Brazil
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil or República Federativa do Brasil, is the largest and most populous country in South America, and fifth largest in the world in both area and population. Spanning a vast area between central South America and the Atlantic Ocean, it is the easternmost country of the Americas and it borders Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French department of French Guiana. In fact, it borders every South American nation except for Ecuador and Chile.
The country’s name is generally believed to be derived from pau-brasil (brazilwood), a tree highly valued by early colonists, though some credit the name to a mythical land mentioned in Europe during Middle Ages. Brazil is home to both extensive agricultural lands and rain forests. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labor pool, it is South America’s leading economic power and a regional leader. Because this country was a former colony of Portugal, Portuguese is its official language. Brazil boasts the world’s 2nd largest Christian population (74% Roman Catholics, 15% Protestants) behind the United States, and prides in being the world’s largest Roman Catholic-majority nation in terms of both adherents and land mass — a strong cultural legacy left behind by the Roman Catholic Portuguese colonists.
History
Brazil is thought to have been inhabited for at least 10,000 years by semi-nomadic populations before the first Portuguese explorers, led by Pedro Álvares Cabral, disembarked in 1500. Over the next three centuries, it was resettled by the Portuguese and exploited mainly for brazilwood (Pau-Brasil) at first, and later for sugarcane (Cana-de-Açúcar) agriculture, coffee beans and gold mining. The colony’s source of manpower was initially on enslaved Amerindians, and after 1550, mainly African slaves. In 1808, Queen Maria I of Portugal and her son and regent, the future João VI of Portugal, fleeing from Napoleon, relocated to Brazil with the royal family, nobles and government.
Dom Pedro I declaring independence from Portugal on September 7, 1822Though they returned to Portugal in 1821, the interlude led to the opening of commercial ports to the United Kingdom — at the time isolated from most European ports by Napoleon — and to the elevation of Brazil to the status of a united kingdom with Portugal’s Crown. Then prince regent Dom Pedro I (later Pedro IV of Portugal) declared independence on 7 September 1822, establishing the independent Empire of Brazil. As the crown remained in the hands of the house of Bragança, this was more the severance of the Portuguese empire in two, than an independence movement as seen elsewhere in the Americas.
The Brazilian Empire was theoretically a democracy in the British style, although in practice, the emperor-premier-parliament balance of power more closely resembled the autocratic Austrian Empire. Slavery was abolished in 1888, through the “Golden Law”, created by Princess Isabel, and intensive European immigration created the basis for industrialization. Pedro I was succeeded by his son, Pedro II — who in old age was caught by a political dispute between the Army and the Cabinet, a crisis arising from the Paraguay War. In order to avoid a civil war between Army and Navy, Pedro II renounced the throne on 15 November 1889, when a federal republic (officially, the Republic of the United States of Brazil) was established by Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca.
Salvador, BrazilIn the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazil attracted over 5 million European and Japanese immigrants. That period also saw Brazil industrialize, further colonize, and develop its interior. Brazilian democracy was replaced by dictatorships three times — 1930–1934 and 1937–1945 under Getúlio Vargas, and 1964–1985, under a succession of generals appointed by the military. Today, Brazil is internationally considered a democracy since 1985, specifically a presidential democracy, which was kept after a plebiscite in 1993 where voters had to choose between a presidential or parliamentary system, whilst also choosing if Brazil should reinstate its constitutional monarchy.
A key feature of democracy in contemporary Brazil is the existence of a vibrant and participatory civil society. NGOs and citizen organizations are at the forefront of the struggle for human rights, gender equality and economic justice.
Government and Politics
Brazil’s National Congress is the most famous landmark in the capital, BrasiliaAccording to the Constitution approved in 1988, Brazil is a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Brazil is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system.
The structure of the state and the federation is based on the model of the United States, but the legal system is based on the Roman Law.
Executive power is exercised by the government, headed by the president, who is elected to a four-year term, with one reelection allowed. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the National Congress. The deputies of the Chamber of Deputies are elected every four years in a system of proportional representation by states. The members of the Federal Senate are elected for an eight-years term.
Administrative divisions
Political divisions of BrazilMain article: States of Brazil
Brazil is a federation consisting of 26 states (estados) and 1 federal district (distrito federal), making a total of 27 units of the federation.
Roraima
Amapá
Amazonas
Pará
Tocantins
Acre
Rondônia
Maranhão
Piauí
Ceará
Rio Grande do Norte
Paraíba
Pernambuco
Alagoas
Sergipe
Bahia
Mato Grosso
Goiás
Distrito Federal (Brasília)
Mato Grosso do Sul
Minas Gerais
Espirito Santo
Rio de Janeiro
São Paulo
Paraná
Santa Catarina
Rio Grande do Sul
Brazil is organizated as a federation based on the model created in United States of America, although the Brazilian states have much less power than the north-American counterparts. Nevertheless, they have a significant autonomy of government, law making, public security and taxation.
Each state is divided into municipalities (municípios) with their own legislative council (câmara de vereadores) and a mayor (prefeito). A municipality may include other towns (distritos) besides the municipal seat; those, however, have no separate government.
Judiciary power is organized at state and federal level along a structure of districts called comarcas. One comarca may include several municipalities.
Geography
MaceióBrazil is characterized by the extensive low-lying Amazon Rainforest in the north and a more open terrain of hills and low mountains to the south — home to most of Brazil’s population and its agricultural base. Along the Atlantic seacoast are also found several mountain ranges, reaching roughly 2,900 metres (9,500 ft) high. The highest peak is the Pico da Neblina at 3,014 metres (9,735 ft), in Guiana’s highlands. Major rivers include the Amazon, the largest river in the world by volume, and the second-longest in the world; the Paraná and its major tributary, the Iguaçu River, where the impressive Iguaçu falls are located; the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu, Madeira and the Tapajós rivers.
Situated mainly within the tropics, Brazil’s climate has little seasonal variation. Despite that, the subtropical south is more temperate, occasionally experiencing frost and snow. Precipitation is abundant in the humid Amazon Basin, but more arid landscapes are found as well, particularly in the northeast.
A number of islands in the Atlantic Ocean are part of Brazil:
Saint Peter and Paul Rocks
Rocas Atoll
Fernando de Noronha
Trindade and Martim Vaz
Mainland Brazil is commonly geographically divided into 5 distinctive regions: North, Northeast, Center-West, Southeast and South.
A river in the Amazon Rainforest
Goiânia, Central-West regionThe North constitutes 45.27% of the surface of Brazil and it is simultaneously the region with the lowest number of inhabitants. It is a fairly unindustrialized and undeveloped region, but it accommodates the largest rainforest of the world, the Amazon, and many indigenous tribes.
The Northeast has 1/3 of Brazil’s population. The region is culturally diverse, with roots from the Portuguese colonial period, Afro-Brazilian culture and some Brazilian Indian influence. It is also the poorest region of Brazil, with long periods of dry climate. It is well-known for its beautiful coast.
The Central-West is the second largest region of Brazil, but has a low demographic density. It is where the capital of Brazil, Brasília, is located. The region accommodates the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland area, and a small part of the Amazon rainforest, in its northwestern area. However, much of the region is dominated by grasslands (Cerrado), which has two distinct seasons: a rainy season (from October to April) and a dry one (from May to September). The most important cities are: Brasília, Goiânia, Cuiabá and Campo Grande.
The Southeast is the richest and most populated region of Brazil. It has more inhabitants than any other South American country, with two of the largest megalopolises of the world: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the largest producer of oil and gas in Brazil. The region is very diverse, including the major business center of São Paulo, the Historical cities of Minas Gerais, the world famous beaches of Rio de Janeiro, and the Espírito Santo beautiful coast.
The South is the wealthiest per capita region of Brazil, with the highest standard of living in the country. It is also the coldest part of Brazil, with occasional occurrences of frosts and snowstorms. The region has been heavily settled by European immigrants, mainly Germans, Italians and Slavic people and shows clear influences from those cultures.
Economy of Brazil
Currency 1 Real (R$, BRL) = 100 centavos
Fiscal year Calendar year
Trade organisations WTO and SACN
Statistics
GDP ranking 9th (List of countries by GDP (PPP))
GDP $1,482,859 million (2004 est.)
GDP growth 2.3% (2005)
GDP per capita $8,100 (2004 est.)
GDP by sector agriculture (10.1%), industry (38.6%), services (51.3%) (2004 est.)
Inflation 6.0% (2005 est.)
Pop below poverty line 20% ~40 million people
Labour force 92.860.128 (2004) (50% of pop.)
Labour force by occupation agriculture (20%), industry (14%), services (66%) (2003 est.)
Unemployment 10.1% (2005 est. - official figures; actually about half of the country´s labour force has no legalized work)
Main industries textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore, tin, steel, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, other machinery and equipment
Trading Partners
Exports $118,309 billion f.o.b. (2005)
Main partners U.S. 19.2%, Argentina 8.4%, China 5.8%, Netherlands 4.5%, Germany 4.2% (2005)
Imports $73,545 billion f.o.b. (2005)
Main Partners U.S. 17.5%, Argentina 8.5%, Germany 8.4%, China 7.3%, Japan 4.6% (2005)
Public finances
Public debt R$1020 billion (feb 2006)
External debt US$170.3 billion (mar 2006 est.)
Revenues $140.6 billion (2004)
Expenses $172.4 billion (2004)
Economic aid $30 billion (2002)
Possessing large and well-developed agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and service sectors, as well as a large labor pool, Brazil’s GDP (PPP) outweighs that of any other Latin American country, being the core economy of Mercosur. The country has been expanding its presence in world markets. Major export products include aircraft, coffee, vehicles, soybean, iron ore, orange juice, steel, textiles, footwear and electrical equipment.
According to the CIA World Factbook Brazil had the eleventh largest economy in the world at purchasing power parity in 2004. Brazil has a diversified middle income economy with wide variations in levels of development. Most large industry is concentrated in the south and south east. The Northeast is traditionally the poorest part of Brazil, but it is beginning to attract new investment.
Brazil has the most advanced industrial sector in Latin America. Accounting for one-third of GDP, Brazil’s diverse industries range from automobiles, steel and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft, and consumer durables. With the increased economic stability provided by the Plano Real, Brazilian and multinational businesses have invested heavily in new equipment and technology, a large proportion of which has been purchased from U.S. firms. Brazil has a diverse and sophisticated services industry as well. During the early 1990s, the banking sector accounted for as much as 16% of GDP. Although undergoing a major overhaul, Brazil’s financial services industry provides local businesses with a wide range of products and is attracting numerous new entrants, including U.S. financial firms. The São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro stock exchanges are undergoing a consolidation.
Current events
After decades of inflation and several attempts to control it, Brazil embarked on a successful economic stabilization program, the Real Plan (named for the new currency, the real; plural: reais) in July 1994. Inflation, which had reached an annual level of nearly 5,000% at the end of 1993, fell sharply, reaching a low of 2.5% in 1998; it was 6% in 2000. Passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Law in mid-2000 improved fiscal discipline at all three levels - federal, state, and municipal - and all three branches of government.
A series of constitutional reform proposals were presented (mostly by Fernando Henrique Cardoso Administration, 1995-2002) to replace a state-dominated economy with a market-oriented one and to restructure all levels of government on a sound fiscal basis. Congress has approved several amendments to open the economy to greater private sector participation, including the involvement of foreign investors. By the end of 2003, Brazil’s privatization program, which included the sale of steel and telecommunications firms, had generated proceeds of more than $90 billion.
Belo Horizonte
Porto AlegreIn January 1999, the Brazilian Central Bank announced that the real would no longer be pegged to the U.S. dollar. This devaluation helped moderate the downturn in economic growth in 1999 that investors had expressed concerns about over the summer of 1998. Brazil’s debt to GDP ratio of 48% for 1999 beat the IMF target and helped reassure investors that Brazil will maintain tight fiscal and monetary policy even with a floating currency. The economy grew 4.4% in 2000, but problems in Argentina in 2001, and growing concerns that the presidential candidate considered most likely to win, leftist Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, would default on the debt, triggered a confidence crisis that caused the economy to decelerate.
But that did not happen. During his first year as president, in 2003, President Lula decided to take an austere approach to the economy by controlling inflation and seeking current account surpluses in order to meet Brazil’s debt obligations. With an economic program, combining restrictive monetary policy and raise of taxes, Lula surprised all the economic agents.
The left wing government increased international confidence (although, some local criticism) and improved Brazilian debt ratings. And the Brazilian economy seems to have detached itself from politics.
After a GDP increase of 0.5% in 2003, Brazil has allegedly enjoyed a robust growth in 2004, decreasing to the pace of 2.3% (2005), performance helped by international economic growth and consequential expansion of exports. In January 10, 2006, the IMF has shown satisfaction with Brazil’s economic policies. Brazil already paid off its debts with the International Monetary Fund and the Paris Club.
Major issues
The economy still has serious problems to face. The internal public debt has reached the all time record (surpassing in 2005 R$ 1 trillion) and public expenses have been increased. The presence of government in the economy is still large.
Important reforms were not implemented and taxes already represent a considerable part of national income and a serious burden to all social classes, diminishing opportunities for investments and still not being enough to generate a nominal fiscal surplus.
São Paulo, the fourth largest city in the world and the financial capital of the countrySerious problems involving poor infrastructure, income concentration, low quality public services, widespread corruption, government bureaucracy among others persist and threaten the potential economic growth of Brazil, compared to other emerging countries with more flexible and dynamic commercial policies. Current economic growth is below of those presented by comparable Latin American countries and is dwarfed by China and India. Concerns about losing manufacturing units (or even depletion of entire industrial sectors) to Asian countries have risen, yet even though not properly addressed by the Brazilian government, which seems not to have an industrial and development plan, anxiety expressed constantly by Federação das Indústrias de São Paulo.
Brazil has consistently dropped 11 positions on the WEF Growth Competitiveness Index ranking from 2003 to 2005. Also the concept of private property, although protected by the Brazilian constitution, has been disrespected recently [5], common fact in developing countries that burdens capital costs of companies. The Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST) stimulates a large diversity of vandalism acts against private properties, including productive and development areas. On March 08, 2006, MST sponsored an aggressive attack against Aracruz Celulose, destroying a nursery and a research center in Barra do Ribeiro, 56 km from Porto Alegre.
Demographics
The dominant ancestry among Brazilians is the Portuguese through the descendants of the early Portuguese colonists (from the 16th century onwards) and later Portuguese immigrants (19th and 20th centuries). The settlement of Portuguese started in Brazil after 1532, when the active process of colonization began since the founding of São Vicente. Until independence in 1822, the Portuguese were the only European nation that successfully settled in Brazil, and most of Brazil’s culture is based on that of Portugal.
Other European countries had some presence during the Colonial period. The Dutch and the French tried to colonize Brazil during the 17th century, but their presence lasted only a few decades.
The original Amerindian population of Brazil (between 3-5 million) has in large part been exterminated or assimilated into the Portuguese population. Since the beginning of Brazil’s colonization, intermarriage between the Portuguese and Native Brazilians has been common. Nowadays, there are 700,000 Native-Americans in Brazil, composing less than 1% of the national population.
Brazil has a large black population, descended from African slaves brought to the country from the 16th century until the 19th century. More than 3 million Africans were brought to Brazil until the end of slave trafficking in 1850. They were mainly from Angola, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and São Tomé e Príncipe. The African population in Brazil has mixed substantially with the Portuguese, resulting in a large mixed-race population.
Strong influence from German immigrants in Blumenau, Southern BrazilBeginning in the 19th century, the Brazilian government stimulated European immigration to substitute for the manpower of the former slaves. The first non-Portuguese immigrants to settle in Brazil were Germans, in 1824. In 1869 the first Polish immigrants settled in Brazil. However, strong European immigration to Brazil began only after 1875, when immigration from Italy, Portugal and Spain increased. According to the Memorial do Imigrante, between 1870 and 1953, Brazil attracted nearly 5.5 million immigrants, Italians (1,550,000), Portuguese (1,470,000), Spaniards (650,000), Germans (210,000), Japanese (190,000), Poles or Russian (120,000) and 650,000 of many other nationalities. These figures may be a serious undercounting of the actual numbers of immigrants, since the spouses were often not counted; there were large numbers of illegals never counted; the family names were changed to hide national origins; and Brazilian record-keeping was slipshod. Brazil is home to the largest Italian population outside of Italy, with 25 million Italians and Italian-descended Brazilians. Brazil is also home to the largest Lebanese community outside of Lebanon, roughly 8 million.
Starting in the early 20th century, Brazil also received a large number of Asians: Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese immigrants. The Japanese are the largest Asian minority in Brazil, and Japanese-Brazilians are the largest Japanese population outside of Japan (1.5 million).
Brazil’s population is mostly concentrated along the coast, with a lower population density in the interior. The population of the southern states is mainly of European descent, while the majority of the inhabitants of the north and northeast are of mixed ancestry (Amerindians, Africans and Europeans).
Ethnicity and race
A DNA study by UFMG shows that most Brazilians possess a combination of Amerindian (mainly Tupi and Guarani, among others), European (mainly Portuguese, Italian, German, Spanish) and African (mainly Bantu and Yoruba) ancestry, with minorities of Asian (mainly Japanese), Lebanese, and Arab Syrian descendants.
Liberdade, São Paulo, is home to the largest Japanese diaspora in the worldSouthern Brazil has a large majority of people of European descent and in Southeast and Central-West Brazil the number of whites is somewhat equal to the number of Afro-Brazilian and multiracial Brazilians. Northeastern Brazil has a majority of people of African descent, while in Northern Brazil the Amerindian ancestry is predominant.
According to Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, racism is an unbailable crime and must be met with imprisonment.
The 2000 IBGE census found Brazil to be made up of:
white 53.7%
multiracial 38.5% (mostly mixed White and Black (mulatto)
black 6.2%
Asian 0.5%
amerindian 0.4%
unspecified 0.7%
Languages
Main article: Languages of Brazil
Portuguese is the only official language of Brazil. It is spoken by the entire population and is virtually the only language used in schools, newspapers, radio, TV and for all business and administrative purposes. Moreover, Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in the Americas, making the language part of Brazilian national identity. Brazilian Portuguese has had its own unique development, with great influence by Amerindian and African languages. Due to these influences, the language is somewhat different from that spoken in Portugal and other Portuguese-speaking countries, mainly for phonological and orthographic differences– like the difference between American English and British English.
Many indigenous languages are spoken daily in indigenous communities, primarily in Northern Brazil. Although many of these communities have significant contact with Portuguese, today there are incentives for teaching native languages. Some dialects are still spoken by descendants of immigrants, who are usually bilingual, in small rural communities in Southern Brazil. The most important are the Brazilian German dialects, such as Riograndenser Hunsrückisch and the Pomeranian language, and the Talian, based on the Italian Venetian language. In the city of São Paulo, Japanese can be heard in the immigrant neighborhoods, like Liberdade.
English is part of the official high school curriculum, but few Brazilians are truly fluent. Spanish is understood in varying degrees by most Portuguese speakers due to the great similarity between the two languages.
Society Issues
Despite being a large country with extensive resources and a huge economy, Brazil currently has more than 22 million people living in state of extreme poverty. Including those living in state of relative poverty, this number can rise to more than 53 million people (around 30% of the country’s population) living with an income insufficient for their basic needs. This is a critical issue, and is in part attributed to the country’s economic inequality, considered one of the world’s highest according to the Gini coefficient index, second only to some of the world’s poorest countries.
Poverty in Brazil can be easily identified by the favelas, a great number of slums in the country’s metropolitan areas and in upcountry remote regions with low rates of economic and social development. The Northeast region has chronic problems due to the semi-arid climate in the inner regions, as its periodic droughts affect millions of people [9]. The most recent attempt to mitigate these problems is being tried by current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has proposed a hunger-eradication program (Fome Zero) and raised the budget for a handful of wealth distribution programs that were previously established, but there is much discussion over those approaches’ effectiveness.
In the last 12 years, Brazil’s tax rate raised gradually from around 28% of the country’s GDP to more than 37% [10]. Despite that, there wasn’t much improvement (and in some cases any improvement at all) in the public services offered by the Federal government, and in most of the state and city governments that could make this increase considered fair by the population. There is belief that there are two major causes of this disarrangement:
High interest rates paid by the government on its debts.
Widespread corruption. Since the end of the country’s military regime, and press freedom was re-estabilished in the country, constant scandals involving members of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary accused of participating in schemes of bribe, embezzlement, money laundering and anonymous banking had come to surface.
About 8% of the Brazilian population is officially considered illiterate; however, over 30% of the total population do not have capacity to read and write texts, although a growing percentage show some writing and computing abilities[citation needed].
Religion
Jesus Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro - “Cristo Redentor” (Christ the Redeemer)
According to the IBGE census:
73,6% of the population is Catholic, making Brazil the country with the largest Catholic population in the world.
Followers of Protestantism are rising in number, currently at 15,4%. Spiritism constitutes 1.3% of the population (about 2.3 million).
7,4% of the population consider themselves agnostics or atheists.
0,3% are followers of African traditional religions such as Candomblé, Macumba, and Umbanda.
1,8% are members of other religions, such as Asian religions (215.000 followers of Buddhism and 151.000 of Seicho-No-Ie), Judaism (87.000), Islamism (27.000), etc.
Some practice a mixture of different religions, such as Catholicism, Candomblé, and indigenous American religion combined.
Sports
Main article: Sports in Brazil
The Brazil national football team scores a goal in Haiti.The most popular sport in Brazil is football (soccer), and the country is renowned for the quality of its players, including Pelé, one of the world’s most recognized players and the current holder of the title of best football player in the world, Ronaldinho. The Brazilian national football team has been victorious in the World Cup tournament a record five times and after the third time, Brazil kept the World Cup trophy permanently.
Brazil has also achieved success in some international sports, mainly volleyball, basketball, tennis, gymnastics and auto racing.
There are many sports that have their origins in Brazil:
Beach soccer, which originated in the beaches of Rio de Janeiro and
Footvolley, a mix of football and volleyball, also played in sand.
Capoeira, a martial art of African heritage.
Vale tudo, a fight sport.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu a variation of the jiu-jitsu.
Biribol, an aquatic variation of Volleyball
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