Brazil - brəzĭlˈ, Port. Brasil, officially Federative Republic of Brazil, republic (1997 pop. 159,800,000), 3,286,470 sq mi (8,511,965 sq km), E South America. By far the largest of the Latin American countries, Brazil occupies nearly half the continent of South America, stretching from the Guiana Highlands in the north, where it borders Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, to the plains of Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina in the south. In the west it spreads to the equatorial rain forest, bordering on Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia; in the east it juts far out into the Atlantic toward Africa. It is a federation of 26 states and
Brasília, the federal district and site of the capital city of the same name. Its largest cities are
São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro.
Land Brazil's vast territory covers a great variety of land and climate, for although Brazil is mainly in the tropics (it is crossed by the equator in the north and by the Tropic of Capricorn in the south), the southern part of the great central upland is cool and yields the produce of temperate lands. Most of Brazil's large cities are on the Atlantic coast or the banks of the great rivers. The rain forests of the
Amazon River basin occupy all the north and north central portions of Brazil. With the opening of the interior in the 1970s and 80s, these rain forests were heavily cut and burned for industrial purposes, farming, and grazing land. Beginning in the late 1980s, popular international movements, along with changes in government policy, began to reduce the rate of deforestation, but by the mid-1990s extensive burning was again occurring. The Amazon region includes the states of
Amazonas,
Pará,
Acre,
Amapá,
Roraima, and
Rondônia; its chief city is
Manaus. Although it is not as developed as other parts of Brazil, the Amazon region produces timber, rubber, and other forest products such as Brazil nuts and pharmaceutical plants. Gold mining, ecotourism, and fishing are also important. At the mouth of the Amazon is the city of
Belém, chief port of N Brazil. Southeast of the Amazon mouth is the great seaward outthrust of Brazil, the region known as the Northeast. The states of
Maranhão and
Piauí form a transitional zone noted for its many babassu and carnauba palms. The Northeast proper—including the states of
Ceará,
Rio Grande do Norte,
Paraíba,
Pernambuco,
Alagoas,
Sergipe, and the northern part of
Bahia—was the center of the great sugar culture that for centuries dominated Brazil. The Northeast has also contributed much to the literature and culture of Brazil. In these states the general pattern is a narrow coastal plain (formerly supporting the sugarcane plantations and now given over to diversified subtropical crops) and a semiarid interior, or
sertão, subject to recurrent droughts. This region has been the object of vigorous reclamation efforts by the government. The "bulge" of Brazil reaches its turning point at the Cape of São Roque. To the northeast lie the islands of
Fernando de Noronha, and to the south is the port of
Natal. South of the "corner" of Brazil, the characteristic pattern of S Brazilian geography becomes notable: the narrow and interrupted coastal lowlands are bordered on the west by an escarpment, which in some places reaches the sea. Above the escarpment is the great Brazilian plateau, which tapers off in the southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, where it is succeeded by the plains of the Río de la Plata country. The escarpment itself appears from the sea as a mountain range, generally called the Serra do Mar [coast range], and the plateau is interrupted by mountainous regions, such as that in Bahia, which separates E Bahia from the valley of the São Francisco River. The chief cities of the Northeast are the ports of
Recife in Pernambuco and
Salvador in Bahia. There are a number of excellent harbors farther south:
Vitória in Espírito Santo; Rio de Janeiro, the former capital, one of the most beautiful and most capacious harbors in the world;
Santos, the port of São Paulo and the one of the greatest coffee ports in the world; and
Pôrto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul. In the east and southeast is the heavily populated region of Brazil—the states that in the 19th and 20th cent. received the bulk of European immigrants and took hegemony away from the old Northeast. The state of
Rio de Janeiro, with the great steel center of
Volta Redonda, is heavily industrialized. Neighboring
São Paulo state has even more industry, as well as extensive agriculture. The city of São Paulo, on the plateau, has continued the vigorous and aggressive development that marked the region in the 17th and 18th cent., when the paulistas went out in the famed bandeiras (raids), searching for slaves and gold and opening the rugged interior. They were largely responsible for the development of the gold and diamond mines of
Minas Gerais state, the second most populous state in Brazil, and for the building of its old mining center of Vila Rica (
Ouro Prêto), succeeded by
Belo Horizonte as capital. Minas has some of the finest iron reserves in the world, as well as other mineral wealth, and has become industrialized. Settlement also spread from São Paulo southward, particularly in the 19th and early 20th cent. when coffee from São Paulo's terra roxa [purple soil] had become the basis of Brazilian wealth, and coffee growing spread to
Paraná. That state, in the west, runs out to the "corner" where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet at the natural marvel of the Iguaçu Falls on the Paraná River. The huge Itaipú dam, built from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s by Paraguay and Brazil, provides power for most of southern Brazil. The more southern states of
Santa Catarina and
Rio Grande do Sul, developed to a large extent by German and Slavic immigrants, are primarily cattle-raising areas with increasing industrial importance. Frontier development is continuing in central Brazil. The state of
Mato Grosso is still largely devoted to stock raising. The transcontinental railroad from Bolivia spans the southern part of the state. The federal district of Brasília was carved out of the neighboring plateau state of
Goiás, to the east, and the national capital was transferred to the planned city of Brasília in 1960. People Brazil has the largest population in South America and is the fifth most populous country in the world. The people are also diverse in origin, and Brazil often boasts that the new "race" of Brazilians is a successful amalgam of African, European, and indigenous strains, a claim that is truer in the social than the political or economic realm. Portuguese is the official language, and Spanish, English, and French are also widely spoken. Some 90% of the population is at least nominally Roman Catholic. Most of the estimated 150,000 indigenous peoples (chiefly of Tupí or
Guaraní linguistic stock) are found in the rain forests of the Amazon River basin; 12% of Brazil's land has been set aside as indigenous areas. There are more than 50 universities in the country. Economy Brazil has one of the world's largest economies, with well-developed agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and service sectors. Vast disparities remain, however, in the country's distribution of land and wealth. Roughly one third of the workforce is involved in agriculture. The major commercial crops are coffee (Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter), citrus fruit (especially juice oranges, of which Brazil also is the world's largest producer), soybeans, sugarcane, rice, corn, cocoa, cotton, tobacco, and bananas. Cattle, pigs, and sheep are the most numerous livestock. Timber is also important, although much of it is illegally harvested. Brazil has vast mineral wealth, including iron ore (it is the world's largest producer), quartz, chrome ore, manganese, industrial diamonds, gem stones, gold, nickel, tin, bauxite, uranium, and platinum. The leading manufacturing industries produce textiles, chemicals, shoes, food products, steel, motor vehicles, ships, and machinery. Most of Brazil's electricity comes from water power and it possesses extensive untapped hydroelectric potential, particularly in the Amazon basin. In addition to coffee, Brazil's exports include iron, concentrated orange juice, soybeans, beef, tropical hardwoods, and footwear. Crude oil, manufactured goods, and chemical products head the imports. Most trade is with the European Union nations, the United States, Argentina, and Japan. Brazil is a member of the
Southern Cone Common Market. Government Brazil is governed by the 1988 constitution. Under its terms, authority is vested in the president, who is elected for four years by universal suffrage. Under a 1997 amendment, the president may be reelected once. There is a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper federal senate and a lower chamber of deputies. The 81 senators are elected for eight years and the 513 deputies are elected for four years. The president may unilaterally intervene in state affairs. Each state has its own governor and legislature. The main political parties are the Brazilian Democratic Movement party, the Liberal Front party, the Democratic Labor party, the Brazilian Social Democracy party, and the Workers party. History Early History There is evidence suggesting possible human habitation in Brazil more than 30,000 years ago, and scholars have found artifacts, including cave paintings, that all agree date back at least 11,000 years. By the time Europeans arrived there was a relatively small indigenous population, but the archaeological record indicates that densely |
