Brazil
Brazilwhose official name is Federal Republic of Brazil(in Portuguese, Federal Republic of Brazilpron. AFI [ee'publik] fede marginapyrit fastening](
listen)), it is a sovereign country of South America that comprises the eastern half of the continent and some groups of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest country in Latin America.
With an estimated surface of more than 8.5 million km2, it is the fifth largest country in the world in total area (equivalent to 50% of South American territory). Delimited by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7491 km. To the north it borders with the French overseas department of French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela; to the northwest with Colombia; to the west with Peru and Bolivia; to the southwest with Paraguay and Argentina, and to the south with Uruguay. It thus has a border with all countries of South America, except Ecuador and Chile. Most of the country is among the terrestrial tropics, so climate stations do not feel radically in much of their territory. The Amazon rainforest covers 3.6 million km2 of the territory. Thanks to its vegetation and climate, it is one of the countries with the most animal species in the world.
The region of present-day Brazil, until then inhabited by indigenous people, had its first contact with Europeans in the year 1500 AD. C. through a Portuguese expedition led by Pedro Álvares Cabral. After the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Brazilian territory was the segment of the American continent that corresponded to the Kingdom of Portugal, from which it obtained its independence on September 7, 1822. Thus, the country went from being a central part of the Kingdom of Portugal to an empire to finally become a republic. Its first capital was Salvador de Bahía, which was replaced by Rio de Janeiro until a new capital, Brasília, was built. Its current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a presidential federative republic. The federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 states and the 5,570 municipalities.
Although its more than 215 million inhabitants make Brazil the seventh most populous country in the world, it has a low population density index. This is due to the fact that most of the population is concentrated along the coast, while the interior of the territory is still marked by huge demographic gaps. The official and most widely spoken language is Portuguese, which makes it the largest Lusophone country in the world. For its part, the religion with the most followers is Catholicism, being the country with the largest number of nominal Catholics in the world. Brazilian society is considered a multi-ethnic society as it is made up of descendants of Europeans, indigenous people, Africans and Asians.
The Brazilian economy is the largest in South America, Latin America and the southern hemisphere, the eleventh largest in the world by nominal GDP and the eighth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It is considered an income economy medium-high by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country, which has the highest proportion of global wealth in Latin America due to the abundant oil and various minerals easily found in the country. However, its abundant wealth is highly concentrated, making the country one of the most unequal in the world, the richest 10% of its population received 54% of the national income in 2018. As a regional and medium power, the nation has international recognition and influence, being that it also it is classified as an emerging global power and as a potential superpower by several analysts.
The country is a founding member of the United Nations (UN), G20, Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), Latin Union, Organization of American States (OEA), Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI)), Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), in addition to being one of the BRICS countries.
Toponymy
In its origin, the word «brazil» is still not clearly identified. A theory spread by the philologist Adelino José da Silva Azevedo postulates that it is a word of Celtic origin, barkino —which was translated into Spanish as “barcino”—, although in it he accepted that the remotest mention of the term could be found in the language of the ancient Phoenicians. This word was used to name a red dye used by this civilization. The earliest written mention of the word is in an Italian document from 1193, which includes grana de brasil in a list of merchandise. In the centuries XV and XVI was used to refer to brazilwood, given name to an arboreal species from which a reddish wood is obtained used in cabinetmaking and for dyeing textiles.
In medieval nautical charts, a "Brazil Island" often appears in the Atlantic Ocean. The oldest case is the map by Angelino Dulcert from 1325.
After the discovery of America by the Spanish, the region in which there was a tree (Caesalpinia echinata) used by Amerindians from the jungles of the Brazilian coast began to be called Brazil (Mata Atlántica), called by the Portuguese such a tree pau-brasil. This tree gave off a reddish color when boiled in water, reminiscent of the flames of a fire, or the embers of burning coal. Hence the name terra do pau-brasil (land of the brazil tree).
During the colonization of Brazil by the Portuguese crown, the Portuguese exported this new dye to dye their clothes in old Europe. Their eagerness for economic benefits led the pau-brasil to extinction in almost the entire Brazilian territory. At present, there are government programs for the recovery of the tree that has given its name to the third largest country in America.
Regarding the existence of the "Big Island of Brazil" the Portuguese maintained for a long time (practically until the middle of the XVIII century) that it really existed and that it was separate from the mainland American by the Amazon, Paraguay, Paraná and Río de la Plata rivers, thus claiming all the territories framed between such rivers.
Starting in 1500, the Portuguese quickly announced the discovery of present-day Brazil, but initially called it "Land of Santa Cruz." Colonial-era chroniclers such as João de Barros, Vicente do Salvador and Pero de Magalhães Gândavo agreed that the name change to “Brasil” took place when brazilwood began to arrive in Portugal from the newly discovered territory.
Before taking its final name, the current territory of Brazil was designated in different ways: Monte Pascual (when the Portuguese first sighted the land), Isla de Vera Cruz, Tierra de Santa Cruz, Nueva Lusitania, Cabralia, etc. During the time of the empire, the official name of the country was "Empire of Brazil" and later, when the republic was proclaimed, it was called the "United States of Brazil". In 1967, with the first Constitution of the military government started in 1964, Brazil was officially renamed the "Federative Republic of Brazil", a name that the 1988 Constitution retained after the return of democracy.
History
Pre-colonial period, Portuguese colonization and territorial expansion
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Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first European navigator to arrive in Brazil. He discovered the coasts of the extreme north of Brazil in January 1500, three months before the arrival of the fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral.[22] The Yáñez expedition reached Cabo de Consolación and following the northeast coast reaches the Amazon river that names Santa María de la Mar Dulce.
Shortly before the arrival of the Europeans, it is estimated that the eastern coast of South America that lies in the present territory of Brazil was inhabited by about two million indigenous people. The Amerindian population was divided into large nations indigenous, in turn made up of various ethnic groups, among which the Tupi-Guarani, the Macro-Jê and the Aruacos stood out (Some tribes have a mixture of Oceania due to ancient migrations from the Pacific Ocean). The first were subdivided in Guarani, Tupiniquines and Tupinambás, among others. The Tupi spread between the current territories of the states of Río Grande do Sul and Río Grande do Norte. The Portuguese found the natives still in the Stone Age and divided into several tribes, most of which belonged to the family Tupi-Guarani linguistics, and that they constantly fought among themselves. According to Luís da Câmara Cascudo, the Tupi were "the first indigenous race that had contact with the colonizers and (...) led to their greater presence, as the influence in the Mameluco, in the mestizo and in the Luso-Brazilian who was born and in the European who stayed."
The colonization officially began in the year 1534, when Juan III divided the territory into twelve hereditary captaincies, but due to various problems with this system, in 1549 King Juan III appointed a Governor General to administer the entire colony. The Portuguese assimilated some of the native tribes, while others were enslaved or exterminated by protracted warfare or by epidemics caused by diseases brought by the Europeans, to which the natives had no immunity. mid-16th century, sugar became Brazil's most important export, and the slave trade Africans from the Portuguese began to increase in response to growing international demand.
Through various wars against the French, the Portuguese slowly expanded their territory to the southeast, seizing Rio de Janeiro in 1567, and to the northwest, taking São Luís in 1615. Thus, in 1669 they sent several military expeditions towards Amazonia and conquered the English and Dutch fortresses, founding villages and new fortresses. In 1680 they extended the controlled territory in the extreme south of the country by founding the Colonia del Sacramento on the left bank of the Río de la Plata, in present-day Uruguay. However, the Brazilian territorial expansion to the south caused multiple conflicts, including the war with the Jesuit missions, which had a semi-autonomous organization, and the subsequent Guaranítica War.
At the end of the 17th century, sugar exports began to decline, but around 1693, the discovery of Gold deposits in the region that would later be called Minas Gerais, as well as the exploitation of other mines in Mato Grosso and Goiás in the following decades, saved the colony from imminent economic collapse. Thousands of immigrants from the coast from Brazil and Portugal moved towards the mines. The Spanish tried to prevent the expansion of the Portuguese within the territory that belonged to them in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, and managed to reconquer the Banda Oriental in 1777. Without However, the Treaty of San Ildefonso signed that same year confirmed Portuguese sovereignty over almost all the lands occupied during its territorial expansion, except the Banda Oriental, configuring most of the current borders. Brazilian.
In 1808, the Portuguese royal family—and the Portuguese nobility—fled the troops of the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was invading Portugal and most of Central Europe, and settled in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which thus became the de facto capital of the Portuguese Empire. In 1815, John VI, then the Prince Regent of Portugal on behalf of his mother Maria I, elevated the State of Brazil, a Portuguese colony, to a sovereign Kingdom in union with Portugal. In 1809, the Portuguese invaded French Guiana, which was finally returned to France in 1817, and in 1816, the Banda Oriental, which was later renamed Provincia Cisplatina. In 1825, the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata began a war to recover it, which ended in 1828 through an agreement in which the independence of the province was provided.
Independence and Empire
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John VI returned to Europe on April 26, 1821, leaving his eldest son, Pedro de Alcántara, as prince regent. The Portuguese government tried to make Brazil a colony once more, depriving it of the rights it had held since 1808. The Brazilians refused to budge and Pedro joined their cause, declaring the country's independence on September 7, 1822. On October 12, Pedro was declared the first emperor of Brazil and crowned Pedro I on 1 December.
Although the first attempts to free the country from Portuguese rule adopted republican ideals —as was the case with the Mining Conspiracy, led by Tiradentes—, in the XIX almost all Brazilians were in favor of the monarchy, and republicanism had little support. The Brazilian War of Independence spread throughout almost the entire territory, while the main Battles were fought in the northern, northeastern, and southern regions. The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on March 8, 1824, and independence was recognized by Portugal on August 29, 1825, in the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro.
After being approved by municipal councils throughout the country, the first constitution was promulgated on March 25, 1824. On April 7, 1831, Pedro I abdicated when he returned to Europe to regain the throne of his family, leaving his five-year-old son, Pedro II, as successor. As the new emperor could not exercise his functions, a regency was created.
Disputes between different political factions led to rebellions and an unstable and almost anarchic regency. However, the rebel groups were not against the monarchy, although some declared the secession of their provinces as independent republics, but only while Pedro II was unable to govern. The most notorious case was that of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, which, through the War of the Farrapos, proclaimed themselves independent of the Brazilian Empire. Due to this, Pedro II was declared emperor prematurely and "Brazil enjoyed nearly half a century of internal peace and rapid economic progress".
During the 59 years of the reign of Pedro II, Brazil was victorious in three international wars —the Great War, the War against Aguirre and the War of the Triple Alliance—, in addition to witnessing the consolidation of representative democracy, mainly due to successive elections and freedom of the press.
Slavery died out in a slower but steady process, beginning in 1850 with the end of the international slave trade, and ending with the complete abolition of slavery in 1888. However, since independence the The slave population was experiencing a decline: in 1823, 29% of the population was made up of slaves, but by 1887 this percentage had dropped to 5%.
When the Empire was overthrown, on November 15, 1889, there was little interest on the part of the Brazilian people to change the form of government from a monarchy to a republic, since Pedro II was at the height of his popularity among their subjects. The republican military coup was supported by the former slave owners who refused to accept the abolition of slavery agreed in 1888 by the monarchical government.
The First Republic and the Vargas era
Since the republican government was initially little more than a military dictatorship, the new Constitution promulgated in 1891 called for direct elections for the year 1894. This document also abolished the restrictions on the right to vote that existed in the monarchical period, when they were only granted to those who had a certain level of earnings, although he maintained the open —and not secret— character of the vote and, among other measures, only literate men were allowed to participate, at a time when the majority of the Brazilian population was illiterate.
During the first period of the republican government, Brazil maintained a peaceful and neutral foreign policy, which was only interrupted by the Acre War, and the First World War. Internally, after the crisis of the saddle, and the Armada Revolt in 1891, began a prolonged cycle of financial, political and social instability that would last until the 1920s, keeping the country devastated by various rebellions that little by little undermined the regime. Among these, the Paulista Revolution, the Copacabana Fort Revolution, the Commune of Manaus and the Prestes Column stand out. Finally, in 1930 Getúlio Vargas, who had been a presidential candidate in that year's elections, led a coup and assumed the presidency of the republic with the support of the military.
Vargas and the military, who claimed to assume the presidency temporarily in order to implement democratic reforms, dissolved Congress and continued their rule under a state of emergency, substituting state governors for their allies. In 1932, Under the pretext of implementing the promises of democratic reforms, the São Paulo oligarchy tried to regain power through a revolt, and in 1935 the communists revolted, but both movements were defeated. However, the communist threat served as a pretext to prevent the previously stipulated elections, and also for Vargas and the military to carry out another coup in 1937, establishing a dictatorship. In May 1938 there was another failed attempt to seize power, this time by the Brazilian fascists.
Brazil remained neutral during the first years of World War II, but various international events and pressures, including a possible invasion of the country, led the country to align itself in favor of the United States during the Rio Conference in 1942, breaking diplomatic relations with the Axis powers. In retaliation, the navies of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy extended their campaign of submarine warfare to Brazil, and after months of continuous sinking of Brazilian merchant ships and intense Public pressure led the government to declare war on them in August of that year, although an expeditionary force was not sent to fight in Europe until 1944. With the Allied victory the following year and the end of the two European totalitarian regimes, Vargas's position became untenable and he was quickly deposed by another military coup. In 1946, democracy was restored and General Eurico Gaspar Dutra was elected. do president. Vargas returned to power at the end of 1950 after being democratically elected, but committed suicide in August 1954, in the midst of a political crisis.
Military dictatorship and the contemporary era
Several short-lived provisional governments succeeded the late President Vargas. Juscelino Kubitschek became the new president in 1956 and took a conciliatory stance with the political opposition that allowed him to govern without major crises. The economy and industrial sector they grew considerably, but their greatest conquest was the construction of the new capital, Brasília, inaugurated in 1960. His successor, Jânio Quadros, resigned in 1961, less than a year after taking office. His vice-president, João Goulart, he took the presidency, but aroused strong political opposition, and was deposed by the 1964 coup that resulted in a military regime.
The new regime was intended to be transitory, but it became a full dictatorship with the enactment of Institutional Law Number Five of 1968. The repression of opponents of the dictatorship, including urban guerrillas, was harsh, but not as brutal as in other Latin American countries. The military regime encouraged the colonization of indigenous peoples' territories, squandered natural resources, set up concentration camps for indigenous peoples, and murdered at least 8,000 indigenous people. Extraordinary economic growth, known as "the Brazilian miracle", the regime reached its highest level of popularity in the years of greatest repression.
General Ernesto Geisel assumed the presidency of the country in 1974 and began his project of redemocratization through a process that he claimed would be "slow, gradual, and sure." Geisel put an end to the military indiscipline that had plagued the country. country since 1889, as well as with the torture of political prisoners, censorship of the media and, in 1978, after annulling Institutional Law Number Five, with the dictatorship itself. However, the military regime continued with its successor, General João Figueiredo, to complete the full transition to democracy. The Truth Commission established in 2011 by the Brazilian government counted 434 fatalities and disappeared by the dictatorship; it also collected testimonies from those tortured —among whom was the future president Rousseff— while confirming the cooperation of some multinationals with interests in Brazil in the political and union repression.
After the popular movement Diretas Já, the civilians returned to power in 1985, inaugurating the so-called New Republic, with the election of opposition member Tancredo Neves, who, however, did not take office due to his death from a serious illness. His vice president, José Sarney, assumed the presidency, becoming unpopular throughout his tenure due to the worsening of the economic crisis and hyperinflation inherited from the military regime, even with a brief initial euphoria over his Cruzado Plan. Sarney continued the government program of Tancredo Neves by establishing, in 1987, a National Constituent Assembly, which promulgated the current Federal Constitution of Brazil. However, the failure of the Sarney government in the economic field and the consequent political attrition allowed the election, in 1989, of the almost unknown Fernando Collor, who later suffered a political trial by the National Congress of Brazil in 1992, in 1992, with his vice president, Itamar Franco, taking office as a consequence.
From the new cabinet appointed by Itamar Franco, with members of practically all the parties that approved Collor's dismissal. Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC) stood out as Minister of Finance and coordinator of the successful Real Plan, which brought stability to the Brazilian economy, after decades of numerous economic plans from previous governments that had failed to control hyperinflation. As a result, FHC was elected president in the 1994 elections and again in 1998. The peaceful transition of power to his main opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, belonging to the Workers' Party (PT), showed that Brazil had finally managed to achieve the political stability it so longed for.
In the 2010 elections, Dilma Rousseff became the first woman to be elected president. In June 2013 popular demonstrations broke out in the country for various social demands. After the polarized 2014 elections, Rousseff was re-elected, however, in 2015 her rejection reached almost 70% amid popular protests, at the same time that several politicians were being investigated by the Federal Police. In April 2016, the Chamber initiated an impeachment trial against the president, which was ratified by the Senate in May. Rousseff was ousted on August 31, and her vice president, Michel Temer, took office. In 2018, former President Lula was convicted and imprisoned for corruption and money laundering in the framework of Operation Lava Jato. In the elections of that year, the candidate Jair Bolsonaro, of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), was elected president, who defeated Fernando Haddad, of the Workers' Party (PT), in the second round, with the support of 55.13% of the voters. valid votes. In the second round of the 2022 elections, former President Lula was elected for the third time with the support of 50.9% of the electorate, in the closest election in history, in addition to being the only person elected three times as president of Brazil., while Bolsonaro became the first Brazilian president unable to be re-elected after redemocratization when this figure was implemented.
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On January 8, 2023, supporters of Bolsonaro attempted a coup that was condemned by the international community.
Government and politics
The Brazilian Federation is formed by the indissoluble union of three different political entities: the states, the municipalities, and the Federal District. The Union is made up of the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities, they are the "spheres of the government". The Federation is defined by five fundamental principles: sovereignty, citizenship, dignity of the person, the social values of work and free initiative, and political pluralism. The classic division of power into three—executive, legislative, and judicial—is officially established by the constitution. The executive and the legislature are organized independently in the three spheres of government, while the judiciary is only organized at the national level. federal and in the state and Federal District spheres.
All members of the executive and legislature are directly elected.Judges and other court officials are appointed after passing an admission test.Voting is compulsory for literate citizens between the ages of 18 and 70, and It is optional for illiterates and those aged 16 to 18 or over 70.
Brazil is a democratic republic with a presidential system. The president is the head of state and head of government of the Union, and is elected for a four-year term, with the possibility of re-election for a second term consecutive. He is also responsible for the appointment of the ministers of state, who help him in the government.The current head of the country is President Lula da Silva since January 1, 2023.
The legislative headquarters of each political entity are the main sources of Law in Brazil. The National Congress is the bicameral legislature of the Federation, made up of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. The judicial authorities only exercise jurisdictional functions, almost exclusively.
Fifteen political parties are represented in Congress, this is because it is common for politicians to switch parties and thus the proportion of parliamentary seats held by parties changes regularly. Along with several minor parties, four political parties stand out in the elections: the Workers' Party (PT), the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) and the Brazil Union (UNIÃO). Almost all governmental and administrative functions are carried out by authorities and agencies of the executive branch.
Law
Brazilian law is based on the legal tradition of continental law. Thus, civil law concepts prevail over common law practices. Most of the Brazilian legislation is codified, although the non-codified laws are a significant part of the system, playing a complementary role. The works of doctrine, by jurists or academics, have a strong influence on the creation of laws and judicial processes. The legal system has as its primary norm the Federal Constitution, which was promulgated on October 5, 1988 and is the Fundamental Law of the country. All other legal norms and court decisions must correspond to its principles. The states have their own constitutions, which must not be in contradiction with the Federal Constitution. For their part, the municipalities and the Federal District do not have constitutions. their own, but organic laws. Legislative entities are the main source of laws, although, in certain matters, bodies of the judicial and executive branches can dictate legal norms.
The administration of justice corresponds to the entities of the judiciary, although the Federal Constitution allows the Federal Senate to intervene in legal decisions on very special occasions. There are also specialized jurisdictions such as the military court, the labor court and the electoral court. The highest court is the Federal Supreme Court. During the last decades, this system has been criticized due to the slowness with which decisions are issued: judicial processes can take several years to resolve and, in some cases, it takes more than a decade before final judgments are handed down..
Foreign Relations
Although some social and economic problems prevent Brazil from exercising effective global power, the country is a political and economic leader in Latin America. However, this claim is partially rejected by other countries, such as Argentina and Mexico, who oppose Brazil's goal of obtaining a permanent seat as the region's representative on the United Nations Security Council. Between World War II and the 1990s, democratic and military governments sought to expand Brazil's influence in the world, following an industrial and independent foreign policy. The country currently aims to strengthen its ties with other South American countries and exercise multilateral diplomacy, through organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
Brazil's current foreign policy is based on the country's position as a regional power in Latin America, a leader among developing countries and one of the emerging superpowers. Brazil has also become a major donor international development aid. Its activity was especially concentrated in Africa at the beginning of the XX century, where it allocated more than 60% of its aid; however, after the economic crisis of 2014, the government of Dilma Rousseff carried out a change in this policy, devoting more aid to the Ibero-American region. In Africa, its relationship is remarkably intense with the Portuguese-speaking countries, which receive more than 80% of Brazilian aid on the continent. In general, Brazilian foreign policy has been reflected in multilateralism, the peaceful resolution of disputes and non-intervention in the affairs of other countries. The Constitution also determines that the country should seek economic, political, social and cultural integration with the Latin American nations.
Armed Forces
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The Brazilian Armed Forces comprise the Brazilian Army, the Brazilian Navy and the Brazilian Air Force are the largest military force in Latin America, the second largest in all of the Americas and also one of the best prepared armed forces in the world. The country was considered the ninth largest military power on the planet in 2021. They have participated in World War II and in peace missions under UN mandate.
Unlike the other armed forces in Latin America, a significant part of the Brazilian defense material is manufactured locally through industries such as Embraer, Avibras, AMRJ and others that, in addition, are also exported to other countries, income from the Defense Industrial Base (IDB) with exports reach US $1.7 billion by 2021.
The Niterói Class frigates, Tupi Class and Riachuelo Class submarines, transport aircraft such as the Embraer C-390 Millennium, Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano training and A-1 AMX combat are made in the country. Also land material such as the IMBEL IA2 rifle, armored VBTP-MR Guarani, Astros II rocket launcher as well as ammunition such as bombs, missiles and rockets.
The state military police and military fire departments are described by the Constitution as auxiliary forces and army reserves, although they are under the control of the state governments. The Brazilian Air Force is the aerial warfare division of the the Brazilian Armed Forces, the largest air force in Latin America, and has about 700 manned aircraft in service and a personnel of about 67,000 military personnel.
The Brazilian Navy is responsible for naval operations and the security of Brazilian territorial waters. It is the oldest component of the Armed Forces and has the largest number of naval riflemen in Latin America, estimated at 15,000 men, who make up the Special Operations Battalion of Naval Riflemen. The Brazilian Navy also has an elite group specialized in recovering ships and naval installations, the Agrupamiento de Buzos de Combate, a unit specially trained to protect Brazilian oil platforms along its coast. It is the last Latin American navy in which an aircraft carrier operated, the NAe São Paulo (A-12), at a time when only ten navies in the world operated such a type of ship.
The Brazilian Army is in charge of military operations on land and has the largest number of troops in Latin America, around 290,000 soldiers. It also has the largest number of armored vehicles in South America, including armored personnel carriers and main battle tanks. The army has a large, elite unit specialized in unconventional missions, the Special Operations Brigade, unique in Latin America, in addition to a Strategic Rapid Action Force, made up of highly mobilizable and prepared units (the Special Operations Brigade, the Parachute Infantry Brigade, the 1.er Jungle Infantry Battalion and the 12th Light Infantry Brigade) to act quickly in any part of the national territory, in case of a external aggression. In addition to the above, there are also combat specialist units in each of the characteristic biomes of the Brazilian territory. The jungle units are internationally renowned, recognized s as the best combat units in this environment in the world. They are made up of indigenous people from the Amazon region and by soldiers from other regions, professional specialists in jungle warfare. Finally, as in Brazil the service was adopted Mandatory military, its military strength is one of the largest in the world, with an estimated strength of over 1,600,000 reserve-age men per year.
Human Rights
In terms of human rights, regarding membership of the seven bodies of the International Bill of Human Rights, which include the Human Rights Committee (HRC), Brazil has signed or ratified:
 Brazil | International treaties | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CESCR | CCPR | CERD | CED | CEDAW | CAT | CRC | MWC | CRPD | |||||||||
| CESCR | CESCR-OP | CCPR | CCPR-OP1 | CCPR-OP2-DP | CEDAW | CEDAW-OP | CAT | CAT-OP | CRC | CRC-OP-AC | CRC-OP-SC | CRPD | CRPD-OP | ||||
| Pertenence |   |  | |  | | | | | | | |  | | | | | |
 Signed and ratified,  signed, but not ratified,  neither signed nor ratified,  without information,  it has agreed to sign and ratify the body concerned, but also recognizes the competence to receive and process individual communications from the competent bodies. | |||||||||||||||||
Status of major international human rights instruments
Territorial organization
Brazil is a federation constituted by the indissoluble union of 26 member states, a Federal District and municipalities. The states and municipalities have the nature of a legal person under public law, therefore, like any person in the territory national (citizen or foreigner), has rights and obligations established by the 1988 Constitution. States and municipalities are characterized by having self-management, self-government and self-organization, that is, they elect their leaders and political representatives and manage their public affairs without interference from other municipalities, states or the Union. To allow self-management, the Federal Constitution defines which taxes are collected by each unit of the federation, as well as the way in which they can be distributed among them. The states and municipalities, in response to the desire of their population expressed through the vote, can be divided or join; however, the Constitution does not grant them the right to secede from the Union.
The states of the federation are grouped into five geographic regions: Center-West, Northeast, North, Southeast and South. This division has a legal character and was first proposed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 1969. In addition to territorial proximity, IBGE took into account other natural aspects for the division of the country, such as the climate, relief, vegetation and hydrography; for this reason, the regions are also known as the "natural regions of Brazil". The regions, as defined by law, do not have their own legal personality and citizens do not elect representatives from each region either. Consequently, there is no type of political autonomy of the Brazilian regions like the one existing in other countries.
The federative units are autonomous subnational entities (self-government, self-legislation and self-collection) endowed with their own government and constitutions that together make up the Federative Republic of Brazil. Currently the country is politically and administratively divided into 27 federative units: 26 states and one Federal District. The executive power is exercised by a governor elected every four years. The judicial power is exercised by the state courts of first and second instance that oversee the administration of justice. The Federal District has characteristics common to the states and municipalities, although unlike the member states, it cannot be divided into municipalities. On the other hand, you can collect taxes both at the state level and at the municipal level.
Municipalities are a territorial constituency endowed with legal personality and with certain administrative autonomy. They are the smallest autonomous units of the Federation and each of them has its own Organic Law that defines its political organization, although it is limited by the Federal Constitution. There are about 5,565 municipalities throughout the national territory, some with a larger population. than that of several countries in the world (São Paulo has about 11 million inhabitants) and others with less than a thousand inhabitants; while some cover an area larger than several countries (Altamira, in Pará, is almost twice the size of Portugal), others are less than 4 km²).
The exclusive economic zone of Brazil, also called the "Blue Amazon", is the Brazilian territorial waters that occupy an area of approximately 3.5 million km², although it could be expanded to 4.4 million km² in response to the claim Brazil on the United Nations Commission on Limits, which proposes to extend the continental shelf by 900,000 km² of marine soil and subsoil that the country will be able to exploit.
Geography
Brazilian territory is crossed by two imaginary geographical lines: the equator, which passes through the mouth of the Amazon, and the Tropic of Capricorn, which crosses the city of São Paulo. The country occupies a vast area along of the east coast of South America and covers much of the interior of the continent, 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, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana to the north. In this way, it has a common border with all the countries of South America, with the exception of Ecuador and Chile. It also has one of the 10 longest and most extensive land borders in the world that it shares with Bolivia. The Brazilian territory also encompasses a series of archipelagos, such as Fernando de Noronha, the Atoll of the Rocks, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and Trinidad and Martín Vaz. The size, relief, climate, and natural resources make Brazil a geographically diverse country.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, after Russia, Canada, China and the United States, as well as being the third largest in the Americas, with a total area of 8,515,770 km², including 157,630 km² of water. Its territory spans four time zones, from UTC-5 in the western states, to UTC-3 for the eastern states (and the official time of Brazil) and UTC-2 for the Atlantic islands.
Brazilian topography is also very diverse, including various hills, mountains, plains, plateaus, and hills. Much of the terrain is located at an altitude of between 200 and 800 meters above sea level. Most of the highlands are located mainly in the southern part of the country. The Brazilian northwest is a plateau composed of broad terrain interrupted by some hills. The southeast region is more rugged, with a complex mass of mountain ranges and mountain ranges that reach altitudes of more than 1,200 meters above sea level. These features include the Serra da Mantiqueira, the Serra do Espinazo, and the Serra do Mar. In the north, the Guiana Shield forms a major drainage trench, separating the rivers that run to the south of the Amazon basin from the rivers that flow into the Orinoco river system of Venezuela to the north. The highest point in Brazil is Pico da Neblina, on the border with Venezuela, at 2,994 meters above sea level.
The country is bathed exclusively by the Atlantic Ocean, a section of the South American coastline that is generally not very indented that goes from Cape Orange, in the north, to Chuy Creek, in the south, with a length of 7,491 km — which increases to 9198 km if the coastal outflows and inflows are considered—; this makes it the 15th longest coastline in the world. Of the 26 Brazilian states, nine are landlocked, as is the Federal District. Most of the 17 coastal states have their capitals located near the coast, except Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), Curitiba (Paraná), São Paulo (São Paulo), Teresina (Piauí), Belém (Pará) and Macapá (Amapa). Porto Alegre, Belém and Macapá are located near large navigable rivers, therefore accessible from the coast.
Brazil has a dense and complex river system, one of the largest in the world, with eight major hydrographic basins that drain into the Atlantic. The most important rivers are the Amazon—the largest river in the world in both extension (6937.08 km) and in terms of water volume (12,500 million liters per minute)- the Paraná —its largest tributary— the Iguazú —which gives rise to the Iguazú falls—, the Negro, San Francisco, Xingú, Madeira and the Tapajós.
Climate
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The climate of Brazil has a wide variety of climatic conditions in a large region with varied topography, although most of the country can be considered to have a tropical climate. According to the Köppen system, Brazil has with six main climatic subtypes: equatorial, tropical, semi-arid, high-altitude tropical, temperate and subtropical. Different climatic conditions produce environments that vary from tropical forest in the north and semi-arid regions of the northeast, to temperate coniferous forest in the south and tropical savannahs in the center. Many other regions have totally different microclimates.
The equatorial climate is the one that prevails in much of northern Brazil. There is no dry season as such, although there are some variations in the amount of precipitation between each period of the year. The average temperature is 25 °C, which has a greater variation between day and night than between seasons.. Rainfall in central Brazil is scarcer, characteristic of a savannah climate. This region is as extensive as the Amazon basin, but with a very different climate, since it is located further south and on a lower altitude. In the northeast, the difference in rainfall between the seasons is even more extreme, as this region with a semi-arid climate generally receives less than 800 mm of rain, most of which falls over a period of three to five months. each year and, when there is less rain, there are long periods of drought. The "Great Drought" of 1877-1878, was the most serious on record in the country and caused the death of about half a million of people.
To the south of Bahia, starting from São Paulo, the distribution of rainfall changes, since precipitation occurs throughout the year. The south and southeast region have temperate climate conditions, with cool winters and an average annual temperature that does not exceed 18 °C; winter frosts are quite common, as well as the occasional fall of snow in the highest areas.
Climate change
The greenhouse effect of excess carbon dioxide and methane makes the Amazon rainforest hotter and dryer, resulting in more forest fires in Brazil. Parts of the rainforest are at risk of becoming savannah.
In the Paris Agreement, Brazil promised to reduce its emissions, but the current Bolsonaro government has been criticized for doing very little to limit climate change or adapt to climate change.Flora, fauna and environment
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The great territorial extension of Brazil includes different ecosystems, such as the Amazon, recognized for hosting the greatest biological diversity in the world, the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, which also support great biodiversity, for which Brazil is classified as a megadiverse country.
Brazil's rich wildlife reflects the variety of natural habitats. Scientists estimate that the total number of plant and animal species in Brazil is approximately four million. Large Brazilian mammals include pumas, jaguars, ocelots, vinegar foxes, foxes, coyameles, tapirs, anteaters, sloths, possums and armadillos. Deer are abundant in the south and many species of platyrrhini can be found in the northern tropical forest. According to 1993 data, Brazil was then home to 69 of the 244 known primate species on the planet Concern for the environment grew in response to worldwide interest in environmental issues.
Brazil's natural heritage is seriously threatened by cattle ranching, agriculture, logging, mining, resettlement, oil and natural gas extraction, overfishing, wildlife trade, dams and infrastructure, water pollution, climate change, fire, and invasive species. In many areas of the country, the natural environment is threatened by urban development. The construction of highways in the midst of vegetation, such as the BR-230 and BR-163, opened previously isolated areas to agriculture and commerce; dams flooded valleys and wilderness habitats, and mines scarred the land that altered the landscape.
In December 2016, according to EMBRAPA studies, preserved native vegetation covered 61% of the Brazilian territory. Agriculture occupied 8% of the national territory while pastures covered 19.7%.
Economy
Exports and imports
| Exports to | Imports | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Percentage | Country | Percentage |
China China
| 31.7% | ChinaChina
| 22.7% |
 United States
| 10.2% | United States
| 18.3% |
 Argentina
| 4% | Germany Germany
| 6.05% |
Netherlands Netherlands
| 3.12% | Argentina
| 4.78% |
| GermanyGermany
| 2.05% | South Korea South Korea
| 2.86% |
| Other | 48.93 % | Other | 45.31 % |
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According to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and the second largest in the continent, behind the United States, the ninth largest economy in the world according to its nominal GDP and the eighth largest in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. The country has several large and developed economic sectors such as agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and services, as well as a large labor market. In recent years, Brazilian exports they have been growing, creating a new generation of business magnates. Major export products include aircraft, electronic equipment, automobiles, alcohol, textiles, footwear, iron, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans, and corned beef. The country has been expanding its presence in the international financial markets and in the commodity markets and is part of a group of four emerging economies called BRIC.
In 1994, a fixed exchange rate against the US dollar was established for Brazil's currency, the Brazilian real. However, after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 1998 Russian crisis, and a series of adverse events that followed, the Central Bank of Brazil temporarily shifted its monetary policy toward a managed fluctuation regime while it was going through the crisis. currency, until the modification of the fluctuating free exchange regime was defined in January 1999. In mid-2002, the country received a rescue payment of US$30.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund. The Central Bank of Brazil repaid the IMF loan in 2005, although the term to repay the debt did not expire until 2006. One of the issues that the Central Bank of Brazil recently dealt with was an excess of short-term speculative capital flows, which may have contributed to a decline in the value of the dollar against the real during this period. However, long-term foreign direct investment (FDI), less speculative investment in production, was estimated at U S$193.8 billion for 2007. Inflation monitoring and control currently plays an important role in the Central Bank's functions to set short-term interest rates as a measure of its monetary policy.
Among the most important Brazilian companies are: Brasil Foods, Perdigão, Sadia and JBS (food sector); Embraer (air sector); Havaianas and Calçados Azaleia (shoes); Petrobras (oil sector); Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (mining); Marcopolo and Busscar (cars); Gerdau (steel industry) and Organizações Globo (communications). Brazil is seen by many economists as a country with great development potential, just like Russia, India and China -the BRIC countries-. Some economic specialists, such as the analyst Peter Gutmann, affirm that in 2050 Brazil will be able to reach the standard of living statistically obtained in 2005 in the countries of the Euro Zone. According to data from Goldman Sachs, in that same year Brazil will have a GDP of US$ 11,366,000 and a per capita income of US$ 49,759, making it the fourth largest economy on the planet.
The Brazilian economy —recently classified as "investment grade"— is diverse, encompassing agriculture, industry and a varied number of services. Currently, the country has managed to establish its global leadership thanks to the development of its economy. The economic strength that it has shown is due, in part, to the global boom in the prices of commodities and markets for exports, such as beef and soybeans. The outlook for the Brazilian economy also improved thanks to the discovery of huge oil and natural gas reserves in the Santos Basin. By becoming a world power in agriculture and natural resources, Brazil reached its greatest economic boom of the last three decades.
In 2007, agriculture and associated sectors, such as forestry, logging and fishing, accounted for 6.1% of the gross domestic product, a performance that places agribusiness in a prominent position in the trade balance, despite trade barriers and subsidy policies adopted by developed countries. According to a document published in 2010 by the WHO, Brazil is the third largest exporter of agricultural products in the world, behind only the United States and the Union European.
The automobile, steel, petrochemical, computer, aeronautical, and durable consumer goods industries account for 30.8% of GDP. Industrial activity is geographically concentrated in the metropolitan areas of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Campinas, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Salvador de Bahía, Recife and Fortaleza. The country is responsible for three fifths of the industrial production of the South American economy and participates in various economic blocs, such as Mercosur, the G- 20 and the Cairns Group.
Brazil trades regularly with more than a hundred countries and 74% of exported goods are manufactured or semi-manufactured. Its largest trading partners are: the European Union (26%), Mercosur and Latin America (25%), Asia (17%) and the United States (15%). It has a certain degree of technological sophistication, since machines ranging from submarines to aircraft are developed in the country, in addition to being present in the space race with a Light Vehicle Launch Center and being the only country in the southern hemisphere to integrate a team construction site for the International Space Station (ISS). It is also a pioneer in the search for oil in deep waters, where 73% of its reserves are located. In addition, it was the first capitalist economy to bring together the ten largest automobile assembly companies in its territory.
In 2019, Brazil was the world's largest producer of sugarcane, soybeans, coffee and orange, the second largest producer of papaya, the third largest producer of corn, tobacco, and pineapple, the fourth producer of cotton and cassava, fifth producer of coconut and lemon, sixth producer of cocoa and avocado, ninth producer of rice, tenth producer of tomato and eleventh producer of grapes and apple. The country is also a large producer of bananas, but almost all of the production is for domestic consumption. Finally, Brazil also produces large quantities of beans, peanuts, potatoes, carrots, cashews, tangerines, persimmons, strawberries, guarana, guava, açaí, Brazil nuts, yerba matte, among others. Sugarcane is used for the manufacture of sugar, but also for ethanol that is intended to operate a fleet of vehicles (the ethanol sector is a biofuel).
In the production of animal proteins, Brazil is today one of the largest countries in the world. In 2019, the country was the world's largest exporter of chicken meat. It was also the second-largest producer of beef, the world's third-largest producer of milk, the world's fourth-largest producer of pork, and the seventh-largest producer. egg producer in the world.
In the mining sector, Brazil stands out in the extraction of iron ore (where it is the second world exporter), copper, gold, bauxite (one of the 5 largest producers in the world), manganese (one of the 5 largest producers in the world), tin (one of the largest producers in the world), niobium (concentrates 98% of the world's known niobium reserves) and nickel. Regarding precious stones, Brazil is the world's largest producer of amethyst, topaz, agate and one of the main producers of tourmaline, emerald, aquamarine and garnet.
The secondary sector is based on industries. Brazil is the industrial leader in Latin America. In the food industry, in 2019, Brazil was the second largest exporter of processed foods in the world. In 2016, the country was the 2nd largest producer of pulp in the world and the 8th largest producer of paper. In the footwear industry, in 2019, Brazil ranked 4th among world producers. In 2019, the country was the 8th largest vehicle producer and the 9th largest steel producer in the world. In 2018, the chemical industry in Brazil was the 8th in the world. In the textile industry, Brazil, although it was among the 5 largest world producers in 2013, is very little integrated into world trade.
One of the most important cases of corruption in Brazil is that of the Odebrecht company. Since the 1980s, Odebrecht has spent several billion dollars in bribes to bribe lawmakers into voting for the group. At the municipal level, Odebrecht's corruption was aimed at "stimulating privatizations," particularly in water and sewage management.
Tourism
Tourism in Brazil is an important activity in various regions of the country. With 6,306,000 foreign visitors in 2015, Brazil is the first destination in the international tourism market in South America and ranks second in Latin America in terms of international tourists, after Mexico.
Expenditures by foreign tourists visiting Brazil reached 4.9 billion dollars in the first half of 2011, 15.5% more than in the same period in 2010.
The country accounted for 3.4% of the international tourist flow in the American continent in 2010. In 2005, tourism contributed 3.2% of the national income derived from goods and services, and was responsible for the creation of 7% of direct and indirect jobs. In 2006, an estimated 1.87 million people were employed in the sector: 768,000 formal jobs (41%) and 1.1 million informal positions (59%). National tourism represents a fundamental part of the sector, accounting for 51 million trips in 2005.
Science and technology
Brazilian scientific production began in the first decades of the XIX century, when the royal family and the Portuguese nobility, guided by the prince-regent Juan VI of Portugal, they arrived in Rio de Janeiro fleeing from the invasion of Portugal by Napoleon Bonaparte's army. Until then, Brazil had been a Portuguese colony without universities or scientific organizations, in contrast to the American colonies of the Spanish Empire, which despite having a significant percentage of the illiterate population, had had a considerable number of universities since the 19th century XVI.
The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) is the government agency in charge of directing, managing and fostering the development and promotion of scientific and technological activities. However, technological research in Brazil is carried out largely part by public universities and research institutes. Some of the most notable Brazilian technological development centers are the Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCruz), Butantan, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária and INPE institutes.
Brazil has one of the most developed space programs in Latin America through its Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), supported by the aerospace and technological hub located mainly in the São José dos Campos region with high-tech manufacturers such as Embraer o Avibras, its launch center, the Alcântara Launch Center (CLA), makes regular suborbital launches and has also signed a contract with private companies such as Virgin Orbit to use its infrastructure for space launches.
The country has developed and produces a series of spacecraft from the Probe family, today retired and replaced by the VS, a class of suborbital vehicles capable of microgravity scientific flights at altitudes up to 950 km with a payload of up to half a ton and to count on dozens of flights from the country or by other space agencies such as the German DLR. It has also designed and built a series of observation satellites and other scientific purposes. It has also made the first flight of the Scramjet engine of the 14-X hypersonic vehicle, launched from the CLA as a payload of a VSB-30 V32 rocket.
On October 14, 1997, the Brazilian Space Agency signed an agreement with NASA to provide parts for the ISS. This agreement gave the possibility for Marcos Pontes, aboard the Soyuz vehicle, to transform on March 30, 2006. the first Brazilian astronaut to orbit the planet. In June 2021, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCTI) and the AEB signed the agreement that formalizes Brazil's participation in the Artemisa Program. It was the first in South America to sign up to the Artemis Accords and the 10th to officially participate in the collaboration. Brazilian government officials say the country will produce and develop robotic equipment to help with lunar exploration.
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The uranium enriched at the Resende Nuclear Fuel Factory, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, meets the nation's energy demand and nuclear fuel has also been exported in the form of UO2 powder enriched to 4.15% for Argentina, for use in the Atucha nuclear reactor and the Carem-25 modular reactor. The country is building its first nuclear submarine, the SSN Álvaro Alberto, a development of the Riachuelo-class submarines that are in the production run.
Brazil is also one of the countries with synchrotron particle accelerators in operation, the research instrument for physics, chemistry, materials science and biology is located in the Brazilian city of Campinas the Sirius particle accelerator, with a magnetic ring of 518 meters and 3 GeV of power.
The country is the only one in Latin America to have supercomputers on the Top500 list, the world ranking of the most powerful computers, the most powerful being the Pegaso inaugurated in 2022 by the Petrobras company, which has a processing capacity of 21 PetaFlops, 678 Terabytes of RAM and a 400 Gbps network, the equipment almost doubles the capacity of current supercomputers Dragon (14 Petaflops) and Atlas (8.9 Petaflops) combined.
Brazil also carries out experiments in the area of nuclear fusion, with three tokamaks (experimental reactors for the study of plasma fusion) and the INPE (National Institute for Space Research) operates the ETE (Tokamak Spherical Experiment) designed and built in the country.
A large number of scientific personalities and inventors from various fields of knowledge are Brazilian, such as Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão, Roberto Landell de Moura and Francisco João de Azevedo, Alberto Santos Dumont, Conrado Wessel, Mário Schenberg, José Leite Lopes, Leopoldo Nachbin, Paulo Ribenboim, César Lattes, Andreas Pavel, Nélio José Nicolai, Nelson Bardini, Vital Brasil, Carlos Chagas, Oswaldo Cruz, Henrique da Rocha Lima, Mauricio Rocha e Silva and Euryclides Zerbini.
Science in Brazil, from 2011 to 2016, published more than 250,000 articles in the Web of Science database in all areas of knowledge, with one of the highest growth in scientific production among all nations and ranked 11th among world knowledge producers, contributing 2.12% of articles from 183 countries.
Infrastructure
Transportation
With a road network of about 1.8 million km, of which 215,000 km are paved, highways are the main means of communication for cargo and passenger transport. The first investments for The construction of highways occurred in the 1920s, in the government of Washington Luís, although Vargas and Gaspar Dutra gave continuity to the project. President Juscelino Kubitschek (1956–1961), who conceived and built the capital Brasília, was another driver of road construction. Kubitschek was also responsible for the installation of the big automobile manufacturers in the country —Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors arrived in Brazil during his government—, so one of the points used to attract them was, evidently, support for the construction of roads. Over the years, other major car manufacturers have established themselves in the country, such as Fiat, Renault, Peugeot, Citroën, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Toyota. This allows Brazil to be the seventh most important country in the automobile industry.
The country has about 14,200 km of highways, 5,000 km in the State of São Paulo alone. Currently it is possible to travel from Rio Grande, in the extreme south of the country, to Brasília (2,580 km) or Casimiro de Abreu, in the State of Rio de Janeiro (2,045 km), only on divided highways.
There are about four thousand airports and aerodromes in Brazil, 721 of these are paved runways, including landing areas. It is the second country with the largest number of airports in the world, only behind the United States. Guarulhos International Airport, located in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, is the largest and most important airport nationwide, much of this movement is due to the country's merchandise and passenger traffic and the fact that the airport links São Paulo to practically all the big cities of the world. Brazil has 34 international airports and 2,464 regional ones.
Brazil has an extensive railway network of 28,857 km long, the tenth largest in the world. The Brazilian government is currently trying to encourage this means of transport; An example of these actions is the Rio-São Paulo High Speed Train project, a bullet train that will link the two main metropolises of the country. There are 37 major ports in Brazil, of which the largest is the Port of Santos. The Brazilian river network is one of the largest in the world, with an extension of 50,000 km of navigable rivers.
Energy
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Brazil is the tenth largest consumer of energy on the planet and the third largest in the Western Hemisphere, behind the United States and Canada. Power generation is based on renewable sources, especially hydroelectric power and ethanol, as well as from non-renewable sources of energy, such as oil and natural gas.
At the end of 2021, Brazil had 181.5 GW of installed power. Also at the end of 2021, in terms of installed renewable energy, it was the 2nd country in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (109.4 GW) and biomass (15.8 GW), the 7th country in the world in terms of installed wind power (21.1 GW) and the 14th country in the world in terms of installed solar power (13.0 GW), on track to also become one of the top 10 in the world in solar energy (as of October 2022 it was already in the top 10, with 21 GW installed). At the end of 2021, Brazil was the fourth largest producer of wind energy in the world (72 TWh), behind only China, the US and Germany, and the 11th largest producer of solar power in the world (16.8 TWh). In 2017 it was the 2nd largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world. world.
The main characteristic of the Brazilian energy matrix is that it is much more renewable than the global one. While in 2019 the global matrix was made up of only 14% renewable energy, Brazil's was 45%. Oil and petroleum products made up 34.3% of the matrix; derived from sugar cane, 18%; hydropower, 12.4%; natural gas, 12.2%; firewood and charcoal, 8.8%; various renewable energies, 7%; mineral coal, 5.3%; nuclear, 1.4%, and other non-renewable energies, 0.6%.
In the electrical energy matrix, the difference between Brazil and the world is even greater: while the world only had 25% renewable electrical energy in 2019, Brazil had 83%. The Brazilian electrical matrix was made up of: hydropower, 64.9%; biomass, 8.4%; wind energy, 8.6%; solar energy, 1%; natural gas, 9.3%; petroleum derivatives, 2%; nuclear, 2.5%; coal and derivatives, 3.3%.
As for oil, the Brazilian government has embarked on a decades-long program to reduce dependence on imported oil, which previously accounted for more than 70% of the country's oil needs. Brazil became self-sufficient in oil in 2006-2007. In 2021, the country closed the year as the 7th largest oil producer in the world, with an average of close to 3 million barrels per day, becoming an exporter of the product. At the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, the country exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day for the first time. In January of this year, 3,168 million barrels of oil per day and 138,753 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted. Brazil has the second largest crude oil reserves in South America and is one of the oil producers that more increased their production in recent years.
For its part, nuclear energy represents about 3% of energy production.
Over the past three decades Brazil has worked to create a viable alternative to gasoline. The Pró-álcool program originated in the 1970s in response to the instability of oil prices, taking advantage of intermittent profits. In any case, the majority of Brazilians use the so-called "flex fuel vehicles", which run on ethanol or gasoline, allowing the consumer to supply themselves with the cheapest option at the moment, often ethanol.
Countries with high fuel consumption rates such as India and China are following Brazil's progress in this area. In addition, countries such as Japan and Sweden are importing Brazilian ethanol to help meet their stipulated environmental obligations in the Kyoto Protocol.
Media
Brazilian print media originated in 1808, with the arrival of the Portuguese royal family in the national territory, since previously any publishing activity was prohibited, both for the publication of newspapers and books. The Brazilian printing press was born officially in Rio de Janeiro on May 13, 1808, with the creation of "Impressão Régia", today "National Printing", by Prince Regent John VI of Portugal.
The Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, the first newspaper published in what is now Brazil, began to circulate on September 10, 1808. Currently, print media have consolidated as a means of mass communication with the founding of several newspapers that today are among the best sellers in the country and in the world, such as Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo and Estado de S. Paulo, as well as the publications of Abril and Globo publishing houses.
Radio emerged in Brazil on September 7, 1922,[citation required] being a speech by then President Epitácio Pessoa the first broadcast made in the country; however, the true beginning of the radio occurred on April 20, 1923 with the creation of the "Sociedad de Radio de Rio de Janeiro". In the 1930s, the commercial era of radio began, with the authorization to include advertising in the programming, initiating the hiring of artists and technical development for the sector. In the following decade, with the emergence of radio soap operas and the popularization of programming, the so-called "golden age" of Brazilian radio began, causing an impact in that society similar to what television produces today. With the introduction of television, the radio underwent several transformations, so that humor programs, artists, soap operas, and live programs were replaced by music and public services.
Television officially began in Brazil on September 18, 1950, introduced by Assis Chateaubriand, who founded the first television channel in the country, TV Tupi. Since then, the television industry has been growing, at the same time that various broadcast networks such as Globo, Record, SBT, Bandeirantes and RedeTV were created. Television still represents an important factor in the modern popular culture of Brazilian society. Digital television began on December 2, 2007, initially in the city of São Paulo.
Demographics
The population of Brazil, as recorded in the 2010 population census, is more than 190 million inhabitants —22.31 inhabitants per square kilometer—, with a ratio of men and women of 0.95:1 and 84.36% of the population defined as urban. The population is strongly concentrated in the Southeast (80.3 million inhabitants) and Northeast (53.0 million inhabitants) regions, while the two most extensive, the Center-West and the North that make up 64.12% of the Brazilian territory, have only 29.8 million inhabitants.
Brazil's population increased significantly between 1940 and 1970, due to a decline in the death rate, while the birth rate also declined slightly over the same period. In the 1940s, the annual population growth rate was 2.4%, rising to 3.0% in 1950 and remaining at 2.9% in 1960; life expectancy rose from 44 to 54 years and up to 72.6 years in the 2010s. The population growth rate has tended to decrease since 1960, from 3.04% between the years 1950-1960 to 1. 13% in 2011, and will probably fall to a negative value of −0.29% in 2050, thus completing the demographic transition.
The largest metropolitan areas are those of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte —all in the Southeast region— with 20.8, 11.9 and 6.9 million inhabitants, respectively. Almost all the capitals States are the largest cities in their respective states, with the exception of Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina. There are also several important metropolitan areas that do not belong to the capital of any state, such as Campinas, Santos, Vale do Paraíba (in São Paulo), Vale do Aço (in Minas Gerais) and Vale do Itajaí (in Santa Catarina).
The native of Brazil is called Brazilian or Brazilian, although in the current speech of several Hispanic countries bordering Brazil, both Brazilian and Brazilian are also used as a synonym, as well as these two terms are used in other different contexts, when using them for example as an adjective or as a noun. See that in the formation of demonyms in Spanish, both endings -eño, -ero are used.
Ethnic groups
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According to the 2010 census, 47.1% of the population (about 90.6 million) defined themselves as white, 43.4% (about 82.8 million) as brown, 7.5% (about 14.4 million) as Black, 1.1% (about 2.1 million) as Asian, and 0.3% (about 572,000) as Native American, while 0.07% (about 133 000) did not declare their race. In 2007, the Fundação Nacional do Índio revealed the existence of 67 different isolated tribes, compared to 40 in 2005, making Brazil the country with the largest number of indigenous peoples. isolated in the world.
Most Brazilians are descended from the country's indigenous peoples, Portuguese settlers, European immigrants, and African slaves. Since the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1500s, a considerable number of marriages took place between these three groups. The brown population is a broad category that includes caboclos (white and Indian descendants), mulatos (black and white descendants), and zambos (black and Indian descendants). most of the population of the North, Northeast and Center-West regions. The mulatto population is generally concentrated on the east coast of the Northeast region, from Bahia to Paraíba, in the north of Maranhão, in the south of Minas Gerais and eastern Rio de Janeiro. In the XIX century, Brazil opened its borders to immigrants, and Between 1808 and 1972, more than five million people from more than 60 countries immigrated to Brazil, the majority coming from Portugal, Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, and the Middle East.
Brazil is home to about 240 tribes totaling some 900,000 people, although most of the indigenous people are concentrated in the north. It is also the country with the largest number of uncontacted tribes in the world the world. According to FUNAI, the National Indian Foundation, it is estimated that there are around 77 groups of isolated indigenous people living in the Brazilian Amazon jungle.
Language
The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, which is spoken by almost the entire population and is practically the only language used in the media, business, and for administrative purposes. The exceptions to this are the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, where ñe'engatú, an indigenous South American language, enjoys co-official status along with Portuguese, and the municipalities of Santa Maria de Jetibá and Pomerode, where German also has co-official status. In recent years, the trend of co-officializing other languages in municipalities populated by immigrants or indigenous people in the north of the country has gained strength, through requests from the Inventário Nacional da Diversidade Linguistics (National Inventory of Linguistic Diversity) —established by a decree of President Lula da Silva on December 9, 2010—, who analyzes the proposals to make these languages official in the country.
Brazil is the only country in the Americas whose mother tongue is Portuguese, making this language an important part of Brazil's national identity and providing it with a national culture distinct from its Spanish-speaking neighbors. of Brazil had its own development, influenced mainly by Amerindian and African languages. As a result, Brazilian Portuguese is slightly different, mainly in phonology, from European Portuguese and other Lusophone countries. These differences are comparable to those between River Plate Spanish and Spanish from Spain. In 2008, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which includes representatives from all countries where Portuguese is the official language, reached a agreement to make Portuguese an international language instead of dividing the two divergent dialects of the same language. All CPLP countries were given a period of 2009 to 2014 to adopt the necessary changes.
Minority languages are present throughout the country; there are 180 indigenous languages that predominate in remote areas, and there are other languages that are spoken by immigrants and their descendants. There are significant communities of speakers of German (mostly Hunsrückisch, a dialect of High German) and Italian (mainly Talian, of Venetian origin) in the south of the country, which are influenced by the Portuguese language.
Religion
The constitution establishes freedom of worship and the Church-State separation, making Brazil an officially non-denominational state. The legislation prohibits any type of religious intolerance, although the Catholic Church enjoys a more privileged status. The above can be related to the fact that Catholicism is the predominant faith in the country, so that Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world.
According to the 2010 census, the religions with the most followers in Brazil are Catholicism, which represents 64.6% of the population (123 million), Protestantism in its different aspects (historical and Pentecostal), with the 22.2% (42.3 million) and spiritualism, followed by 2% (3.8 million). 8% (15.3 million) do not follow any religion (atheists, agnostics, deists, etc.).
Education
The Federal Constitution and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB) determine that the federal government, the states or Federal District and the municipalities must manage and organize their respective education systems. Each of these public education systems is responsible for its own maintenance, which generates funds, or the mechanisms and sources of financial resources. The new constitution reserves 25% of the State budget and 18% of federal taxes and municipal fees for education.
According to UNDP data, in 2007 the literacy rate was 90%, which means that 14.1 million Brazilians are illiterate; functional illiteracy rose to 21.6%. Illiteracy is more prevalent in the Northeast, where 19.9% of the population cannot read or write. The UNDP study also revealed that the percentage of people in school was 97% in the age group from 6 to 14 years, and 82.1% in people from 15 to 17 years; the average total study time among those over 10 years of age was 6.9 years.
Higher education begins with graduation from high school, which may offer options for specialization in different academic or professional careers. Depending on the school, students can improve their scholastic background with Stricto sensu or Lato sensu postgraduate courses. To attend an institution of higher education it is compulsory, for the Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education, complete all levels of preschool, basic and secondary education, as long as the student does not suffer from any disability, be it physical, mental, visual or auditory.
Health
The Brazilian public health system —Sistema Único de Saúde— is administered by all levels of government, while private health systems play a complementary role. Public health services are universal, since they are offered to all Brazilian residents free of charge. However, the construction and maintenance of health centers and hospitals is financed with taxes, so that the country annually spends about 9% of its GDP on health expenses. In 2009, in the Brazilian territory there were 1.72 doctors and 2.4 hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants.
Despite all the progress made since the establishment of the universal health system in 1988, there are still several problems in public health in Brazil. In 2006, among the main issues to be resolved were the high infant (2.51%) and maternal (73.1 deaths per 1,000 births) mortality rates. 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 have a considerable impact on the health of the Brazilian population. Finally, some external but preventable factors such as car accidents, violence and suicide caused 14.9% of all deaths in the country.
Main Cities
Culture
The culture of Brazil is the result of the mixture of the traditions and customs of the three groups that shaped the current national identity: the native Amerindians, the Portuguese colonizers, the African and European immigrants. The basis of Brazilian culture derives from the Portuguese culture, because of its strong ties to the Portuguese Empire. Among the Portuguese cultural heritage still present in the country are the Portuguese language, Catholicism, and colonial architectural styles. Similarly, some cultural traits that were strongly influenced by African, indigenous, and other countries' traditions and customs still persist. Europeans. Some specific or regional aspects of their culture and art were also influenced by the contributions of Italian, German, and other European immigrants who came in large numbers to the South and Southeast regions. Amerindians influenced the language and cuisine of the country, while Africans also left their mark on music, dance and religion.
Art
Brazilian art developed in different styles that vary from the Baroque —the predominant style in Brazil before the turn of the XIX century— going through romanticism, modernism, expressionism, cubism, surrealism to abstractionism. However, the earliest examples of art in Brazil are the cave paintings in the Sierra de Capivara National Park, which date back 15,000 years. From pre-Hispanic times, only small pieces of ceramics and stone carvings such as main artistic manifestations. Later, during the colonial era, the Baroque was the most influential artistic movement in Brazilian art, as evidenced by the paintings, sculptures and buildings made in this stage.
Shortly before national independence, the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts was founded, where decades later the main artistic movement of the 19th century arose. > in the country, Brazilian romanticism. During this period, academic art reached its "golden age", with representatives such as Victor Meirelles and Pedro Américo, who created a movement with particular characteristics that distinguished it from its European counterpart. In 1922, the "Semana de Modern Art» in São Paulo, an event that marked the beginning of Brazilian modernism. Artists such as Anita Malfatti, Tarsila do Amaral, Emiliano Di Calvacanti, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, Victor Brecheret, Cândido Portinari and Oscar Niemeyer were some of the main exponents of this movement, while helping to develop and promote the arts in Brazil..
Brazilian cinema dates back to the very birth of this art at the end of the XIX century; in recent years, a new international recognition of its productions has been growing. Several Brazilian films have obtained recognition from international critics and have won some of the most important awards in their category. For example, Ônibus 174 (by José Padilha) is the best-reviewed foreign film in the United States according to Rotten Tomatoes; i> (by Anselmo Duarte) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival; City of God (by Fernando Meirelles) was selected by Time magazine as one of the 100 best movies of all time, among others.
On the contrary, although the theater was introduced to the country by the Jesuits from the time of colonization, this art did not generate interest in the Brazilian public until the 19th century XIX. However, during the dictatorships of the XX century, the theater was subject to government censorship, limiting the number and genre of works that could be exhibited in the country. With the fall of the last military regime, several Brazilian actors have stood out internationally in the field of acting, such as Gerald Thomas, Ulysses Cruz, etc.
Brazilian music encompasses various regional styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. Over time, national music developed into many different styles, including samba, Brazilian popular music, choro, sertanejo, brega, forró, frevo, maracatu, bossa nova, Brazilian rock, and axé. the works of Brazilian composers have achieved international recognition, with Antônio Carlos Jobim, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Pixinguinha and Hermeto Pascoal being some of the best-known musicians abroad.
Brazilian literature arose from the literary activity encouraged by the Jesuits after the discovery of Brazil in the 16th century. Although at first it was closely linked to Portuguese literature, over time it gained independence and by the XIX century was influenced by movements such as romanticism and realism. Brazilian literature reached its peak in 1922 with the Week of Modern Art, which was characterized by the definitive break with the works of other countries, giving rise to the formation —from modernism and its first generations— of its own schools of literature. truly independent writers. Many of the most outstanding Brazilian writers date from this period, such as Manuel Bandeira, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, João Guimarães Rosa, Clarice Lispector and Cecília Meireles.
Parties
| Date | Holiday | Local name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | New Year | Confraternização Universal | Start of the calendar year. |
| February-March | Carnival | Carnival | Popular party that precedes Lent, held annually on Tuesday prior to Wednesday of Ceniza. Although it is not a national holiday, in some states it does not work on Monday prior to the festival, thus forming the four days of carnival. |
| March-April | Good Friday | Sixth-Feira Santa | Christian Mobile Festive commemorating the death of Christ. |
| 21 April | Shooters | Shooters | In homage to the martyr of the Mining Conspiracy. |
| 1 May | Workers' Day | Dia do Trabalhador | In homage to all workers. |
| May-June | Corpus Christi | Corpus Christi | Feast of the Catholic Church commemorating the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is celebrated 60 days after Resurrection Sunday. |
| 7 September | Independence Day | Independência | Proclamation of the Independence of the Portuguese Empire. |
| 12 October | Our Lady of the Appeared Conception Day | Nossa Senhora Aparecida | Celebration of the “Patrona de Brasil”. |
| 2 November | Commemoration of the Fools | Finns | Day in memory of the dead. |
| 15 November | Proclamation of the Republic | Proclamação da República | Anniversary of the transformation of the Empire into Republic. |
| 25 December | Christmas | Natal | Traditional Christmas celebration. |
Gastronomy
Brazilian cuisine varies greatly from region to region, reflecting the mix of native and immigrant populations. This has defined a national gastronomy marked by the preservation of these regional differences. Among the best examples are the feijoada, considered the national dish; vatapá, moqueca, polenta and acarajé. Brazil has a wide variety of sweets such as the brigadeiro and the beijinho. The national drinks are coffee and cachaça, a distilled drink originating in Brazil. This drink is distilled from sugar cane and is the main ingredient of the national cocktail, the caipirinha.
Despite the variety of dishes, a typical Brazilian meal consists of rice with beans, accompanied by beef or pork and also a salad, or a boiled or fried egg, French fries, or farofa, made from flour corn or cassava and seasoned with salt, basically, it could have oregano, fried onion and fried bacon. Thanks to the tropical climate that prevails in much of its territory, a wide variety of fruits are grown in Brazil, such as such as mango, papaya, azaí, cupuaçu, orange, cocoa, cashew, guava, passion fruit and pineapple. From all these fruits, juices and extracts are obtained that are used to manufacture chocolates, candies, ice creams and other desserts. As in other industrialized countries, the presence of multinational companies that offer fast food has been increasing, which causes changes in the diet and nutrition of the Brazilian population, mainly in urban areas.
Sports
Soccer is the most popular sport in Brazil. The soccer team has won the FIFA Soccer World Cup five times, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002; it also has nine victories in the Copa América, winning the editions of 1919, 1922, 1949, 1989, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2007 and 2019 Volleyball, futsal, basketball, skateboarding, surfing, motor racing and martial arts such as Capoeira, recognized as the national martial art, are also very popular in the country.
Although they are not as practiced and followed as the sports mentioned above, tennis, handball, swimming and gymnastics have found many Brazilian followers over the last decades. Some variations of these sports originated in Brazil, such as beach soccer or futsal.
In martial arts, Brazilians have developed practices such as capoeira, vale tudo, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In motorsports, three Brazilian drivers have won the Formula 1 world championship eight times: Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972 and 1974; Nelson Piquet in 1981, 1983 and 1987 and Ayrton Senna in 1988, 1990 and 1991.
Brazil has hosted several large-scale sporting events. The nation organized and hosted the 1950 Soccer World Cup, of which it was runner-up, and was chosen to host the 2014 edition, where it was eliminated in the semifinals, losing 7-1, in favor of Germany. It has also been chosen as host of the Copa América five times, the most recent being the Copa América 2019. The circuit located in São Paulo, the José Carlos Pace Autodrome, annually organizes the Brazilian Grand Prix. São Paulo hosted the Games Pan American Games in 1963 and Rio de Janeiro organized those in 2007. Similarly, the country was chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games, which were held in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where Brazil won the gold medal. in men's soccer.
Some of the most famous athletes in the history of Brazil are: César Cielo, Ricardo Prado, Gustavo Borges and Ana Marcela Cunha in swimming; Maria Esther Bueno, Gustavo Kuerten, Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares in tennis; Ayrton Senna, Emerson Fittipaldi, Rubens Barrichello, Nelson Piquet and Felipe Massa in Formula 1; Oscar Schmidt and Hortência Marcari in basketball; Torben Grael, Robert Scheidt, Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze in sailing; Arthur Zanetti and Rebeca Andrade in artistic gymnastics; Éder Jofre and Acelino Freitas in boxing; Adhemar Ferreira da Silva, Joaquim Cruz, Maurren Maggi, Thiago Braz and Alison dos Santos in athletics; Rodrigo Pessoa in equestrian; Aurélio Miguel, Sarah Menezes and Rogério Sampaio in judo; Isaquias Queiroz in canoeing; Bob Burnquist, Sandro Dias and Rayssa Leal on skateboards; Falcão in futsal; Gabriel Medina and Ítalo Ferreira in surfing; Sandra Pires, Jackie Silva, Emanuel Rego, Ricardo Santos, Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Alison Cerutti in beach volleyball; Anderson Silva, José Aldo, Rodrigo Minotauro, Vitor Belfort, Lyoto Machida, Royce Gracie, Amanda Nunes in MMA.
Until the 2020(update) Olympic Games, Brazil had won 145 medals in the history of the Olympic Games, all in the summer editions. There are 34 gold, 39 silver and 71 bronze medals, making it the South American country with the best record in modern Olympic Games history and the fourth-biggest winners in the Americas behind the United States, Canada and Cuba., respectively. It is also one of the few countries to have an athlete who received the Pierre de Coubertin medal: Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima. The country has already won Olympic gold medals in 13 different sports: sailing, track and field, volleyball, judo, beach volleyball, soccer, swimming, shooting, gymnastics, boxing, skateboarding, surfing, and equestrian.