Country Profile: Brazil

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world from both population and size. It is the largest country of south America in size. It has 26 sates. Officially Brazil uses only one language that is Portuguese. The name of the capital is Brazilia .The government system is Democratic Republic .

Brief History:

There is evidence suggesting possible human habitation in Brazil more than 30000 years ago , and scholars howe found artifacts, including cave paintings that all agree date back at least 11000 years.

Brazil was officially discovered in 1500,when a fleet commanded by Portuguese diplomat pedro Alvares carbal on its way to India, landed in porto seguro, between Salvador and Rio de Janerio. There is evidence that the Indians and Portuguese initially worked together to harvest trees . The first permanent settlement was not made until 1532 and that was at sow Vicente in sow paulu. Development of the Northeast was begun about the same time under Alonso de Sousa as first royal governor. Salvador was founded in 1539 and 12 captaincies were established stretehing inland from the Brazilian coast .The Portuguese tried to enslave Indians but failed .Then they turned to the African slave trade for their workforce.

The new territory faced internal as well a external challenges. Initially, the Portuguese crown wouldn’t establish a strong central government in the subcontinent. French Huguenots established themselves in 1555 on an island in Rio de Janerio harbor and were routed in 1567 by a force under Mem de sa, who then founded the city of Rio de Janerio. The dutch made their first attack on Salvador in 1624 and in 1633 the vigorous Dutch west India company was able to capture and hold not only Salvador and Recife but the whole of the Northeast , the region was ably ruled by John Maurice of Nassau.

At the end of 17^th century , the news that fabulous views of emeralds, diamonds and gold had been found in Minas Gerais exploded in Lisbon .The region began to export 30000 pounds of gold a year to Portugal. Bandeirants and other fortune huntery rushed in from all over and boat loads of carpenter, stone masons ,sculptors and painters came from Europe to build cities in the Brazilian wilderness . In 1763,the capital was moved to Rio de Janerio for a variety of political and administrative reason. It had added cotton and tobacco to sugar ,gold and diamond on its list of exports.

When Napoleon's forces invaded Portugal in 1808 ,john VI ,the king of Portugal fled to Brazil. With the fall of Napoleon ,John VI returned to Portugal, leaving his son behind as regent of Brazil .But pedro had ideas of his own.He proclaimed Brazils independence on September 7,1822 and established the Brazilian empire .New policies by Portugal toward Brazil ,tightening colonial restrictions ,stirred up wide unrest. In 1831, following a period of internal unrest and costly foreign wars ,the emperor stepped aside in favor of his five year old son pedroll.In 1888 while pedro II was in Europe and his daughter Isabel governing Brazil, slavery was completely abolished.

Soon after ,disgruntled landowners united with the military to finish with monarchy altogether ,forcing the royal family back to Portugal and founding Brazils first republican government on November 15,1889,with Marshal Manuel Deodoro da Fonesca as its first president .The expending market for Brazilian coffee and more particularly the wild –rubler boom brought considerable wealth as the 19^th century ended. After 1912, the creation of rubber plantations in southeast Asia brought the wild subber to a half and hurt the economy of the Amazon region . During WWI ,Brazil sided with the Allied, declaing war in October 1917-and shared in the peace settlement,but later (1926) it withdrew from the league of Nations . Measures to reverse the country’s growing economic dependence on coffe were taken by Getulio Vargas ,who came into power through a coup in 1930.

During WWII, Brazil joined the Allied in 1942 and began taking a larger part in Inter American affairs.WWII brought a new boom (chiefly in rubber and minerala) to Brazil .on april 21,1960, Brazilia became Brazil’s official capital,signaling a new commitment to develop the interior of the country .In 1960, Janio da silva wuardos was elected by the greatest popular margin in the Brazilian history . In 1964 he was deposed by a military insurrection .the military ruled the country for the nezt 20 years . Their pharaonic projects from hydroelectric and nuclear power plants to the conquest of the Amazan never completely succeeded.

Civilian government was restored in 1985 under Jose sarney .Sarney’s reforms were initially. Successful, but increasing inflation brought antigovernment protests .In 1988 a new constitution came into force. In 1990 president Frnando Collor de Mello was elected by popular Vote. As a result of increasing international pressure, color ssponsored programs to decrease the rate of deforestation in Amazanrain forests and to protect the autonomy of the indigenous yanomami .In 1992 being charged with a wide scale corruption within his government,Collor became the first elected president to be impeached by the Brazilian cardoso was elected as president. He was able to bring inflation under control. Reelected in 1998, cordoso was faced with an economic crisic as budget deticits and a decline in foreign exchange reserves led to currency devaluations and increased interest rates. In Jan , 2008 ,Brazil became a net creditor nation, in large part due to debt reduction neasures undertaken by Ja sitva’s government Benifiting from da silva’s popularity,Rasseff won the presidency in October 2010 .After a run off election and became the first woman president of Brazil .Corruption is a big problem for Brazil.

Brazil at a glance:
Population:

Total  population is 201, 032, 715 (Estimated, 2013)

Currency:

 The name of the currency of Brazil Real (BRL)

Language:

 The official language of Brazil is Portuguese

Capital City: Brssilia

Largest City: Sao Paulo

Demonym : Braz ok lian

Anthem: " Hinu National Brasileiro"

Government : Federal Presidential Constitutional Republic

Calling Code : +55

Time Zone:
            BRT    (UTC -2 to -4)