History of Latin America - Brazil

FLAG Stretching 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from east to west and 2,700 miles (4,300 kilometers) from north to south in South America, Brazil is the world's largest tropical country. The only nations that are larger are the Temperate Zone lands of Russia, Canada, China, and the United States. Brazil has more than 140 million people spread unevenly over its huge land area, making it the sixth most populous country in the world.

More than two thirds of Brazil's people live in cities and towns, and more than 29 percent of them are in its ten cities with more than a million inhabitants. These include the metropolitan areas of Sao Paulo with more than 10 million people and Rio de Janeiro with more than 5 million people. The rural population is concentrated either on the ribbon of fertile lowland along the east coast or in the highlands of the more southerly states. Elsewhere, settlement is sparse. There are widely scattered small subsistence farms that feed the miners of the eastern highlands, the cowboys of the western savannas, and those who gather forest products in the northern jungles. (See also Rio de Janeiro; Sao Paulo.)
Since 1960 when Brasilia, the new national capital in the interior, was inaugurated, great changes have taken place in Brazilian society and in its economy. Schools and medical care have come to distant villages; a network of highways has been built across the interior; new industries have grown up; and television has made countless communities feel less isolated. Modernization has also introduced its less enviable by-products: urban blight, pollution, and an increasing crime rate. But, because of its vast size and low overall population density, Brazil remains a hospitable land of great beauty.


Official Name. Federal Republic of Brazil.
Capital. Brasilia.
Brazil. From brazilwood, a red dyewood, which was found there in abundance.
Coat of Arms. Adopted in 1889. Great star symbolizes unity and independence; stars in the center represent the galaxy of the Southern Cross; stars in the surrounding ring represent the states of Brazil; the garland is of coffee and tobacco leaves.
Anthem. 'Ouviram do Ipiranga as margens placidas' (They Heard from the Quiet Banks of the Ipiranga River).
NATURAL FEATURES
Mountain Ranges. Serra dos Carajas, Serra Geral de Goias, Serra do Espinhaco, Serra do Roncador.
Highest Peaks. Pico da Neblina, 9,889 feet (3,014 meters); Pico 31 de Marco, 9,816 feet (2,992 meters); Pico da Bandeira, 9,482 feet (2,890 meters).
Largest Lakes. Mirim (Brazil-Uruguay), Patos (actually lagoons).
Major Rivers. Amazon, Madeira, Negro, Para, Parana, Sao Francisco.
Climate. mainly tropical and subtropical; occasional freezing in the south. Extreme heat in northeastern region; very little seasonal variation; rainfall heavy in Amazon Basin and along the coast, in the southeast, and in western Parana.
PEOPLE
Population (1987 estimate). 141,302,000; 43.0 persons per square mile (16.6 persons per square kilometer); 74.2 percent urban, 25.8 percent rural.
Major Religion. Roman Catholicism.
Literacy. 80 percent.
Major Cities. (1985 estimate, municipio):
Sao Paulo (10,099,100). Largest city and capital of Sao Paulo state; leading industrial and chief wholesale and retail commercial center; noted for libraries, publishing houses, and theaters.
Rio de Janeiro (5,615,100). Major port city; capital of Brazil until 1960; major financial, service, and trading center; tourist center and cultural capital of country.
Belo Horizonte (2,122,100). First of Brazil's planned cities, patterned after Washington, D.C.; mining and agricultural center; regional commercial center; one of Brazil's largest industrial centers.
Salvador (1,811,400). Excellent port; food and tobacco processing; textiles, ceramics, and automobile manufacturing; shipbuilding; baroque colonial churches; capital of Bahia state.
GOVERNMENT
Form of Government. Federal Republic.
Chief of State and Head of Government. President.
Legislature. National Congress (Federal Senate 69 seats; Chamber of Deputies 479 seats).
Voting Qualifications. Compulsory from 18 to 65 years of age, except those who are illiterate or unable to express themselves in the national language or are deprived of political rights.
Political Divisions. 23 States Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceara, Espirito Santo, Goias, Maranhao, Mato Grasso, Mato Grasso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para, Paraiba, Parana, Pernambuco, Piaui, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondonia, Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo, Sergipe; 3 Federal Territories Amapa, Fernando de Noronha, Roraima; 1 Federal District Brasilia.
ECONOMY
Chief Agricultural Products. Crops bananas, beans, cocoa, coffee, corn (maize), cotton, maniocs, oranges, peanuts, potatoes, rice, rubber, soybeans, sugarcane, wheat. Livestock cattle, donkeys, goats, horses, mules, pigs, sheep.
Chief Mined Products. Asbestos, bauxite, beryllium, chromite, coal, copper, gold, graphite, gypsum, iron ore, lead, manganese, natural gas, nickel, petroleum, semiprecious stones, silver, tin.
Chief Manufactured Products. Aluminum, automobiles, cement, chemicals, coke, crude steel, fertilizer, meat and meat products, newsprint, paper and paperboard, pharmaceuticals, pig iron, refined sugar, synthetic rubber and tires, tractors, wine.
Monetary Unit. 1 cruzado = 1,000 cruzeiros.