico.[277] Revenues
from international tourists reached US$6 billion in 2010, showing a
recovery from the 2008–2009 economic crisis.[278] Historical
records of 5.4 million visitors and US$6.8 billion in receipts
were reached in 2011.[279][280]
Natural areas are its most
popular tourism product, a combination of ecotourism with leisure and recreation,
mainly sun and beach, and adventure travel, as well as cultural
tourism. Among the most popular destinations are the Amazon Rainforest, beaches and dunes in
the Northeast Region, the Pantanal in the Center-West
Region, beaches at Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina, cultural
tourism in Minas Gerais and business trips to São Paulo.[281]
In terms of the 2015 Travel
and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), which is a measurement of the
factors that make it attractive to develop business in the travel and tourism
industry of individual countries, Brazil ranked in the 28st place at the
world's level, third in the Americas, after Canada and United
States.[282][283]
Brazil's main competitive
advantages are its natural resources, which ranked 1st on this criteria out of
all countries considered, and ranked 23rd for its cultural resources, due to
its many World Heritage sites. The TTCI report notes Brazil's main
weaknesses: its ground transport infrastructure remains underdeveloped (ranked
116th), with the quality of roads ranking in 105th place; and the country
continues to suffer from a lack of price competitiveness (ranked 114th), due in
part to high ticket taxes and airport charges, as well as high prices and high
taxation. Safety and security have improved significantly: 75th in 2011, up
from 128th in 2008.[283]
According to the World
Tourism Organization (WTO), international travel to Brazil accelerated in
2000, particularly during 2004 and 2005. However, in 2006 a slow-down took
place, and international arrivals had almost no growth in 2007–08.[284][285][286]
In spite of this trend,
revenues from international tourism continued to rise, from USD 4 billion
in 2005 to 5 billion in 2007, despite 330 000 fewer arrivals. This
favorable trend is the result of the strong devaluation of the US dollar
against the Brazilian Real, which began in 2004, but which makes Brazil a
more expensive international destination.[287]
The city
of Rio de Janeiro is featured in tourism in Brazil.
Iguazu Falls, Paraná, at
the Brazil-Argentina border. The Garganta do Diabo Walkway allows a
panoramic view of the falls from the Brazilian side.
This trend changed in 2009,
when both visitors and revenues fell as a result of the Great Recession of
2008–09.[288] By 2010, the industry had recovered, and
arrivals grew above 2006 levels to 5.2 million international visitors, and
receipts from these visitors reached US$6 billion.[278] In
2011 the historical record was reached with 5.4 million visitors
and US$6.8 billion in receipts.[279][280]
Despite continuing
record-breaking international tourism revenues, the number of Brazilian
tourists travelling overseas has been growing steadily since 2003, resulting in
a net negative foreign exchange balance, as more money is spent abroad
by Brazilians than comes in as receipts from international tourists visiting
Brazil.[289]
Tourism expenditures abroad
grew from US$5.8 billion in 2006, to US$8.2 billion in 2007, a 42%
increase, representing a net deficit of US$3.3 billion in 2007, as
compared to US$1.5 billion in 2006, a 125% increase from the previous
year.[289] This trend is caused by Brazilians taking
advantage of the stronger Real to travel and making relatively
cheaper expenditures abroad.[289] Brazilians
traveling overseas in 2006 represented 4% of the country's population.[290]
In 2005, tourism contributed
with 3.2% of the country's revenues from exports of goods and services, and
represented 7% of direct and indirect employment in the Brazilian economy.[291] In
2006 direct employment in the sector reached 1.9 million people.[292]
Domestic tourism is a
fundamental market segment for the industry, as 51 million people traveled
throughout the country in 2005,[293] and
direct revenues from Brazilian tourists reached US$22 billion,[294] 5.6
times more receipts than international tourists in 2005.
In 2005, Rio de Janeiro, Foz
do Iguaçu, São Paulo, Florianópolis and Salvador were
the most visited cities by international tourists for leisure trips. The most
popular destinations for business trips were São Paulo, Rio de
Janeiro and Porto Alegre.[295] In
2006 Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza were the most popular destinations
for business trips.
Infrastructure
Science and technology
Main
article: Science and technology in Brazil
VLS-1 at
the Alcântara Launch Center of the Brazilian Space Agency.
Sirius, a diffraction-limited
storage ring synchrotron light source at the Laboratório
Nacional de Luz Síncrotron, in the municipality of Campinas, São
Paulo.
Technological research in
Brazil is largely carried out in public universities and research institutes,
with the majority of funding for basic research coming from various government
agencies.[296] Brazil's most esteemed 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.[297][298]
The Brazilian Space
Agency has the most advanced space program in Latin America, with
significant resources to launch vehicles, and manufacture of satellites.[299] Owner
of relative technological sophistication, the country develops submarines,
aircraft, as well as being involved in space research, having a Vehicle Launch
Center Light and being the only country in the Southern Hemisphere the
integrate team building International Space Station (ISS).[300]
The country is also a pioneer
in the search for oil in deep water, from where it extracts 73% of its
reserves. Uranium is enriched at the Resende Nuclear Fuel
Factory, mostly for research purposes (as Brazil obtains 88% from its
electricity from hydroelectricity[301]) and the
country's first nuclear submarine was delivered in 2015 (by France).[302]
Brazil is one of the three
countries in Latin America[303] 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 fabrication plant, the CEITEC.[304] According
to the Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010 of the World Economic
Forum, Brazil is the world's 61st largest developer of information technology.[305]
Brazil also has a large number
of outstanding scientific personalities. Among the most renowned Brazilian
inventors are priests Bartolomeu de Gusmão, Landell de Moura and
Francisco João de Azevedo, besides Alberto Santos-Dumont,[306] Evaristo
Conrado Engelberg,[307] Manuel
Dias de Abreu,[308] Andreas
Pavel[309] and Nélio José Nicolai.[310]
Brazilian science is
represented by the likes of César Lattes (Brazilian physicist Pathfinder
of Pi Meson),[311] Mário
Schenberg (considered the greatest theoretical physicist of Brazil),[312] José
Leite Lopes (only Brazilian physicist holder of the UNESCO Science
Prize),[313] Artur Ávila (the first Latin American
winner of the Fields Medal)[314] and Fritz
Müller (pioneer in factual support of the theory of evolution by Charles
Darwin).[315]
Transport
Main
article: Transport in Brazil
Aerial view
of the São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport, the second busiest
airport in Latin America.
BR-116 in Guapimirim, Rio
de Janeiro, the longest highway in the country, with 4,385 km
(2,725 mi) of extension.[316]
Port of Santos, the busiest
port in Latin America.[317]
Brazilian roads are the
primary carriers of freight and passenger traffic. The road system totaled
1.98 million km (1.23 million mi) in 2002. The total of paved roads
increased from 35,496 km (22,056 mi) (22,056 mi) in 1967 to 184,140 km
(114,419 mi) (114,425 mi) in 2002.[318]
The first investments in road
infrastructure have given up in the 1920s, the government of Washington
Luis, being pursued in the governments of Getúlio Vargas and Eurico
Gaspar Dutra.[319] President Juscelino Kubitschek (1956–61),
who designed and built the capital Brasília, was another supporter of
highways. Kubitschek was responsible for the installation of major car
manufacturers in the country (Volkswagen, Ford and General
Motors arrived in Brazil during his rule) and one of the points used to
attract them was support for the construction of highways. With the
implementation of Fiat in 1976 ending an automobile market closed loop,
from the end of the 1990s the country has received large foreign direct
investments installing in its territory other major car manufacturers and
utilities, such as Iveco, Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Hyundai, Toyota among
others.[320] Brazil is the seventh most important
country in the auto industry.[321]
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 (19,185 mi) in 2002,
as compared with 31,848 km (19,789 mi) in 1970. Most of the railway
system belonged to the Federal Railroad Corporation RFFSA, which was privatized
in 2007.[322] The São Paulo Metro was the
first underground transit system in Brazil. The other metro systems are
in Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Recife, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Teresina and Fortaleza.
The country has an extensive
rail network of 28,538 kilometres (17,733 miles) in length, the tenth largest
network in the world.[323] Currently,
the Brazilian government, unlike the past, seeks to encourage this mode of
transport; an example of this incentive is the project of the Rio–São
Paulo high-speed rail, that will connect the two main cities of the country to
carry passengers.
There are about 2,500 airports in
Brazil, including landing fields: the second largest number in the world, after
the United States.[324] São
Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport, near São Paulo, is the largest and
busiest airport with nearly 20 million passengers annually, while handling the
vast majority of commercial traffic for the country.[325]
For freight transport waterways are
of importance, e.g. the industrial zones of Manaus can be reached
only by means of the Solimões–Amazonas waterway (3,250 kilometres (2,020 miles)
with 6 metres (20 feet) minimum depth). The country also has 50,000 kilometres
(31,000 miles) of waterways.[323]
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, Itajaí, Rio Grande, Paranaguá, Rio de
Janeiro, Sepetiba, Vitória, Suape, Manaus and São Francisco do Sul are the most
important.[326] Bulk carriers have to wait up to 18 days
before being serviced, container ships 36.3 hours on average.[327]
Health
Main
article: Health in Brazil
Institute of
Cancer of the University of São Paulo Clinics Hospital, the
largest hospital complex in Latin America.[328]
The Brazilian public
health system, the Unified Health System (SUS), is managed and
provided by all levels of government,[329] being
the largest system of this type in the world.[330] On the
other hand, private healthcare systems play a complementary role.[331]
Public health services are
universal and offered 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 expenditures in the area.
In 2012, Brazil had 1.85 doctors and 2.3 hospital beds for every 1,000
inhabitants.[332][333]
Despite all the progress made
since the creation of the universal health care system in 1988, there
are still several public health problems in Brazil. In 2006, the main points to
be solved were the high infant (2.51%) and maternal mortality rates
(73.1 deaths per 1000 births).[334]
The number of deaths from
noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases (151.7
deaths per 100,000 inhabitants) and cancer (72.7 deaths per 100,000
inhabitants), also has a considerable impact on the health of the Brazilian
population. Finally, external but preventable factors such as car accidents,
violence and suicide caused 14.9% of all deaths in the country.[334] The
Brazilian health system was ranked 125th among the 191 countries evaluated by
the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000.[335]
Education
Main
article: Education in Brazil
Historical
building of the Federal University of Paraná, one of the oldest
universities in Brazil, located in Curitiba
Classroom in the main campus
of the University of Campinas, São Paulo
The Federal Constitution and
the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education determine that the Union,
the states, the Federal District, and the 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 constitution reserves 25% of
the state budget and 18% of federal taxes and municipal taxes for education.[336]
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.[337] Illiteracy
is highest in the Northeast, where 19.9% of the population is illiterate.[338]
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.
Attending an institution of
higher education is required by Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education. Kindergarten, elementary and
medium education are required of all students, provided the student does not
hold any disability, whether physical, mental, visual or hearing.
The University of São
Paulo is the second best university in Latin America,
according to recent 2019 QS World University Rankings. Of the top 20 Latin
American universities, eight are Brazilian. Most of them are public.[339]
Brazil's private institutions
tend to be more exclusive and offer better quality education, so many
high-income families send their children there. The result is a segregated
educational system that reflects extreme income disparities and reinforces
social inequality. However, efforts to change this are making impacts.[340]
Media and communication
Main
article: Telecommunications in Brazil
See
also: Concentration of media ownership § Brazil
Former
President Dilma Rousseff at Jornal Nacional news
program. Rede Globo is the world's second-largest commercial
television network.[341]
The Brazilian press was
officially born in Rio de Janeiro on 13 May 1808 with the creation of
the Royal Printing National Press by the Prince Regent Dom João.[342]
The Gazeta do Rio de
Janeiro, the first newspaper published in the country, began to circulate
on 10 September 1808.[343] The largest
newspapers are Folha de S.Paulo (from the state of São
Paulo), Super Notícia (Minas Gerais 296.799), O Globo (RJ
277.876) and O Estado de S. Paulo (SP 235.217).[344]
Radio broadcasting began on 7
September 1922, with a speech by then President Pessoa, and was formalized on
20 April 1923 with the creation of "Radio Society of Rio de Janeiro."[345]
Television in Brazil began
officially on 18 September 1950, with the founding of TV Tupi by Assis
Chateaubriand.[346] Since
then television has grown in the country, creating large public networks such
as Globo, SBT, Record and Bandeirantes. Today it is the most important factor
in popular culture of Brazilian society, indicated by research showing that as
much as 67%[347][348] of the general population follow the same
daily soap opera broadcast. Digital Television, using the SBTVD standard
(based on the Japanese standard ISDB-T), was adopted 29 June 2006 and
launched on 2 November 2007.[349] In May
2010, Brazil launched TV Brasil Internacional, an international television
station, initially broadcasting to 49 countries.[350]
Demographics
Main
articles: Demographics of Brazil and Brazilians
See
also: Immigration to Brazil and List of Brazilian states by
population density
Population
density of Brazilian municipalities
Population[351][352]
|
|||
Year
|
Million
|
||
1950
|
54.0
|
||
2000
|
175.3
|
||
2018
|
209.5
|
The population of Brazil, as
recorded by the 2008 PNAD, was approximately 190 million[353] (22.31
inhabitants per square kilometre or 57.8/sq mi), with a ratio of men to
women of 0.95:1[354] and 83.75%
of the population defined as urban.[355] 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.[356] From
1880 to 1930, 4 million Europeans arrived.[357] Brazil's
population increased significantly between 1940 and 1970, because of 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[358] and to
72.6 years in 2007.[359] 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[360] thus
completing the demographic transition.[361]
In 2008, the illiteracy rate
was 11.48%[362] and among the youth (ages 15–19)
1.74%. It was highest (20.30%) in the Northeast, which had a large proportion
of rural poor.[363] Illiteracy
was high (24.18%) among the rural population and lower (9.05%) among the urban
population.[364]
Race and ethnicity
Main
article: Race and ethnicity in Brazil
Immigration
Museum of the State of São Paulo in the neighborhood of Mooca,
in São Paulo city. The Italian Brazilians are 15% of the
population and the largest Italian community outside Italy.[365]
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 Pardo (brown), 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 indígena, Indigenous),
while 0.07% (about 130 thousand) did not declare their race.[366]
In 2007, the National
Indian Foundation estimated that Brazil has 67 different uncontacted
tribes, up from their estimate of 40 in 2005. Brazil is believed to have the
largest number of uncontacted peoples in the world.[367]
Since the arrival of the
Portuguese in 1500, considerable miscegenation between Amerindians,
Europeans, and Africans 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%).[368][369][370][371]
Race and ethnicity in Brazil[372][373][374]
White (47.7%)
Pardo (Multiracial)
(43.1%)
Black (7.6%)
Asian (1.1%)
Natives (0.4%)
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.[375] Socioeconomic factors
are also significant, because a minority of pardos are likely
to start declaring themselves White or Black if socially upward.[376] 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).[371][377][378][379]
The brown population
(officially called pardo in Portuguese, also
colloquially moreno)[380][381] is a
broad category that includes caboclos (assimilated Amerindians
in general, and descendants of Whites and Natives), mulatos (descendants
of primarily Whites and Afro-Brazilians) and cafuzos (descendants
of Afro-Brazilians and Natives).[380][381][382][383][384] People
of considerable Amerindian ancestry form the majority of the population in the
Northern, Northeastern and Center-Western regions.[385]
Higher percents of Blacks,
mulattoes and tri-racials can be found in the eastern coast of the Northeastern
region from Bahia to Paraíba[384][386] and
also in northern Maranhão,[387][388] southern
Minas Gerais[389] and in eastern Rio de Janeiro.[384][389] 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, Spanish, German, Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese,
and Arab origin.[390][391]
Religion
Main
article: Religion in Brazil
Further
information: Catholic Church in Brazil and Protestantism in
Brazil
Religion in Brazil (2010 Census)
|
||||
Religion
|
Percent
|
|||
Roman
Catholicism
|
|
64.6%
|
||
Protestantism
|
|
22.2%
|
||
No
religion
|
|
8.0%
|
||
Spiritism
|
|
2.0%
|
||
Others
|
|
3.2%
|
Religion in Brazil was formed
from the meeting of the Catholic Church with the religious traditions of
enslaved African peoples and indigenous peoples.[392] 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 Catholic Church, characterized by traditional Portuguese
festivities,[393] and in some instances, Allan Kardec's Spiritism (a
religion which incorporates elements of spiritualism and
Christianity). Religious pluralism increased during the 20th century,[394] and
the Protestant community has grown to include over 22% of the population.[395] The
most common Protestant denominations are Pentecostal and Evangelical ones.
Other Protestant branches with a notable presence in the country include
the Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Lutherans and
the Reformed tradition.[396]
The Christ
the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro is one of the most
famous religious statues worldwide[397][398]
Basilica of the National
Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Aparecida, São Paulo, is the
second largest Catholic church in the world[399]
Roman Catholicism is the
country's predominant faith. Brazil has the world's largest Catholic
population.[400] 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.[401]
However, in the last ten years
Protestantism, particularly in forms of Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, has
spread in Brazil, while the proportion of Catholics has dropped significantly.[402] After
Protestantism, individuals professing no religion are also a significant group,
exceeding 7% of the population as of the 2000 census. The cities of Boa
Vista, Salvador, and Porto Velho have the greatest proportion
of Irreligious residents in Brazil. Teresina, Fortaleza,
and Florianópolis were the most Roman Catholic in the country.[403] 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 on the opposite sides of the lists, respectively.[403]
Urbanization
Main
articles: List of largest cities in Brazil and Municipalities of
Brazil
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.[404] The
largest urban agglomerations in Brazil are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
and Belo Horizonte – all in the Southeastern Region – with 21.1,
12.3, and 5.1 million inhabitants respectively.[405][406][407] The
majority of state capitals are the largest cities in their states, except
for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis,
the capital of Santa Catarina.[408]
Largest
urban agglomerations in Brazil
2017 Brazilian Institute of Geography and
Statistics estimates[405][409][410]
|
|||||||||
Rank
|
Name
|
State
|
Pop.
|
Rank
|
Name
|
State
|
Pop.
|
||
São Paulo
Rio de Janeiro
|
1
|
São
Paulo
|
São
Paulo
|
21,314,716
|
11
|
Belém
|
Pará
|
2,157,180
|
Belo Horizonte
Recife
|
2
|
Rio de
Janeiro
|
Rio de
Janeiro
|
12,389,775
|
12
|
Manaus
|
Amazonas
|
2,130,264
|
||
3
|
Belo
Horizonte
|
Minas
Gerais
|
5,142,260
|
13
|
Campinas
|
São
Paulo
|
2,105,600
|
||
4
|
Recife
|
Pernambuco
|
4,021,641
|
14
|
Vitória
|
Espírito
Santo
|
1,837,047
|
||
5
|
Brasília
|
Federal
District
|
3,986,425
|
15
|
Baixada
Santista
|
São
Paulo
|
1,702,343
|
||
6
|
Porto
Alegre
|
Rio
Grande do Sul
|
3,894,232
|
16
|
São
José dos Campos
|
São
Paulo
|
1,572,943
|
||
7
|
Salvador
|
Bahia
|
3,863,154
|
17
|
São
Luís
|
Maranhão
|
1,421,569
|
||
8
|
Fortaleza
|
Ceará
|
3,594,924
|
18
|
Natal
|
Rio
Grande do Norte
|
1,349,743
|
||
9
|
Curitiba
|
Paraná
|
3,387,985
|
19
|
Maceió
|
Alagoas
|
1,231,965
|
||
10
|
Goiânia
|
Goiás
|
2,347,557
|
20
|
João
Pessoa
|
Paraíba
|
1,168,941
|
Language
Main
articles: Languages of Brazil, Portuguese language, Brazilian
Portuguese, and List of endangered languages in Brazil
Museum of
the Portuguese Language in São Paulo city, São Paulo.
Ocas of
the Kuikuro people, Xingu Indigenous Park, Mato Grosso
The official language of
Brazil is Portuguese[411] (Article
13 of the Constitution of the Federal 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.
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.[412]
Brazilian Portuguese has
had its own development, mostly similar to 16th-century Central and Southern
dialects of European Portuguese[413] (despite
a very substantial number of Portuguese colonial settlers, and more recent
immigrants, coming from Northern regions, and in minor degree
Portuguese Macaronesia), with a few influences from the Amerindian and African
languages, especially West African and Bantu restricted to
the vocabulary only.[414] As a
result,[citation needed] 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 because of the more
recent end of Portuguese colonialism in these regions, have a closer
connection to contemporary European Portuguese). These differences are
comparable to those between American and British English.[414]
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 six-year adaptation period, during which both orthographies will
co-exist. The remaining CPLP countries are free to establish their own
transition timetables.[415]
The sign language law legally
recognized in 2002,[416] (the
law was regulated in 2005)[417] 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.[418]
Pomerode, Santa
Catarina, is one of the municipalities with a cooficial language. In this
region, Hunsrückisch and East Pomeranian, German dialects, are
two of the minor languages (see Brazilian German).
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.[414] In the
municipality of São 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 Portuguese-based grammar that, together with its southern relative língua
geral paulista, once was a major lingua franca in Brazil,[citation
needed] being replaced by Portuguese only after governmental prohibition
led by major political changes)[excessive detail?], Baniwa and
Tucano languages had been granted co-official status with Portuguese.[419]
There are significant
communities of German (mostly the Brazilian Hunsrückisch, 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.[420][421] Talian
is officially a historic patrimony of Rio Grande do Sul,[422] and
two German dialects possess co-official status in a few municipalities.[423]
Learning at least one second
language (generally English or Spanish) is mandatory for all the 12 grades of
the mandatory education system (primary and secondary
education, there called ensino fundamental and ensino
médio respectively). Brazil is the first country in South America to
offer Esperanto to secondary students.[424]
Culture
Main
article: Culture of Brazil
Interior of
the São Francisco Church and Convent in Salvador, Bahia, one of
the richest expressions of Brazilian baroque.
The core culture of Brazil is
derived from Portuguese culture, because of its strong colonial ties with
the Portuguese Empire.[425] 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.[426] Some
aspects of Brazilian culture were influenced by the contributions of Italian, German and
other European as well as Japanese, Jewish and Arab immigrants
who arrived in large numbers in the South and Southeast of Brazil during the
19th and 20th centuries.[427] The
indigenous Amerindians influenced Brazil's language and cuisine; and the
Africans influenced language, cuisine, music, dance and religion.[428]
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)[429][430] 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 since the 1960s.[431]
Architecture
Main
article: Architecture of Brazil
The Museum
of the Inconfidência in Minas Gerais, an example of Portuguese
colonial architecture.
The Cathedral of Brasilia,
an example of Modern architecture
The architecture of Brazil is
influenced by Europe, especially Portugal. It has a history that goes back 500
years to the time when Pedro Cabral discovered Brazil in 1500. Portuguese
colonial architecture was the first wave of architecture to go to Brazil.[432] It is
the basis for all Brazilian architecture of later centuries.[433] In the
19th century during the time of the Empire of Brazil, Brazil followed
European trends and adopted Neoclassical and Gothic Revival
architecture. Then in the 20th century especially in Brasilia, Brazil
experimented with Modernist architecture.
The colonial architecture of
Brazil dates to the early 16th century when Brazil was first explored,
conquered and settled by the Portuguese. The Portuguese built architecture
familiar to them in Europe in their aim to colonize Brazil. They built
Portuguese colonial architecture which included churches, civic architecture
including houses and forts in Brazilian cities and the countryside. During 19th
Century Brazilian architecture saw the introduction of more European styles to
Brazil such as Neoclassical and Gothic Revival architecture. This was usually
mixed with Brazilian influences from their own heritage which produced a unique
form of Brazilian architecture. In the 1950s the modernist architecture was
introduced when Brasilia was built as new federal capital in the
interior of Brazil to help develop the interior. The architect Oscar
Niemeyer idealized and built government buildings, churches and civic
buildings in the modernist style.[434][435]
Music
Main
article: Music of Brazil
Heitor
Villa-Lobos, the most widely known South American composer.[436]
Tom Jobim, one of the creators
of bossa nova, and Chico Buarque, one of the leading names
of MPB.
The music of Brazil was formed
mainly from the fusion of European and African elements.[437] Until
the nineteenth century, Portugal was the gateway to most of the influences that
built Brazilian music, although many of these elements were not of Portuguese
origin, but generally European. The first was José Maurício Nunes Garcia,
author of sacred pieces with influence of Viennese classicism.[438] 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 in the twentieth century.[437]
Popular music since the late
eighteenth century began to show signs of forming a characteristically
Brazilian sound, with samba considered the most typical and on the
UNESCO cultural heritage list.[439] Maracatu and Afoxê are
two Afro-Brazilian music traditions that have been popularized by
their appearance in the annual Brazilian Carnivals.[440] The
sport of capoeira is usually played with its own music referred to
as capoeira music, which is usually considered to be a call-and-response
type of folk music.[441] Forró is
a type of folk music prominent during the Festa Junina in northeastern
Brazil.[442] Jack A. Draper III, a professor of
Portuguese at the University of Missouri,[443] argues
that Forró was used as a way to subdue feelings of nostalgia for a rural
lifestyle.[444]
Choro is a very popular
music instrumental style. Its origins are in 19th-century Rio de Janeiro. In
spite of the name, the style often has a fast and happy rhythm, characterized
by virtuosity, improvisation, subtle modulations and full of syncopation and counterpoint.[445] Bossa
nova is also a well-known style of Brazilian music developed and
popularized in the 1950s and 1960s.[446] The
phrase "bossa nova" means literally "new trend".[447] A
lyrical fusion of samba and jazz, bossa nova acquired a large following
starting in the 1960s.[448]
Literature
Main
article: Brazilian literature
Machado de
Assis, poet and novelist, founder of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Carlos Drummond de Andrade,
considered by some as the greatest Brazilian poet.[449]
Brazilian literature dates
back to the 16th century, to the writings of the first Portuguese explorers in
Brazil, such as Pêro Vaz de Caminha, filled with descriptions of fauna, flora and
commentary about the indigenous population that fascinated European readers.[450]
Brazil produced significant
works in Romanticism – novelists like Joaquim Manuel de Macedo and José
de Alencar wrote novels about love and pain. Alencar, in his long career,
also treated indigenous people as heroes in the Indigenist novels O
Guarani, Iracema and Ubirajara.[451] Machado
de Assis, one of his contemporaries, wrote in virtually all genres and
continues to gain international prestige from critics worldwide.[452][453][454]
Brazilian Modernism, evidenced
by the Week of Modern Art in 1922, was concerned with a nationalist
avant-garde literature,[455] while Post-Modernism brought
a generation of distinct poets like João Cabral de Melo Neto, Carlos
Drummond de Andrade, Vinicius de Moraes, Cora Coralina, Graciliano
Ramos, Cecília Meireles, and internationally known writers dealing with
universal and regional subjects like Jorge Amado, João Guimarães Rosa, Clarice
Lispector and Manuel Bandeira.[456][457][458]
Cuisine
Main
article: Brazilian cuisine
See
also: List of Brazilian dishes
Brigadeiro is
a national candy and one most and is recognized as one of the main dishes
of Brazilian cuisine.
Pão de queijo with coffee and
a small cachaça bottle, examples of the cuisine from the interior of
Brazil.
Brazilian cuisine varies
greatly by region, reflecting the country's varying mix of indigenous and
immigrant populations. This has created a national cuisine marked by the
preservation of regional differences.[459] Examples
are Feijoada, considered the country's national dish;[460] and
regional foods such as beiju, feijão tropeiro, vatapá, moqueca, polenta (from
Italian cuisine) and acarajé (from African cuisine).[461]
The national beverage is coffee and cachaça is
Brazil's native liquor. Cachaça is distilled from sugar cane and
is the main ingredient in the national cocktail, Caipirinha.[462]
A typical meal consists mostly
of rice and beans with beef, salad, french fries and
a fried egg.[463] Often,
it is mixed 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.[464] Popular
snacks are pastel (a fried pastry); coxinha (a variation of
chicken croquete); pão de queijo (cheese bread and cassava flour
/ tapioca); pamonha (corn and milk paste); esfirra (a
variation of Lebanese pastry); kibbeh (from Arabic cuisine); empanada (pastry)
and empada, little salt pies filled with shrimps or heart of palm.
Brazil has a variety of
desserts such as brigadeiros (chocolate fudge balls), bolo de
rolo (roll cake with goiabada), cocada (a coconut
sweet), beijinhos (coconut truffles and clove) and romeu e julieta
(cheese with goiabada). Peanuts are used to make paçoca, rapadura and pé-de-moleque.
Local common fruits like açaí, cupuaçu, mango, papaya, cocoa, cashew, guava, orange, lime, passionfruit, pineapple,
and hog plum are turned in juices and used to make chocolates, ice
pops and ice cream.[465]
Cinema
Main
article: Cinema of Brazil
Festival de
Gramado, the biggest film festival in the country
Fernando Meirelles, who was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for City of
God
The Brazilian film industry
began in the late 19th century, during the early days of the Belle Époque.
While there were national film productions during the early 20th century,
American films such as Rio the Magnificent were made in Rio
de Janeiro to promote tourism in the city.[466] The
films Limite (1931) and Ganga Bruta (1933),
the latter being produced by Adhemar Gonzaga through the prolific
studio Cinédia, were poorly received at release and failed at the box office,
but are acclaimed nowadays and placed among the finest Brazilian films of all
time.[467] The 1941 unfinished film It's All
True was divided in four segments, two of which were filmed in Brazil
and directed by Orson Welles; it was originally produced as part of the
United States' Good Neighbor Policy during Getúlio Vargas' Estado
Novo government.
During the 1960s, the Cinema
Novo movement rose to prominence with directors such as Glauber Rocha, Nelson
Pereira dos Santos, Paulo Cesar Saraceni and Arnaldo Jabor.
Rocha's films Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (1964) and Terra
em Transe (1967) are considered to be some of the greatest and most
influential in Brazilian film history.[468]
During the 1990s, Brazil saw a
surge of critical and commercial success with films such as O Quatrilho (Fábio
Barreto, 1995), O Que É Isso, Companheiro? (Bruno Barreto,
1997) and Central do Brasil (Walter Salles, 1998), all of
which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,
the latter receiving a Best Actress nomination for Fernanda
Montenegro. The 2002 crime film City of God, directed by Fernando
Meirelles, was critically acclaimed, scoring 90% on Rotten Tomatoes,[469] being
placed in Roger Ebert's Best Films of the Decade list[470] and
receiving four Academy Award nominations in 2004, including Best
Director. Notable film festivals in Brazil include the São Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro International Film Festivals and the Gramado Festival.
Theatre
São Paulo
Municipal Theater, significant both for its architectural value as well as for
its historical importance.
Interior of the Teatro
Amazonas, in Manaus.
The theatre in Brazil has its
origins in the period of Jesuit expansion when theater was used for the
dissemination of Catholic doctrine in the 16th century. in the 17th and 18th
centuries the first dramatists who appeared on the scene of European derivation
was for court or private performances.[471] During
the 19th century, dramatic theater gained importance and thickness, whose first
representative was Luis Carlos Martins Pena (1813–1848), capable of
describing contemporary reality. Always in this period the comedy of costume
and comic production was imposed. Significant, also in the nineteenth century,
was also the playwright Antônio Gonçalves Dias.[472] There
were also numerous operas and orchestras. The Brazilian conductor Antônio
Carlos Gomes became internationally known with operas like Il
Guarany. At the end of the 19th century orchestrated dramaturgias became
very popular and were accompanied with songs of famous artists like the
conductress Chiquinha Gonzaga.[473]
Already in the early 20th
century there was the presence of theaters, entrepreneurs and actor companies,
but paradoxically the quality of the products staggered, and only in 1940 the
Brazilian theater received a boost of renewal thanks to the action of Paschoal
Carlos Magno and his student's theater, the comedians group and the Italian
actors Adolfo Celi, Ruggero Jacobbi and Aldo Calvo, founders of the Teatro
Brasileiro de Comedia. From the 1960s it was attended by a theater
dedicated to social and religious issues and to the flourishing of schools of
dramatic art. The most prominent authors at this stage were Jorge Andrade and Ariano
Suassuna.[472]
Visual arts
Main
article: Brazilian painting
The Night
escorted by the geniuses of Love and Study, by Pedro
Américo
Discovery of
the Land mural, by Brazilian painter Candido Portinari, at the Library
of Congress
Brazilian painting emerged in
the late 16th century,[474] influenced
by Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Cubism and Abstracionism making
it a major art style called Brazilian academic art.[475][476] The Missão
Artística Francesa (French Artistic Mission) arrived in Brazil in 1816
proposing the creation of an art academy modeled after the respected Académie
des Beaux-Arts, with graduation courses both for artists and craftsmen for
activities such as modeling, decorating, carpentry and others and bringing
artists like Jean-Baptiste Debret.[476]
Upon the creation of the Imperial
Academy of Fine Arts, new artistic movements spread across the country during
the 19th century and later the event called Week of Modern Art broke
definitely with academic tradition in 1922 and started a nationalist trend
which was influenced by modernist arts. Among the best-known Brazilian painters
are Ricardo do Pilar and Manuel da Costa Ataíde (baroque
and rococo), Victor Meirelles, Pedro Américo and Almeida
Junior (romanticism and realism), Anita Malfatti, Ismael Nery, Lasar
Segall, Emiliano di Cavalcanti, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, and Tarsila
do Amaral (expressionism, surrealism and cubism), Aldo Bonadei, José
Pancetti and Cândido Portinari (modernism).[477]
Sports
Main
article: Sport in Brazil
Players at
the podium with the first Olympic Gold of the Brazil national
football team, won in the 2016 Summer Olympics. Football is the
most popular sport in the country.
Ayrton Senna, who won
three Formula One world championships for McLaren in 1988, 1990 and 1991,
is widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time.[478]
The most popular sport in
Brazil is football.[479] The Brazilian
men's national 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.[480][481]
Volleyball, basketball, auto
racing, and martial arts also attract large audiences. The 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. In auto racing, three Brazilian drivers have won the Formula
One world championship eight times.[482][483][484]
Some sport variations have
their origins in Brazil: beach football,[485] futsal (indoor
football)[486] and footvolley emerged in Brazil
as variations of football. In martial arts, Brazilians developed Capoeira,[487] Vale
tudo,[488] and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.[489]
Closing
ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Maracanã
Stadium, Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil has hosted several
high-profile international sporting events, like the 1950 FIFA World Cup[490] and
recently has hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2019 Copa
América.[491] The São Paulo circuit, Autódromo
José Carlos Pace, hosts the annual Grand Prix of Brazil.[492] São
Paulo organized the IV Pan American Games in 1963, and Rio de Janeiro
hosted the XV Pan American Games in 2007.[493] On 2
October 2009, Rio de Janeiro was selected to host the 2016 Olympic Games and 2016
Paralympic Games, making it the first South American city to host the games[494] and
second in Latin America, after Mexico City. Furthermore, 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.[495]
National holidays
Date
|
Local name
|
Name
|
Observation
|
1 January
|
Confraternização Universal
|
New Year's Day
|
Beginning of the calendar year
|
21 April
|
Tiradentes
|
Tiradentes
|
In honor of the martyr of the Minas
Conspiracy
|
1 May
|
Dia do Trabalhador
|
Labor Day
|
Tribute to all workers
|
7 September
|
Independência
|
Independence of Brazil
|
Proclamation of Independence against Portugal
|
12 October
|
Nossa Senhora Aparecida
|
Our Lady of Aparecida
|
Patroness of Brazil
|
2 November
|
Finados
|
All Souls' Day
|
Day of remembrance for the dead
|
15 November
|
Proclamação da República
|
Proclamation of the Republic
|
Transformation of Empire into Republic
|
25 December
|
Natal
|
Christmas
|
Traditional Christmas celebration
|
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