Brazil is continental South America's largest country having borders with every other South American nation except Chile and Ecuador. Those countries bordering Brazil are Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
Basilia is the capital city. Other major cities include Manaus, Recife, Santos and Sao Paulo.
The climate varies according to the terrain and latitude. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, Brazil has its winter from June to August. The Amazon basin has a tropical climate with high temperatures, rainfall and humidity.The Brazilian Highlands in the South and South East along the Atlantic coast are cooler and drier, having frequent frosts and snow. The central plateau is more temperate and contains rolling grasslands like the Pampas of Argentina, although it can still snow and some regions are also classed as sub-tropical.
Brazil is the only Latin American nation that derives its language and culture from Portugal. The early explorers brought back a wood that produced a red dye, pau-brasil, from which the land received its name. Portugal began colonization in 1532 and made the area a royal colony in 1549.
In World War II, Brazil again cooperated with the Allies, welcoming Allied air bases, patrolling the South Atlantic, and joining the invasion of Italy after declaring war on the Axis powers.
After a military coup in 1964, Brazil had a series of military governments. Gen. João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo became president in 1979 and pledged a return to democracy in 1985. The election of Tancredo Neves on Jan. 15, 1985, the first civilian president since 1964, brought a nationwide wave of optimism, but when Neves died several months later, Vice President José Sarney became president.
In Jan. 1999, the Asian economic crisis spread to Brazil. Rather than prop up the currency through financial markets, Brazil opted to let the currency float, which sent the real plummeting—at one time as much as 40%. Cardoso was highly praised by the international community for quickly turning around his country's economic crisis. Despite his efforts, however, the economy continued to slow throughout 2001, and the country also faced an energy crisis.
In Jan. 2003, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former trade union leader and factory worker widely known by the name Lula, became Brazil's first working-class president. As leader of Brazil's only Socialist party, the Workers' Party, Lula pledged to increase social services and improve the lot of the poor. 2004 demonstrated that the majority of Brazilians supported Lula's tough economic reform efforts. In 2005, an unfolding bribery scandal weakened Lula's administration and led to the resignation of several high government officials. Lula issued a televised apology in August, and promised “drastic measures” to reform the political system.
The flora and fauna of Brazil are as diverse as its geography. Brazil has the highest number of species of primates, amphibians and plants in the world, and is in the top five in the world for number of birds and reptile species. Much of this biodiversity is due to the Amazon basin with its dense tropical rainforests and the Pantanal wetlands. Brazil has the largest population in South America and is the fifth most populous country in the world. The people are also diverse in origin, and Brazil often boasts that the new “race” of Brazilians is a successful amalgam of African, European, and indigenous strains, a claim that is truer in the social than the political or economic realm.
Little remains of the architecture of pre-colonial Brazil. Megaliths, or standing stones in rings, have been discovered in the hills of southern Brazil, which bear striking resemblance to the Celtic relics found in Europe. The oldest remaining buildings include ruins of medieval style hill forts, essentially glorified trading posts, from around 1530 onwards. Older settlements were thought to be constructed from daub and wattle style or palm thatch. During the 20th century Brazil's architecture has evolved its own style, whilst still drawing from major 20th century innovators like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. Another important architect in the late 20th century is Linda Bo Bardi, Italian born, whose works include the Museum of Art in Sao Paolo.
Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. English, French and Spanish are also spoken. Brazil is unusual in being South America's only non-Spanish speaking country, a legacy of the Portuguese colonial past.The Brazilian Indians also have a rich linguistic heritage, although a fraction of what they had 500 years ago when the first Portuguese explorers arrived. Researchers estimate that over 1,000 Indian languages were spoken in the 15th century and before. This total is believed to have been reduced to around 170 languages spoken by the 200 or so tribes now in existence.
The early European settlers were overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Jesuit missionaries who arrived during the period of Portuguese and Spanish union attempted to educate and convert the Indian population. The influx of African slaves during the 16th century and their contact with the Indians led to hybrid beliefs drawing from African, Brazilian Indian and Catholic cult known as the catimbo. The African slaves continued to worship their own gods in the guise of Catholic saints.
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